Wooden Geocoin - swag or trackable?

[+finngy]

Evening folks,

 

I'm fairly new to geocaching and today I found my first Geocoin. It's a 2014 wooden German coin. It has a series of numbers printed on the back but it doesn't come up as a trackable number however I try to enter it on the site. I've looked on line and it seems usually these have a hole drilled in and a tracking disk attached which this doesn't.

 

This leaves me confused. . Does this mean it's collectable swag or is it a trackable who's number I'm not entering correctly?!

 

Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

Finn

[+cerberus1]

Does it say "Trackable at Geocaching.com" on it?

Possible it's a wooden coin with a re-used tracking code from a (now) missing trackable maybe?

Burned in, or smeared ink?

 

When these things get worn some, often one letter/number might look like another.

O (oh) for 0 (zero), L for I, 3 for B, that kinda thing.

 

The only disk/coin with a drilled hole I'm familiar with isn't trackable here.

[+kunarion]

Evening folks,

 

I'm fairly new to geocaching and today I found my first Geocoin. It's a 2014 wooden German coin. It has a series of numbers printed on the back but it doesn't come up as a trackable number however I try to enter it on the site. I've looked on line and it seems usually these have a hole drilled in and a tracking disk attached which this doesn't.

 

This leaves me confused. . Does this mean it's collectable swag or is it a trackable who's number I'm not entering correctly?!

 

Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

Finn

There are companies that laser engrave wooden disks, and you may have found the "XXXX Wood Geocoin" (XXXX being whatever is custom engraved on it, such as "German"). They are popular in Europe, and I've never found one in the US. The Geocoins are a little bigger than a wooden nickel, and much thicker. The front has "German Wood Geocoin" or whatever, and the Geocaching logo. The reverse is entirely customized. In some cases, the familiar 6-digit form of a Tracking Number is added, in which case there should be the text "Track at Geocaching.com". If the coin you found is different from this, more research may be needed. Please do not post the Tracking Number online. A Tracking Number will be something like "T8EYEV" (that number is in the Geocaching Shop, so I guess it's OK to post the number in that unique case). Usually when referring to a "Geocoin", the person means it is an official Trackable item (often coin-like), tracked on Geocaching.com. But a "Tracking Number" is an added expense and extra work, requiring official "approval, etc., so a lot of "Geocoins" are "not trackable", but called Geocoins because they are to be used within the game.

 

Is it possible that on the coin you found, the "series of numbers" is a Geocacher name?

 

This may be a clue. I see that a cacher who posts in German found the same cache you did, a day before you did: https://coord.info/GC5Z4FR

Did that team place any items into the container?

 

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by kunarion

[+Bear and Ragged]

Evening folks,

 

I'm fairly new to geocaching and today I found my first Geocoin. It's a 2014 wooden German coin. It has a series of numbers printed on the back but it doesn't come up as a trackable number however I try to enter it on the site. I've looked on line and it seems usually these have a hole drilled in and a tracking disk attached which this doesn't.

 

This leaves me confused. . Does this mean it's collectable swag or is it a trackable who's number I'm not entering correctly?!

 

Help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

Finn

 

"Wooden" suggests it could be a cachers signiture item...

 

You could try the PathTag website. Many of the tags have a trackable number, but there maybe 100's (or 1,000's) of the same design - with the same number. (Can be logged on that site)

 

Usually in that case it's a swag item. Some people do collect and swap them...

Edited September 3, 2016 by Bear and Ragged

[+drneal]

do he numbers begin with the letters GC...if so it's probably the code for an event and not a tracking number

ILYK

 

ILYL

[+kunarion]

do he numbers begin with the letters GC...if so it's probably the code for an event and not a tracking number

Good point! I used to make a nice pin button, sometimes in a specific theme, for each Event Cache I attended. I'd then drop the button in a nearby cache after writing the GC Number of the Event on the back of the pin. One time when I did that, a group of cachers found the pin, and began talking about its "Tracking Number", which they began to write down. Until then, it didn't even occur to me that an item with a "GC Number" could be mistaken for a trackable item.

 

I wonder if the Trackable page could be smartened up a bit. If the entered "Tracking Number" starts with "GC", and the system would perform a little test on that, it could suggest that "it's likely a cache number, not a tracking number", with some extra info in the error message.