Jump to content

Colorado Geocoins - Co Geocoins


MrCOgeo

Recommended Posts

All right I'm starting this adventure...don't know what it will turn into but I hope it will be some beautiful coins from us Coloradoans that add to this wonderful game we call geocaching.

 

I'm calling all designs and design ideas! Should we go with the old "favorites"? Pikes Peak, columbine flowers, pine trees, red rocks, oxygen bottles to satisfy the lowlanders! (chuckle) Give me your best drawings, designs and ideas and I'll keep track of what people like and dislike.

 

Because as I understand if we want to use the Geocaching (Groundspeak) logo in anyway the only approved way is to use the coin die for side 1 produced by Pressed Metal of Canada and the final design for side 2 has to be approved by Groundspeak. This is the route I was thinking of taking for this first minting, it is really cheap and easy that way. We are talking around $2(+-) a coin.

 

If they prove to be popular we can design another series with color, inserts or whatever in the future. I be shooting out a few of my own designs not for shameless self promotion but to get other people thinking and doodling! So get out the PhotoShop, Illustrator or just plain pen/pencil and have at it.

 

Also anybody is welcome to email me and help out in anyway they want. If somebody has all ready done a bunch of work along these lines, please contribute and we'll get going on this thing.

 

SORRY WE ARE NOT TAKING ORDERS AT THIS TIME…but

If you want to let me know how many you would be interested, and at what price you can email me at:

 

cogeocoins@hotmail.com

 

As for the tracking issue, the text is more there for layout and to note what information we would like on the coins. I think there is some talk behind the scenes about getting them tracked on Geocaching.com but I'll put out a disclaimer:

 

ALL COINS WILL BE INDIVIDUALLY MARKED BUT THE ACTUAL TRACKING MECHANICS ARE STILL UP IN THE AIR.

 

AS FOR DISTRIBUTION when we finally have coins…

We could do a local event, get a website going with payment through money order/check and maybe PayPal, we'll see.

 

Let the games begin! :lol:

Edited by MRCOGEO
Link to comment

WooHoo, about time you guys got one. Any help I can give you just ask. Being born in Colo I have a special fondness for your state. Maybe I'll even shoot you a design. A comment on the one you did would be think how small those little hikers would be on an actual coin. If you want to concentrate on the mountains (which I think most people would associate with Colo) how about just the peak of one with a climber and snow?

Link to comment

Yeah. more coins! Bring 'em on.

 

You may want to check out the thread in the NorthWest forum - they are just finishing up their Washington coin and it's awesome!

 

They're using 5 colors and the price is still VERY reasonable. THey have some people who may be able to help out on the design (if you wish) as well.

 

Keep in mind that not all coins can be tracked on the GC.com website - check with Jeremey now to avoid designing something that you can't use.

 

I'll be watching and waiting to order a few (from California).

 

Best of luck!

Link to comment

Nurse Dave...good comment, I am hoping for ideas and constructive comments like yours! I feel mine are more seeds of inspiration for much more capable graphic artists, so feel free to pick them apart or throw them out all together!

 

As for the tracking issue, the text is more there for layout and to note what information we would like on the coins. I think there is some talk behind the scenes about getting them tracked on Geocaching.com. But I'll put out a disclaimer:

 

ALL COINS WILL BE INDIVIDUALLY MARKED BUT THE ACTUAL TRACKING MECHANICS ARE STILL UP IN THE AIR.

 

Our faithful CO_Admin may have more to say, he is doing a lot of work behind the scenes and being the humble guy he is, may take prodding to bring it out into the community.

Link to comment
They're using 5 colors and the price is still VERY reasonable.

Reasonable? How many caches you putting $5 coins in? Hmmm, maybe I need to track your caching after they come out. :D

:rolleyes::unsure::ph34r:

 

Well reasonable in that it's the first printing and they're still under $5.00.

 

Point taken, though. The California coins were much cheaper than that.

 

I'll bow out of this thread so as to allow it to get back on track.

 

Wherever you end up tracking it, it's a good idea to put that URL on the coin itself.

Link to comment

Personally, as the first Colorado cache reviewer AND the president of C.A.C.H.E. it would only be fitting to have my portrait on the front side of the coin. perhaps with several cachers bowing down around me???

 

Just a thought.

 

 

For the record you have the full support and resources of C.A.C.H.E. for this venture.

 

 

Michael

Link to comment
As for the tracking issue, the text is more there for layout and to note what information we would like on the coins.  I think there is some talk behind the scenes about getting them tracked on Geocaching.com. But I'll put out a disclaimer:

 

Good Luck with Groundspeak on getting your coins tracked there.Bobkat92 spent a lot of time and emails looking into that and the overall respones was no thanks. If i remember right they said they were tracking the usa coins cause it was all over the us and if they started tracking state coins then each state that has one would want it also. I totally understand where they are coming from.

