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Uk Geocoins


Alibags

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I am currently investigating and pricing up some UK geocoins. As you know, currently only US geocoins are tracked by geocaching.com

Canadian geocoins, Oregon geocoins, Texas Geocoins, etc are all tracked on their own sites.

 

I have approached the owner of such a site who said that is we minted (or other manufacturing methods) our own geocoins, they would be prepared to issue numbers with which to track them, and then the coins movement could be logged on their web site.

 

There is a slight disadvantage that the coins will not appear on geocaching.com with a neat little logo, nor will they count to your GC totals (for those playing the numbers game), but the same is true for say Canadian Geocoins.

 

I have several friends who do metal work, metal casting and even coin minting (reproduction antique coinage). The end cost is likely to be less than the cost of a USA geocoin.

 

So, the big question is, would people be interested? I am not into making money out of you lot, but neither do I want to make an outlay and then have a huge pile of coins that nobody wants. If I get an initial idea of interest, then I can find out some likely ball park prices. I could do a guestimate as it is, but I am currently working on that.

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People are people and as such will always moan, nothing you can do about that :huh:

 

The question arose out of a discussion with a bunch of people last weekend on the subject of geocoins.

 

Pretty please, can this discussion NOT turn into one of those "My travelbug X got went missing"? or "I don't like this person's logging style" type discussions. At least not straight away at least.

 

TIA

Alibags xxx

 

ps. I have contacted Jermey, as I have always been told that Groundspeak wont allow... but I have not yet had it from the horses mouth. Watch this space

Edited by Alibags
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I have looked into this before but decided against organising it as I thought it would be pointless unless they could be logged on the site.

 

Groundspeak will not allow any new types of coins to be logged because of the amount of work to add new logos etc. for every single type of coin. Each country would want their own, and each US state would want their own etc.

 

One way around it may be to buy the TB numbers and activation codes (without tags) from Groundspeak, and get the TB number stamped on the coins. That way they wouldn't have their own icon, but would count as a TB.

 

T

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buy the TB numbers and activation codes (without tags) from Groundspeak, and get the TB number stamped on the coins

Good suggestion, although I can see it adding to the complexity and cost of the operation. I'd like to see UK Geocoins, as they'd soon start appearing in the US and advertise the UK geocaching community. Yes, I'd buy some - Geocoins seem to attract visitors to their cache as they are attractive, valuable and collectible (unlike the traditional cache tat!).

 

HH

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I would be interested in getting some geocoins, It would be great if they were tracked by this site, But if not so what! lets do it anyway.

The TB number would be good but it would mean shelling out for a tb for each coin adding to the cost.

How difficult would it be to run a tracking site? Can any of the tech wizards that frequent this forum shed some light on the matter?

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How difficult would it be to run a tracking site? Can any of the tech wizards that frequent this forum shed some light on the matter?

You are not the first person to suggest this. I did not suggest it myself because...

 

1) Although I play with databases all day long, I don't have the expertise nor resources to start one up so I would have been volunteering somebody else. I have had an email or two from too shy to post volunteers with some sensible suggestions though.

 

2) If somebody else has already done all the donkey work and is more than happy to let us play, then why have yet another tracking site. Lets use somebody else's resources! ;)

 

I am not the final arbiter of this. I just thought I would pick up the ball and run with it. I know and appreciate that other people have also looked into this.

 

I am quite happy to move this issue along, but I am trying to be a pragmatist. If CG.com do not want to play, then it's a shame, but if people want geocoins, then we can have them. I am quite prepared to do some of the leg work involved.

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One way around it may be to buy the TB numbers and activation codes (without tags) from Groundspeak, and get the TB number stamped on the coins. That way they wouldn't have their own icon, but would count as a TB.

I only suggested this because I thought a Tb tracking no and activation code would be cheaper than an actual tag. After all thats all the USA geocoins are, even though they have their own logo.

 

I only know this because the latest batch os USA geocoins I have were delayed because they wre waiting for activation codes from Groundspeak.

 

Maybe you could email jeremy and ask? I'll try emailing the US geocoin people and find out what they do.

 

T

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I would be interested in getting a few even though they couldn't be tracked. Although it would be preferable to have them tracked. I would send them to family and geocachers who I've corresponded with overseas as a souvenir and let them do what they want with them. I currently have 3 coins from different US states that I can't log due to not being registered or the web page is down so will just drop them in caches and let other cachers see them.

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The idea is fantastic, I am certainly all for the invention of these.

 

How ever...We need our own website, specially if we have something as great and productive as geocacheuk.com and trigpointing! We can easily do this, Im sure there would only be something like an initial 1,000 up for sale anyways.

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It wouldn't hurt to email and ask.

