Tourist tokens or medals

[Ashwolf65]

I have noticed a category dedicated to "Penny Smashers" or elongated coin machines as they are called. Would anyone be interested in a category listing the locations of the distributors of tourist tokens or medals? They are very popular in France (Monnaie de Paris) and Poland (Zlota Polska), but unfortunately the maps on the official sites are far from accurate. In Poland I had to turn back almost two kilometers from the place figuring on the map. I have found the distributor only with the help of a local. In Paris this spring I only managed to find more than half of the machines in the places that I have visited. And there were other token distributors from other producers that you can only locate by chance.

I think the tourist tokens make for great souvenirs of the places I visit and all the friends that started collecting them cannot stop. If there are more geocachers and waymarkers that feel this way, maybe we could help each other by publishing the exact locations, availability, times, prices and so on. What do you think?

[+T0SHEA]

GW Coins

 

Is this an example?

[+T0SHEA]

GW Coins (only) The number following the country is total different locations

COUNTRIES - 25    
POLAND    18
GERMANY    14
PORTUGAL    9
AUSTRIA    22
ARGENTINA    8
COLUMBIA    7
BOSNA I HERCEGOV.    5
PALESTINE    1
ESTONIA    27
HUNGARY    21
ROMANIA    25
BULGARIA    17
LITHUANIA    6
SLOVENIA    1
IRELAND    1
MACEDONIA    1
CZECH REPUBLIC    1
FINLAND    3
KOREA    4
LEBANON    1
JORDAN    2
RUSSIA    2
BELARUS    2
SLOVAKIA    3
SWEDEN    1
    
Total Locations    202
 

[Ashwolf65]

Yes, and a very good example at that. They have a dedicated site, complete with maps and locations. Only 1 - 2 kilometers off, usually . I recently visited Strbske Pleso, in Slovakia, and it took me almost two hours to locate the coin automate. Finally, I found it with the help of three different people - the first one didn't understand me, but gestured for me to stay put, and came back with an English-speaking person; That one understood but had no idea that such things existed, much less where were they located. He left, too, and just when I was losing any hope, he came back with a third guy who didn't speak English but was living there and directed me to the entrance of a little restaurant in front of which I had walked three times. So I guess accurate GPS coordinates plus a word of advice from those who have been there already would help a lot. The image is from GW Coins site.

[+jonathanatpsu]

Are these the same or similar to what are in this category?  

[Ashwolf65]

10 hours ago, jonathanatpsu said:

Are these the same or similar to what are in this category?  

Not really. The tourist tokens (also called medals or sometimes coins) are coin-like metal disks, 30-40 mm, produced usually by an official mint, but without nominal value. Their design is dedicated to a popular tourist attraction or event. Some of the most elaborate are real miniature artworks. Anyway, they are beautiful souvenirs from the holidays. They do not take a lot of space and will last longer than postcards or brochures. You can usually find coin- or card-operated automates that distribute them somewhere near the tourist attraction, but sometimes these machines are hard to find. The idea was to help others locate them by posting the exact coordinates, opening times, type of medal, and so on. Just like the "Penny Smashers" category, that already has over 3000 entries.

[+elyob]

Your proposed category will focus on the location of the machine which provides the tourist coins, correct?  If the category focus is the real-life location of the image on the tourist coin, then the category would be very similar to Tourist Stamps Photos.

[Ashwolf65]

7 minutes ago, elyob said:

Your proposed category will focus on the location of the machine which provides the tourist coins, correct? 

Yes, you are absolutely right.

[+FamilieFrohne]

Looks to me that the proposed category is very similar to the elongated coins category (aka Penny Smashers) in the aspect of an automaton creating/selling a touristic token.

T0SHEA told me (not a week ago) that we should strive for inclusion if we have similarities to another category. So you should have a talk to the category leaders / officers first if they are willing to expand their category to accept these touristic tokens also.

[Ashwolf65]

1 hour ago, FamilieFrohne said:

Looks to me that the proposed category is very similar to the elongated coins category (aka Penny Smashers) in the aspect of an automaton creating/selling a touristic token.