 

It was easier to set up a tracking site.. Check the CA geocoin site thread. Marky is the person kind and patient enough with us to maintain it. he also set it up.

 

other than that.....LOVE the DESIGN! Far as i know if you want the geocaching.com logo on it you have to go with the generic one on the back of ours....oregon and other coins are "grandfathered" in with changing the logo. Plus its cheaper...you only have to pay to set up one side!

Edited by The Dillon Gang
Link to comment

I see the Bear and Pink Pony have vision problems. The coin clearly shows

Tahosa and Lil Tahosa coming down from our recent cache placement.

And you two are still looking up.

 

526c2e75-8e0e-4281-852c-e2cd084024bd.jpg

 

Maybe a picture of the next generation of Cachers would be appropriate.

a90c0500-5c27-46d6-aab1-4baf4edc4f9c.jpg

 

I think it looks good so far, Maybe a picture or silloute of Long's Peak for the background would be appropriate.

790c5859-baf4-45b3-85b5-9f264af36c2a.jpg

 

Another Idea would be to put some of the mountain ranges on the side where it says we're not square but rectangular. Have them stamped so they show up.

 

Maybe a picture of a colorado cacher looking for a neat place to hide one would be appropriate

3929c6f4-93ce-434c-9721-e8964e6ae2c2.jpg

Link to comment

Love all the ideas for designs, keep them coming at this point. We are working on only one side as the other side is set.

 

Because as I understand if we want to use the Geocaching (Groundspeak) logo in anyway the only approved way is to use the coin die for side 1 produced by Pressed Metal of Canada and the final design for side 2 has to be approved by Groundspeak. This is the route I was thinking of taking for this first minting, it is really cheap and easy that way. We are talking around $2(+-) a coin.

 

The little miner of the Tommy-Knocker fame is of course a trade-mark protected icon so no go, but if some artistic (not me I am just a cut and paste man) wants to come up with a custom made miner with the GPS and ammo can, we can always incorporate it on the final side 2.

 

I'll make the hiker's bigger, again the coin design on the computer does not do justice to the final piece.

Link to comment
The little miner of the Tommy-Knocker fame is of course a trade-mark protected icon so no go, but if some artistic (not me I am just a cut and paste man) wants to come up with a custom made miner with the GPS and ammo can, we can always incorporate it on the final side 2.

 

Well then we need to look at some pictures of Mountain Men. They had rendezvous we have events so in a sense they were some of the first cachers in this state. And some of our present caches are at their hangouts. So a drawing of a mountain man with a GPS and Ammo can would be a cool idea. We couldn't have him carry some heat like this character, it would upset the Lilly Pad. :rolleyes:

2e907c82-f3da-4b2b-af3d-63fadc84ce39.jpg

Link to comment

I don't know if it matters, but I might get rid of the hikers all together. I know it's not to scale at all, but they make the mountains almost look like hills. I had a few ideas, but suck at working on the computer so I was hoping to sketch them out early next week and email them to you.

Link to comment
if you don't mind nosy people out of CA here's my 2 cents.

DRAFT v4 (Graphics and Layout by Dillon Gang from CA Ahem...:anibad:

with motto from Nurse Dave) No we don't mind! The more the merrier, at least for now. :wacko:

 

CO2_A.jpg

Its starting to look better, now if only some CO cachers would chime in.

I'll agree the hikers make it look like a level 1.

That saying needs to be worked on, haven't a real good idea yet.

Something like,

 

Colorado land of the 14'ers.

 

Cache in Colorado

for a

Real Rocky Mtn. High.

Link to comment

I like the bigger hiker and the 1 sat. I might get rid of the outline of the state (how exciting is a square? hehehe) and just extend the mountains all the way across. Then the bottom half of the coin could be slightly raised. Or just have a thick raised line for the mountains that was raised the same amount as the hiker. Ya, you can tell us out of staters to butt out whenever, this is just fun to do.

Link to comment
DRAFT v.2a and DRAFT v.3a-

draft_2.jpg

Bigger hikers, different text

 

draft_3.jpg

No hikers emphasizes mountain scale (thanks Nurse Dave), with mountain Long's Peak (thanks Tahosa and Sons)

I like the this one the best ( This is a must have on it, in my opinion :anibad: ), and I say we have the geocaching logo on the back (Just my thoughts, it might help differ cost as well since, assuming we go with a company that has minted these coins in the past, will already have the mold for the geocaching logo.) :wacko:

Nice work on those images.

