Coins and TB's

[mud plodders]

OK, so I did a Geocache in 2007 and had fun with it, then I had 2 kids and never had time to do it again. My girls are now 2 and 4 so now that I can bring them with me I have been doing it as much as possible this spring/summer and they love it. They come with me a lot and if I find a cache without them, I try to bring them something fun from the cache to keep them interested in going again. But anyway, this thread is about Coins and TB's, or at least to help me understand them a bit more.

 

TBs - I find many many TB's are gone/missing/etc. I email the CO or the TB owner letting them know to mark them lost, but rarely get a response. Is there any way to mark a TB missing without the TB owner or CO doing it? It's very frustrating to go to a cache that lists 4 TB's only to find out that none of them are there.

 

Coins - I read the FAQ on these but it didn't really help me understand the etiquette with coins. My understanding is TB's should ALWAYS be put back into a new cache, but coins can be kept/collected? What is the etiquette on how to know when to keep a coin or when to put it back into circulation. I see people keeping coins that have been out in the wild for years and it just seems odd to me. I would like to collect a few but I don't want to keep a coin only to have the person that put it out there freak out that I did. I also feel like if everyone kept their coins then there would never be any left to collect...

 

Thanks!

mud plodders

[+stijnhommes]

1) Coins are like TBs. Read the attached mission paper or read the online page for the trackable to find out its travel goal. Don't keep them unless the actual owner intended for them to be collected by someone else.

 

2) As for missing TBs. You can't do anything about it if you're not the TB or cache owner. Just mention it in your log so future finders know and read older logs to see if any of the listed TBs appear to be missing. Unfortunately, trackables are often logged incorrectly or not logged at all.

 

3) If you want to collect coins, buy some yourself and exchange with other cachers to get started.

Edited June 25, 2013 by stijnhommes

[mud plodders]

1) Coins are like TBs. Read the attached mission paper or read the online page for the trackable to find out its travel goal. Don't keep them unless the actual owner intended for them to be collected by someone else.

 

2) As for missing TBs. You can't do anything about it if you're not the TB or cache owner. Just mention it in your log so future finders know and read older logs to see if any of the listed TBs appear to be missing. Unfortunately, trackables are often logged incorrectly or not logged at all.

 

3) If you want to collect coins, buy some yourself and exchange with other cachers to get started.

 

OK, so a coins page would actually read "this is a collectible coin" or something like that? The FAQ made it sound like any coin "could be" kept.

 

I always add a log to the TB when it's missing, was hoping there was another way to "fix" these missing TB's.

 

I feel like the only way that I would enjoy collecting coins is to find them in a cache, since that's what geocaching is, just trading them with other cachers doesn't seem as exciting, but maybe that will change as I get into this more

 

Thanks for the response!

mud plodders

[+NOSNOW]

It is very rare to find a coin that can be kept. They are just like TB and they have been released to travel. It is said to see how many are coins are stolen.

It is ok to collect coins that you have purchased.

 

If you do find a coin in a cache that is for keeping, remember to trade even or trade up. Coins are vauled between $10-15.

Edited June 25, 2013 by NOSNOW

[+terrkan78]

You're doing the right thing by notifying the CO and TO of missing coins. Only the CO or TO can mark it missing (unfortunately, many of them don't seem to do so). Requests have been made to set up some sort of system to allow others to mark trackables missing as well, and maybe that will eventually be implemented.

 

The "collectible" feature is indeed confusing. Most coins are not meant to be kept but are instead meant to travel from cache to cache, just like TBs. If the coin owner marks them collectible and says something about keeping it in the description, then it's one of the rare few that can be "collected" (at least temporarily? - frankly, I don't know how the whole collectible thing is supposed to work). Some coin owners might mark theirs collectible without intending for it to be kept (I was guilty of that at one point - apparently there's a distinction between putting it in your collection vs. marking it collectible that I didn't fully appreciate).

 

On very rare occasions you might find an unactivated geocoin in a geocache. Those are left as gifts and are meant to be kept. It should plainly say so on it.

[mud plodders]

You're doing the right thing by notifying the CO and TO of missing coins. Only the CO or TO can mark it missing (unfortunately, many of them don't seem to do so). Requests have been made to set up some sort of system to allow others to mark trackables missing as well, and maybe that will eventually be implemented.

 

The "collectible" feature is indeed confusing. Most coins are not meant to be kept but are instead meant to travel from cache to cache, just like TBs. If the coin owner marks them collectible and says something about keeping it in the description, then it's one of the rare few that can be "collected" (at least temporarily? - frankly, I don't know how the whole collectible thing is supposed to work). Some coin owners might mark theirs collectible without intending for it to be kept (I was guilty of that at one point - apparently there's a distinction between putting it in your collection vs. marking it collectible that I didn't fully appreciate).

 

On very rare occasions you might find an unactivated geocoin in a geocache. Those are left as gifts and are meant to be kept. It should plainly say so on it.

 

OK, thanks all. It does seem extremely strange that they aren't really meant to be collected but there's that little option on every coin on the website to "put it in my collection". I will just treat them as TB's (which is what I had been doing).

[+redwoodkestrel]

If you're looking to collect items left in caches, pathtags might be more what you're looking for. They're tiny coin-like objects, around the size of a nickel. Cachers make them in batches and they all have the same tracking number, so you can log where you found it but you can keep them to collect or move them. I like them, since they're each designed individually by the owner so to me they have more personality than geocoins, and it's fun to try to collect them from multiple owners.

[mud plodders]

If you're looking to collect items left in caches, pathtags might be more what you're looking for. They're tiny coin-like objects, around the size of a nickel. Cachers make them in batches and they all have the same tracking number, so you can log where you found it but you can keep them to collect or move them. I like them, since they're each designed individually by the owner so to me they have more personality than geocoins, and it's fun to try to collect them from multiple owners.

 

Oh very cool, these are even better! Is this just a standard item that people sometimes toss in a cache so I wouldn't know it's there until I see it?

[+redwoodkestrel]

If you're looking to collect items left in caches, pathtags might be more what you're looking for. They're tiny coin-like objects, around the size of a nickel. Cachers make them in batches and they all have the same tracking number, so you can log where you found it but you can keep them to collect or move them. I like them, since they're each designed individually by the owner so to me they have more personality than geocoins, and it's fun to try to collect them from multiple owners.

 

Oh very cool, these are even better! Is this just a standard item that people sometimes toss in a cache so I wouldn't know it's there until I see it?

 

It depends - they're not tracked in the cache's inventory like TBs and geocoins are. But many times people mention when they drop them into a cache, so you can read the recent logs to see if someone has mentioned it. I try my best to remember to add it to my log if I put one of my pathtags into a cache.

[mud plodders]

If you're looking to collect items left in caches, pathtags might be more what you're looking for. They're tiny coin-like objects, around the size of a nickel. Cachers make them in batches and they all have the same tracking number, so you can log where you found it but you can keep them to collect or move them. I like them, since they're each designed individually by the owner so to me they have more personality than geocoins, and it's fun to try to collect them from multiple owners.

 

Oh very cool, these are even better! Is this just a standard item that people sometimes toss in a cache so I wouldn't know it's there until I see it?

 

It depends - they're not tracked in the cache's inventory like TBs and geocoins are. But many times people mention when they drop them into a cache, so you can read the recent logs to see if someone has mentioned it. I try my best to remember to add it to my log if I put one of my pathtags into a cache.

 

Cool, thanks for all your help!