From the horse's mouth. 18 June 2004

=========================

Unfortunately, we are not currently selling travel bug numbers under

license. The USA Geocoins are a special arrangement. Other than USA

Geocoins, Groundspeak Travel Bugs and Jeep Travel Bugs, there are no other

tags which are currently trackable on the geocaching.com site.

 

Sorry I can't be more helpful. If this policy changes, I'd be more than

happy to contact you.

=========================

 

So, now you know.

 

-

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I don't know how it is on the other side of the ocean, but in the US even though most of the coins made are tracked on some site, most people figure they will just wind up in the hands of collectors. So if you just think of them as a great trade item or FTF prize maybe there won't be such hard feelings when they so missing. There are also many people here that just swap them for other people's or state coins or get a good collection going. I'd say track them for interest, but if you want to watch things move stick with TBs.

 

And I'll take 5-10 if you make them ;)

 

P.S. Anyone have any interesting sig items you would like to swap for some sig items from the US, drop me an email.

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Why not transform your UK-only coins to the Europeanwide EU-coins? :)

The cheap way to go is: take 20 cent coins and find someone who can press numbers into these coins. At the same time you can cater for the needs of nationalists because EU-coins have all a nation-specific side. :o

Defacing current 'coins of the realm' is a criminal offence.

OK... Euro-Cents are not strictly 'coin of the realm' here but they may well be soon :o

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Why not transform your UK-only coins to the Europeanwide EU-coins?  :)

The cheap way to go is: take 20 cent coins and find someone who can press numbers  into these coins. At the same time you can cater for the needs of nationalists because EU-coins  have all a nation-specific side. :o

Defacing current 'coins of the realm' is a criminal offence.

OK... Euro-Cents are not strictly 'coin of the realm' here but they may well be soon :o

I have not looked it up, but isn't that 'offence' restricted to currency bearing the Queens head? or maybe that is a seperate issue as I recall my father was put on a charge in the army for defacing the crowns property as he had polished away the detail on his R.E.M.E cap badge.

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I don't think the issue is the coins themselves. Getting coins is not a huge issue. That can be done. The main issue seems to be tracking. Are we happy to do it on another site - other than GC.com? Using GC.com may just not be an option. We could just use TB numbers, but those are not available without tags and buying tags and numbers would significantly add to the cost.

 

If we happy to track elsewhere, then we could use an existing database and then we could be up and running as soon as coins could be produced. If we want to create our own site, then that's really out of my hands, as that's something I cannot do myself.

 

I am going to see one of my metalwork and coin producing contacts in a couple of weeks, so I will talk to him then. In the meantime, look at my TB - TBGRY0 The Angel which is a gold plated reproduction Tudor coin made by this chap. It is deliberately rustic looking, by the way!

 

Perhaps, if we were to decide on a UK logo for one side of the coin (chat up Deego and see if we can use the GCUK image?) , and agree on a single tracking site that we would all agree to use, then we could even produce regional variants with different designs on the other side. That would prevent me from being the evil arbiter of what and how the coins arrive/appear, which is just not my aim at all!

 

The way this is going so far, I am reasonably happy to go with a modest run at my own cost tracked on this A N Other tracking site and then make the coins available to anybody who would like them! When I have chatted to my contact, I will have a clearer picture of cost/ design etc.

 

Thanks very much for your input, keep it up! :o

Edited by Alibags
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Excellent! I will see what I can discover about online DB's. We use one at work for issue tracking and I believe that the source code is free, just needs hosting. I will go over to the desk of the resident expert in a minute and pick his brains.

 

If some expert wants to volunteer for the DB end I will work on the coins bit?

 

A xx

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fab, so can anybody grab the code for an online ticketing system (ticket tracker or issue tracker, whatever you wish to call it) and make it something usable for us? As I said, I believe that such free source code is out there for those who can do something useful with it (not me!!!).

 

I 'll stick to looking into the coins themselves.

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Well some of the other geocoins use their own proprietory tracking site, eg Canadian, Txan and Oregon but some of the other coins use Traveler Tags, who I had spoken to before I started up this thread, just to check that numbers and tracking would be available to us, and they would. Cost was quoted at 25c per number, which is about 12p. Interesting site this, as they offer free (up to 5) tracking IDs and tracking for you to attach to your own 'hitchikers'.

 

Anyway, if somebody is prepared to do a UK version and supply numbers, then I am not going to kick against the trend, but because this was already in place, that's why I thought why invent the wheel? It is very US-centric though, so perhaps a UK one would just make it all a bit more special?

 

Still no response from Jeremy to my (very polite) email.