Link to comment
DRAFT v.2a and DRAFT v.3a-

draft_2.jpg

Bigger hikers, different text

 

draft_3.jpg

No hikers emphasizes mountain scale (thanks Nurse Dave), with mountain Long's Peak (thanks Tahosa and Sons)

 

These are also great.

draft_c.jpg

and for the other side

draft_b.jpg

 

I like the this one the best ( This is a must have on it, in my opinion :anibad: ), and I say we have the geocaching logo on the back (Just my thoughts, it might help differ cost as well since, assuming we go with a company that has minted these coins in the past, will already have the mold for the geocaching logo.) :wacko:

 

Nice work on those images.

 

EDIT: Maybe not on the geocaching logo, cause I like the second image on teh second set of iamges above. That should be good.

Link to comment
here's the back side that is from pressed metal. did anyone email Groundspeak and ask about the back side? i know for sure that you can't modify the logo anymore. but it seems that the washington coin will have a different background.

 

Back of Ca Geocoin

cageocoinbacksmall.jpg

 

Washington Geocoin

 

ws-coin10-2final.jpg

Just like a military challenge coin.

Link to comment
Just another outside opinion:

 

The satelittes look like Tie Fighters from Star Wars - maybe change to stars? Don't you guys have beautiful clear nights our there?

Its not outside opions, after all we are CACHERS, and after the same thing.

I do believe that the star fighters are out of sorts, how about the big dipper, we all look to that at night as a reference point. And if you imagination runs wild would'nt a big dipper be an ancient cache container.

Link to comment

I am away from graphic program so I haven't whipped out another pic but building on the ideas presented:

 

Replace the sat's with the Big Dipper or some other celestial beacon.

We can balance out the hiker with a small rock outcropping on the right side with cache sitting on it with some type of pictogram/petroglyph of a horse scribbed into the rock under the cache. :anibad:

 

Don't know how it will look but I'll get another drawing out when I can. I really enjoy this process.

 

As for the other side, thanks to the Dillon Gang for posting the other side of the coin, that's the one it will be if we go that way.

Link to comment
Here's something with Long's Peak in it and the Dipper...

Ooooh, I like it. The idea of serializing the coins within a cache container is a great one! Now like Tahosa and Sons said, hopefully more CO geocachers will comment and join in on the design phase. But we are not ignoring any ideas or comments no matter where you are!

 

I have talked to CO Admin and he is courageously handling tracking and permission issues.

 

I will contact Pressed Metal about production turn around time and final costs as they have started up again after a quick company intermission.(vacation?) The estimate is still around 2$ a coin.

 

EDIT:

Quick and dirty estimation of what the design by Dillon Gang with contributions from Tahosa and Son's MIGHT look like if it where a coin:

DRAFT V5

draft_5.jpg

Edited by MRCOGEO
Link to comment

You know those 7 stars are what our terrain ratings are to the Flatlanders.

Man am I looking forward to ordering some of these coins, maybe the could

be used as bait to get some cachers up into the hills after some of the good ones.

Someday I'll have to take the Dillon Gang up to Lake Dillon and do some real mountain caching.

Link to comment

That latest coin is spectacular! I dont' think that one can be topped. You got that right Tahosa, someone emailed me the other day from Conneticate and told me they got a bloody nose attempting my cache I have hidden in teh greenhorn at 9k feet. good stuff. I like everything about that newest coin :o

GJ

 

Idea for the back of the coin, have the state of colorado or our flag and the geocaching logo and info...

Link to comment

Not sure if people are having different ideas or don't understand the process so I'd though maybe I could clear it up a bit.

 

The cost of the first run of coins is the cost of minting + shipping + customs (this place is in Canada) + the die fee for making the die for each side. I've forgotten now what the die cost is per side, but I'm pretty sure it's over $150. GC.com has a die with their logo set-up with the company that you can get permission to use after signing a contract and getting your design approved. So this is what had been discussed and is used by the other states that get their coins made through this company as a way to keep costs down and also a way to get to use the gc.com logo on their coin. Just keep in mind that if you want a custom design on BOTH sides, that with double the set-up die fees and of course make the coins more expensive.

 

If all that was already everyone's understand than just forget what I said an move right along. :o

Link to comment

The one reason why I wouldn't go with the geocaching.com logo die is because of the www.geocaching.com URL on it. Since geocaching.com isn't allowing us to track these coins on the geocaching.com site, it's confusing to have that address on the coin. If it had been up to me, I wouldn't have used that die on the California coin. I was out voted on that though, and mainly because of the additional minting costs. I would suggest that you register a domain now (or use co.geocoin.net for free) and have that put on the coin. It will help the coins track better.