Right. You have only to distinguish between creating and selling. It's the difference between cooking something for a loved one and taking her to a high-end restaurant. It's the difference between MacGyver and James Bond. What I'm trying to say is that it's a question of taste. Very few people like both tourist tokens and smashed pennies. And as I have mentioned earlier, the Penny Smashers category has well over 3000 entries already, 3773 to be exact. Nobody would like to sort through them all to find the ones he needs.

I must say I'm disappointed. I have thought that the concept of tourist tokens would be more popular among the members of a site that's travel oriented. As far as I'm concerned, you can close this topic.

 

PS: Could you explain to me why there are 50 (!) different categories containing the word RESTAURANT? Aren't they very similar in the aspect of someone serving you food and receiving money in exchange?

[+elyob]

Your complaint is understood and familiar.  For the past five or six years our response to your final question was like this.  “But restaurant categories are no longer accepted in Waymarking, for those obvious reasons.”  However, in 2022 Waymarking has accepted a new restaurant category for the first time in years.

 

Don’t take the lack of replies here as a lack of support.  Many of us oldsters are still in shock with the ‘new’ and ‘unofficial’ category review process.

[+elyob]

Try to create a Waymarking group that would manage a Tourist Token category.  That might be a better measure of support for your idea.

[+ScroogieII]

1 hour ago, Ashwolf65 said:

Right. You have only to distinguish between creating and selling. It's the difference between cooking something for a loved one and taking her to a high-end restaurant. It's the difference between MacGyver and James Bond. What I'm trying to say is that it's a question of taste. Very few people like both tourist tokens and smashed pennies. And as I have mentioned earlier, the Penny Smashers category has well over 3000 entries already, 3773 to be exact. Nobody would like to sort through them all to find the ones he needs.

I must say I'm disappointed. I have thought that the concept of tourist tokens would be more popular among the members of a site that's travel oriented. As far as I'm concerned, you can close this topic.

 

PS: Could you explain to me why there are 50 (!) different categories containing the word RESTAURANT? Aren't they very similar in the aspect of someone serving you food and receiving money in exchange?

 

Methinks you're being a bit hasty here. I, for one, am very much in favour of a new, and separate, category for Tourist Tokens as you envision it.

 

4 minutes ago, elyob said:

Try to create a Waymarking group that would manage a Tourist Token category.  That might be a better measure of support for your idea.

 

EXACTLY!

[+T0SHEA]

Unless there are other vendors of these tokens it is far too limiting (at this time) and is not global.

 

Beside, finding a machine sounds dull, rather the locations on the coins at least would be more interesting. 

 

What is next bubble gum dispensing machines? 

 

[+ScroogieII]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:38 AM, T0SHEA said:

Unless there are other vendors of these tokens it is far too limiting (at this time) and is not global.

Beside, finding a machine sounds dull, rather the locations on the coins at least would be more interesting. 

What is next bubble gum dispensing machines? 

 

 

The quote above noted,  I'm not sure we should pass the proposal off so glibly.

As it understand the object of the vending machines in question, their objective, beyond making money, is to dispense a souvenir token of a given historical or tourist attractive site.

I see nothing wrong in their objectives. Moreover, I see their place within the tourism industry as beneficial to their locations.

Dispensing markers depicting local historical or tourist sites seems to me quite apart from dispensing bubble gum, Gummy Bears or popcorn.

Given the potential ties to local history and heritage, I simply cannot find within me an objection to the creation of such a category.

 

Whether or not they'll admit it, a great many Waymarkers, Geocachers and "lay" people tend to be "collectors", especially of tokens, coins, icons and markers of all stripes and types.

Keith

Edited December 8, 2022 by ScroogieII

[+Smurffaaja]

When I was a kid, these money making machinen came, but I never bought any. Later I have specially seen these on France, but elsewhere they have dissappeared. Just had a though; what about bubblegum dispensing machines? First bubblegum was replaced with plastic trash stuff balls. Then people stopped to use coins. That was perhaps the reason there are no longer coin smashing machines or bubblegum dispensing machines. I haven't seen.

One exception: local archiological museum had since 1995 own machine from you could get replica coin from 1600 or so. Something museum has actually found. So there is no written text or image to link that coin to museum if you have it on your hands. Which gives me another story... Some years ago one guy who had magnetic sweeping as hobby has found very well preserved ancient coin and posted images to website. Hobbyist were talking there is it old Latvian or Polish kingdom coin. Then person from same archiological museum I referred, wrote there he was happy to see their tourist coins can be now found under the soil with metal detector!