 

I have been looking at the cost of some of the USA coin minters, mainly because I want a reference point. So far the cost is not looking too prohibitive for a smallish run, coloured enamel on one side (up to 5 colours) and unique sequential numbers. Just got to find out if they ship to the UK. Main initial cost is the die production. Without any idea of whether they ship to the UK and how much that would cost, the inital cost is looking like approx $4 per coin (ecluding postage to end purchasers.

 

I think that as there is no UK organisation with funding to float this project, what I would be inclined to do is order up a run and offer two tier pricing - cheaper for those who order at the outset and then slightly more for those who order later (to offset the cost of having my personal money tied up in the project for unknown length of time). Unless anybody fancies forming a UK geocoin syndicate to keep it as a group project?

 

This is quite an involved subject isn't it? Still in for a penny, in for a geocoin <groan> :o

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fab, so can anybody grab the code for an online ticketing system (ticket tracker or issue tracker, whatever you wish to call it)

Unless I've misunderstood what you mean, a ticketing tracker doesn't sound like what's needed. Will it draw maps tracking locations? Will it know the coordinates of caches, or will it force people to enter them manually? If manually, will it allow GC.com style coordinates to be pasted in? Will it insist on allocating its own tracking numbers? Will it insist on consecutive numbers? Sounds like it could be more work to adapt, than to build what we need from scratch.

 

I'll happily produce a system to initialise, activate and track coins if that'll help. It could be hosted at GeocacheUK, or on Si's machine, or perhaps GAGB if the new committee are willing.

 

Another alternative would be to use geolutins, but I don't know how good they are. Last time I looked, it was a very clumsy user interface.

 

Cheers,

Ian

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I'd like some too - (although what i'd really like is some with MY logo on it, but thats an expensive story).

 

The complexitys of running a tracking site would need to be sorted out as there is a lot you could do to - I guess if it was hosted on geocacheuk.com's site then it could even appear in the webpage listings on their site/stats?

 

I think it would be a good idea to promote the uk geocaching sites if possible - such as the mag or geocacheuk.com but at the same time this would also make it interesting to foreign cachers as souvenirs.

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I'll happily produce a system to initialise, activate and track coins if that'll help. It could be hosted at GeocacheUK, or on Si's machine, or perhaps GAGB if the new committee are willing.

Looks like the monkey is off my back :laughing: Ian.

 

I think you have the expertise and experience to put something together much better than I.

 

Just holler if you want to use my hosting.

 

Si

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Okay, well leaving the tracking issue aside for now, the USA company that I contacted said they were more than happy to deal with the UK. I will speak to them some more next week, but it looks viable.

 

I was thinking (did I say this above, oh well, I will repeat myself) of a bronze coloured coin with coloured enamels on one side and text on the plain metallic side. Personally, I would like to see a nice map of the UK with some suitable wording round the edge.

 

The plain side could have the tracking website and serial number. The numbers need to be sequential, to set up the job to engrave them, but the format (and start and end points) would be up to us.

 

I will mock up an image later this week (when I have a mo) of what this would look like, and when I am back at my own PC (currently stealing bandwidth elsewhere) I will post the link to the coins site so you can all look at examples.

 

I am all up for input from the whole UK community, so although I realise that you can never please everybody, I just see myself as somebody who is halping this process along, not the evil coinage dictator! ;)

 

On the subject of personal, or regional coins, well that could come later. The biggest part of the initial price is in setting up the dies. This is about $250. If you wanted your own coin, then hopefully (and this is off the top of my head, as I have not spoken to the company specifically about this yet) you could half that amount, as I think you would only need to have a personal die for one side, the other being standard UK coin issue. The company have a minimum order of 25 coins at a time, so it's not completely out of the question for individuals to be able to afford them. Watch this space.

 

I have just logged a canadian geocoin that I had back into the new cache in which I placed it. I think that there are certain tracking issues that make it much more of a pain than the GC.com system. Is it Ian who is the latest scapegoat,oops I mean volunteer to write our bespoke system? Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help (or hinder) you? Software? SHUDDER! I am much better at pretty sparkly things! :unsure:

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UPDATE

 

It has been quiet in this topic lately, but I have been working on this in the background. With artistic help from the talented Peter of House of Boo we now have an image of what the coin could look like

 

UK_geocoin_rough.jpg

 

The red white and blue colours are enamel, the gold is the polished metal colour of the coin. There will be some wording around the edge of the coin. This is where you chaps come in. We thought it would be nice to have some suitable GB quotation or catchy UK geocaching phrase. Naturally, having decided that, our minds have instantly gone blank. I may do some Googling later (and read my penguin book of quotations), but if anybody has any brillaint suggestions, please fire away.

 

The other side of the coin will be unenamelled metal and will have the tracking ID number, the tracking website (TBC) and suitable logo (depends upon tracking site)

 

So what does everybody think?

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