 

--Marky

Link to comment

Geocaching has not expressly denied our request for tracking on GC.com. There is talk behind the scenes using a new numbering scheme and some other requirements to get the tracking option. I'll state another dislclaimer:

:o

 

ANY WEBSITE PRINTED ON THE DESIGN IS FOR LAYOUT AND TEXT FORMAT ONLY AT THIS TIME.

 

The discussion is kind of at the design phase and then we will move into the decide phase within the next week or two as more CO geocachers speak up.

 

We will wait and see but the external tracking is absolutely plan B and Marky, I thank you again for the offer. :lol: It's really nice to see the support for the CO geocoins as we work together to contribute to this global game.

Edited by MRCOGEO
Link to comment
The one reason why I wouldn't go with the geocaching.com logo die is because of the www.geocaching.com URL on it. Since geocaching.com isn't allowing us to track these coins on the geocaching.com site, it's confusing to have that address on the coin.

I can see that point, but I've never heard of a problem with the Oregon coin. I think you just have to package the coin so it's obvious where you go to track it. It is also a neat idea to try to keep costs down to make people willing to put them in caches. If cost is not an object I'd go the route of Washington and design both sides with colour and the whole thing.

Link to comment

Draft v6a

draft_6.jpg

SIDE 1 and SIDE 2

We can go with or without flag. In reverence to the first CO cache approver and president of C.A.C.H.E., CO Admin, a horse pictograph.

(Sorry no bowing cachers or crown of cache's yet but I'll keep working on those designs B))

 

I have gotten an estimate price sheet from Alan at Pressed Metals and I will post it but we are waiting on estimate pricing for tooling of side 2. We will need a minimum of 250 orders to keep the price around estimated $2+- and with 500 the price goes down even further and so on. Also no one will be making a profit on this venture with all order money going towards production, shipping and shipping supplies and distribution of the coins only.

 

SORRY WE ARE NOT TAKING ORDERS AT THIS TIME BUT KEEP THE INTEREST EMAILS COMING AT cogeocoins@hotmail.com AND I WILL POST HERE AND MAYBE OPEN ANOTHER THREAD WHEN WE ARE TAKING ORDERS Far estimate is another week or two to open orders.

Link to comment
Draft v6a

draft_6.jpg

SIDE 1 and SIDE 2

We can go with or without flag. In reverence to the first CO cache approver and president of C.A.C.H.E., CO Admin, a horse pictograph.

(Sorry no bowing cachers or crown of cache's yet but I'll keep working on those designs B))

 

I have gotten an estimate price sheet from Alan at Pressed Metals and I will post it but we are waiting on estimate pricing for tooling of side 2. We will need a minimum of 250 orders to keep the price around estimated $2+- and with 500 the price goes down even further and so on. Also no one will be making a profit on this venture with all order money going towards production, shipping and shipping supplies and distribution of the coins only.

 

SORRY WE ARE NOT TAKING ORDERS AT THIS TIME BUT KEEP THE INTEREST EMAILS COMING AT cogeocoins@hotmail.com AND I WILL POST HERE AND MAYBE OPEN ANOTHER THREAD WHEN WE ARE TAKING ORDERS Far estimate is another week or two to open orders.

That is absolutely PERFECT! I say we go with that design. It has my vote as the coin B) I love it ;)

Great Job on that design B)

Link to comment

Bad news on the scene designs. The extra amount of tooling and artwork required to design a scene coin would push the coin costs way above $2-3. We are talking $400+ for the tooling alone! Plus the scene coins never come out as people want them to because we are dealing with metal not pencil or watercolors. Different medium different methods.

 

So representations are our best bet. Like this one by Dillion Gang and Tahosa and Son:

 

draft_7.jpg

Edited by MRCOGEO
Link to comment
Bad news on the scene designs.  The extra amount of tooling and artwork required to design a scene coin would push the coin costs way above $2-3.

 

wonder how much this one cost?:

 

coin15_big.jpg

 

here is the front of the CA geocoin:

cageocoinfrontsmall.jpg

 

it only cost us 2.50 or 3.00 per coin for the first minting quote at 500coins. (ended up with 1250minted) the second order is priced at 2.15 per coins for 500

 

i work in corel draw and so does pressed metal. they can play around with the image if you send it to them in .cdr format

 

i also would be happy to send you the bits and pieces that make up the coins i posted (the hiker, a simpler mountain, couple trees, the ammo can)

Edited by The Dillon Gang
Link to comment
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...