[+T0SHEA]

As I posted, there are only 25 countries and 202 locations WORLDWIDE. 

 

As the map clearly shows, where is North America?

 

So far no one has offered additional vendors that offer tourist coins/tokens in other regions of the world.

 

 

 

[+T0SHEA]

There are 195 universally recognized countries minus 25 =170 countries not represented in this category. 

 

Okay, look at this: Mold-a-Rama Machines  date created: 4/9/2006 Total Records: 123 (approved waymarks)

 

Here is another one: Rolling Ball Sculpture  date created: 1/20/2009 Total Records: 54 (approved waymarks)

 

There are other categories with less than a 100 approved waymarks. 

 

 

[+PISA-caching]

You may also think about including Euro Souvenir Note (euronotesouvenir.ie) machines. Just an idea.

[+jonathanatpsu]

Here are other examples of tourist coins besides GW:

 

National Tokens:  https://nationaltokens.com/about-us/    - Locations in 40 countries.  

Auscoinswest:  http://www.auscoinswest.com.au/  - Locations in Australia

Monnaie de Paris:  https://www.monnaiedeparis.fr/en/mini-medals-for-places-of-interest - Locations in France and Spain

Hellenic Heritage Coins: http://hellenicheritagecoins.com/ - Locations in Greece

 

I would assume there are others as well.  

 

I don't think the fact that these may not available in North America should disqualify the idea.  There are a lot of categories that are only available in the U.S. and exclude Waymarkers from other parts of the world. 

[+T0SHEA]

1 hour ago, jonathanatpsu said:

I don't think the fact that these may not available in North America should disqualify the idea

 

Really, this is not a Historical site category that is limited to different regions of the world. 

 

This is for vending machines...

 

1 hour ago, jonathanatpsu said:

Here are other examples of tourist coins besides GW:

 

Did you also notice none of these are global? Besides, I will note most of these are duplicate locations, just in case you over looked mentioning this information. 

 

Waymark Category Criteria:

 

Global - The directory has the potential for worldwide appeal, but only if the categories are not too restricted by region. Consider whether people from all over the world will be able to contribute to this category. We can afford to be somewhat flexible with the application of this guideline for truly outstanding categories.

 

 

[+jonathanatpsu]

Regarding whether this would be considered global, so far we've identified locations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.  That leaves out North America and Africa.  However, there may be locations on those continents as well; we just haven't found them yet.  Even if it is just the 4 continents, I don't think that is "too restricted by region."  

[+T0SHEA]

Giant 24 h Vending Machines

date created:5/22/2006

Total Records: 19 (approved waymarks)

 

75 TOP Vending Machine Business Ideas 

49+ Interesting Vending Machines Around the World Check out #2 Calvin Klein underwear vending machines.

 

I am sure with some creative thinking, there are at least 25 new category possibilities for vending machines. 

 

 

 

 

[+PISA-caching]

On 12/8/2022 at 6:40 PM, jonathanatpsu said:

Regarding whether this would be considered global, so far we've identified locations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.  That leaves out North America and Africa.  However, there may be locations on those continents as well; we just haven't found them yet.  Even if it is just the 4 continents, I don't think that is "too restricted by region."  

 

I think I found at least one in the USA: DODGE CITY, KANSAS—SEPTEMBER 2017: Antique wooden slot machine dispensing souvenir tokens displayed at the Boot Hill Museum Stock Photo - Alamy  What do you think about it?

 

I doubt that this was the only one that ever existed. My theory is, that there were not that much of them and that in the end the Penny Smashers were winning the race, but there might be more of them in other museums.

[+jonathanatpsu]

I had forgotten about this category idea, but when I was in St. Louis, Missouri this week I happened to see one of these at the Gateway Arch.  

[+bluesnote]

I've created a new group to develop a new category for this. I've seen many of these over the years and have been submitting them to Penny Smashers, but now I think there's enough push to create a new category here. What do you all think?

[+Ernmark]

I've used the machines in several places in the Eastern US & also in Toronto.. (never took a photo of the machines, tho

[+pmaupin]

It is true that we see them regularly in the places of visits, it allows to keep a memory