Cool Swag

[+CommunistOnions]

Hello, just out of interest, I want to know if any of you fellow cachers leave currency in geocaches. I am just curious.

[+frostengel]

Hi,

 

in the beginning I traded sometimes but I have stopped trading.

In my eyes the trading thing is mostly for children who may be motivated in geocaching if they can swap some cool toys. :-) For them it's great!

Money isn't useful for kids so I do not see this as "cool swag".

 

Jochen

[+GeoElmo6000]

Nope, but I know of several geocaching vloggers who are trading swag for money found in caches and donating the money they collect to St. Jude's Children's hospital as part of the Geocache Talk podcast's "Podcast of Hope" (St. Jude's fundraiser) this year.  They're calling their effort "Coins for Kids".

[+K13]

There have been a few times when I left some some "Presidential" trading materials in a cache (coins or small bills) for a trade, but it is not my usual thing.

 

I've collected money as a FTF prize a few times as well.

[+niraD]

The only thing I trade for are personal signature items left by other geocachers. But I leave various small items in exchange for them, including foreign coins. I've bought bulk coins (sold by weight) at a coin shop, and I've also asked friends traveling internationally to bring back any foreign coins so I could buy them from them.

[+kunarion]

5 hours ago, CommunistOnions said:

Hello, just out of interest, I want to know if any of you fellow cachers leave currency in geocaches. I am just curious.

 

Yes, and I've tried to make the Swag totally original, a surprise to find.  I've occasionally bought some special coins for placement, along with info about them. Sometimes there are a bunch of a kind of coins for sale at much less than $1 each, but certainly valued.  I don't limit Swag to currency, those I rarely place.  I found and dug some small fossils and placed them in presentation boxes, so they were free to gather, but would have special value as trades.  And I make a buh-zillion kinds of signature items that people seem to take first from a cache (and locals will kid me that they're tired of seeing my buttons or keychains all time).

 

But as for coins, over the years I've placed:

Chinese Ten Cash (large old copper-ish coins that were hand-struck in local villages).

Tiny ziplock bags of 2 foreign coins, or one foreign and one gold-plated 1940s copper penny.  Labeled "kunarion's Instant Coin Collection".  The "1940s penny" fit a theme for a Mega Event.

Ancient genuine Roman coins that are so worn out, you can hardly even see the design, plus a gold penny, as a special themed "Coin Collection" for a "Roman" Mega Event in Rome, Georgia.

Very worn-out "cull" Mercury dimes as one of two coins in an "Instant Coin Collection".  But I can't get much of a discount when buying actual silver, even in that condition.  So those are a rare Swag item.

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by kunarion

[+cerberus1]

We've left Sacajawea and Susan B. Anthony dollar coins as swag when there was something I actually wanted (one guy left hand-tied trout flies), but that's about it.

For a while I left mercury dimes and pre-64 kennedy halves as swag, thinking junk silver would get someone outta the house.

The only coins I leave now are our own unactivated sig geocoins, meant as an incentive to get someone to walk.

[+TriciaG]

I don't do swag.

[+Lostboy1966]

I leave fake pirate 'gold' coins when I have them, just for the kids.

[+barefootjeff]

36 minutes ago, Lostboy1966 said:

I leave fake pirate 'gold' coins when I have them, just for the kids.

 

I have a bushranger series, set in 1850s colonial Australia, and some of those have the plastic gold coins in them as themed swag. The latest addition to that series, GC9702Q, is all about the old (pre-decimal) Australian paper bank notes so I printed a bunch of replicas (with the bushranger's portrait replacing whatever royal personage was on the original notes) as swag for that.

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

22 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

We've left Sacajawea and Susan B. Anthony dollar coins as swag when there was something I actually wanted (one guy left hand-tied trout flies), but that's about it.

For a while I left mercury dimes and pre-64 kennedy halves as swag, thinking junk silver would get someone outta the house.

The only coins I leave now are our own unactivated sig geocoins, meant as an incentive to get someone to walk.

 

Just as a point of clarification, all trout flies (and flies for other species) are all hand tied.  

 

the only coins/currency I leave are "foreign" (not U.S, Canadian, or Euros)  coins or small denomination bills.  

[+yrcko]

I have some small coins (Worthless but very old) and bills from inflation. Formely I put them in caches, not trading, just leaving them. I ceased that when the majority of caches became micro. Maybe I start again.

[+cerberus1]

On 5/4/2021 at 3:14 PM, NYPaddleCacher said:

Just as a point of clarification, all trout flies (and flies for other species) are all hand tied.   

 

How about they were tied by him alright...   Sheesh...

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 5/8/2021 at 3:26 PM, cerberus1 said:

 

How about they were tied by him alright...   Sheesh...

 

 

I tie almost all of the flies that I use. I also primary fish in an area that has a lot of flytiers that are much better than I am so any flies that I buy from one of the local fliyfishing shops are usually much better than I can tie.  I don't think it's a stretch for someone unfamiliar with flyfishing to assume that some store bought flies (especially big box stores) are not tied by hand, thus the simple clarification.  

[+mesillywoohoo]

Sorry for bumping an old thread. But would small ceramic stars I've made and 3d printed personalized coins be something you all think people would be interested in swag wise? I've been thinking about making our own swag to leave in caches .

[+TeamRabbitRun]

On 8/28/2021 at 2:18 AM, mesillywoohoo said:

Sorry for bumping an old thread. But would small ceramic stars I've made and 3d printed personalized coins be something you all think people would be interested in swag wise? I've been thinking about making our own swag to leave in caches .

 

Yes, and yes. I'd trade for those.

 

Maybe put them in a baggie with a note encouraging a TRADE, not just a TAKE.

[+mesillywoohoo]

32 minutes ago, TeamRabbitRun said:

 

Yes, and yes. I'd trade for those.

 

Maybe put them in a baggie with a note encouraging a TRADE, not just a TAKE.

Great idea! Thank you! I do have very small bags so I'll do a note with them!

[+kunarion]

13 minutes ago, mesillywoohoo said:

Great idea! Thank you! I do have very small bags so I'll do a note with them!

Please include the name of the artist.  I love knowing who made the items.

[+mesillywoohoo]

8 minutes ago, kunarion said:

Please include the name of the artist.  I love knowing who made the items.

Oh thank you! I would not have considered that either! I will include my geocache name on my stuff! <3