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I found an old unlisted cache, any way to find the owner?


Duckysaurus

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Hey guys, I found a cache today while out in the woods, and it'd clearly been out there a while. There was no log, but inside was a geocoin and a decoder coin. The coin has a tracking number, but according to the website it has not been activated. This coin has CLEARLY been out in the woods for a while, as it was in a sealed container, but had corroded a good amount. I don't think that it is a new unlisted cache, but rather an old one which has fallen out of use.

 

In addition to the coin, I found a small business-card sized piece of paper with what seem to be clues to GPS coordinates.

 

Is there any way for me to find out who the cache originally belonged to? I suspect it was part of a multi-cache, as from what I can make out of the card makes it seem to be a single puzzle stage.

 

Would anyone be able to find an archived version of this cache? Or is it likely that the coin wasn't meant to be a trackable, but instead meant to be used only for that part of the cache?

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Hey guys, I found a cache today while out in the woods, and it'd clearly been out there a while. There was no log, but inside was a geocoin and a decoder coin. The coin has a tracking number, but according to the website it has not been activated. This coin has CLEARLY been out in the woods for a while, as it was in a sealed container, but had corroded a good amount. I don't think that it is a new unlisted cache, but rather an old one which has fallen out of use.

 

In addition to the coin, I found a small business-card sized piece of paper with what seem to be clues to GPS coordinates.

 

Is there any way for me to find out who the cache originally belonged to? I suspect it was part of a multi-cache, as from what I can make out of the card makes it seem to be a single puzzle stage.

 

Would anyone be able to find an archived version of this cache? Or is it likely that the coin wasn't meant to be a trackable, but instead meant to be used only for that part of the cache?

 

First, make sure that you are reading the # on the coin properly. 0/o, I/1, B/8 can all look the same on a lot of coins. Also, does the coin say "Trackable on Geocaching.com" on it. Trackable coins are supposed to have that on them. Second, a rough idea of the coordinates would be helpful. There are reviewers that participate in the forums that can see things that the rest of us can't, but they would need to start with coordinates.

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First, make sure that you are reading the # on the coin properly. 0/o, I/1, B/8 can all look the same on a lot of coins. Also, does the coin say "Trackable on Geocaching.com" on it. Trackable coins are supposed to have that on them. Second, a rough idea of the coordinates would be helpful. There are reviewers that participate in the forums that can see things that the rest of us can't, but they would need to start with coordinates.

 

Definitely a trackable geocoin, it's one of these: http://www.thecachingplace.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=23&idproduct=197

 

The number is not worn down at all, and is easily readable.

 

The cache is located in some woods at the University of South Florida, I didn't get exact coordinates as I wasn't actually there for caching.

 

Using Google maps as an approximation, I found it around 28.068,-82.402

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Looks like maybe that one stage had people decrypting the next stage coordinates using that coin? Might explain why it was never activated - it was meant to just stay in that one stage. Looked at the multis in the area but don't see any that match up with that sort of stage... might very well be archived.

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Aha! Looks like it's this cache: GC12X9A. If you read the description, it used to be a multi, and if you go back and read the early logs, people are talking about the decoding at the second stage.

 

Unfortunately it looks like the CO hasn't logged onto the site in over three years, but there are some other names listed as owners - you could check those names.

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Looks like maybe that one stage had people decrypting the next stage coordinates using that coin? Might explain why it was never activated - it was meant to just stay in that one stage. Looked at the multis in the area but don't see any that match up with that sort of stage... might very well be archived.

 

That's what I was thinking, considering there was no log, and the coin wasn't activated. The piece of paper with the encrypted symbols on it is moldy and very worn down, but I was able to get the gist of the clues, and they're definitely digits. There are 4 clues, two for the last 2 digits of a north coordinate, and the second are the last two of a west coordinate.

 

Part of me wants to try every nearby combination that works and see if I can find the next clue, but seeing as I don't know how many digits they went to in the coords, I can't really do much unless I find the original post.

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Aha! Looks like it's this cache: GC12X9A. If you read the description, it used to be a multi, and if you go back and read the early logs, people are talking about the decoding at the second stage.

 

Unfortunately it looks like the CO hasn't logged onto the site in over three years, but there are some other names listed as owners - you could check those names.

 

THAT'S IT! I just checked the decrpytion and the coords work with the clue I found.

 

This is really awesome, thanks for your help!

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Ah ha, good glad it worked out!

 

I definitely didn't expect to find it so easily! But my hard work to decrypt it definitely paid off, seeing as figuring out which symbols were on this old moldy paper was what was able to confirm it in the end. But again, thanks, I couldn't have done it without you, and I'm glad this won't be driving me crazy anymore.

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Ah ha, good glad it worked out!

 

I definitely didn't expect to find it so easily! But my hard work to decrypt it definitely paid off, seeing as figuring out which symbols were on this old moldy paper was what was able to confirm it in the end. But again, thanks, I couldn't have done it without you, and I'm glad this won't be driving me crazy anymore.

 

:unsure:

 

You logged it as "found" on 09/27/2010, and posted a note to it 01/30/2012 to drop a trackable.

 

:blink:

 

B.

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But by the time the OP found it, it had already been changed from a multi to a traditional. Unless the OP had gone back and read logs from over two years prior, they wouldn't have known that at some point, this cache had a stage with a decoder coin in it.

 

Nonetheless, that GC code should be in his list of "finds" and "notes".

 

Getting the GC code and the name of the cache and the link to the cache page should have rung a bell, no?

 

But, then again...re-visiting the cache location recently didn't ring that bell, either. :lol:

 

 

B.

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