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Ladycacher

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I've never dealt with any, but have heard tons of good and bad on everybody. There are a ton of coin manufacturers out there, so by no means feel limited that you have to deal with one company, but I'd say at the worst just give em a try. Keep in mind alot of these companies are usually busy with military coins, especially now, and ususally prioritize things for them. Since we're not as much business to them, it's just how it goes.

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I'll echo KC0GRN's post. Challenge coins are most coin companies bread and butter. Most will hapily shove aside an individual order to keep their larger client happy. Naturally we would rather work with the ones that take our order seriously and are honest and open in their dealings. I'd like to see a guide developed that answers these questions. Maybe even workign with a company that can rate the quality of a firms work.

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I am about to go through KVcoins. I have herd a few things about them that is not good. Should I not use them? Is there anybody else to go through......or is there anybody else someone would recommend?

 

HELP!!!!!!

Hey, Girl.

 

The design process for my coin was a major booger to get done, and KV was a major help. Rick at KV coud not have been better to work with.

 

As RK states, challenge coins are a major source of their income, and they are going to want to keep those BIG clients happy. That's why my coins are still 6-8 weeks away.

 

Also, there have been a lot of coins ordered through the various companies, including KV. They are going to be swamped for a bit, which increases our wait time.

 

You have the great advantage that they are in San Antonio, and closer to you than any of the other companies.

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I went through Aaron Charles (coinsandpins.com) for my personal geocoins and I had a great experience with them. Here's the timeline:

 

April 6, 2005 - send in first draft of design

April 13, 2005 - three changes later and final design approved by me

April 28, 2005 - receive coins from them

 

I don't know if I was extremely lucky for it to take only three weeks from sending in the first design to receiving the coins but the process was smooth for me.

 

You can email me with any other questions.

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Yes, Military Challenge Coins are the bread and butter bsuiness for many of these firms. BUt good customer service means you keep your customers informed on what's happening with their orders. If it is an issue of giving military orders first priority, they could save some customers some grief by stating that upfront.

 

I've read a couple of problems with them moving deadlines on Ray&Rose, only minting part of the South African Coin order, then not giving them a deadline on when the rest of the order would be completed, and lastly, someone selling one of Blazerfan's Production Test coins on EBAY.

 

On the other hand, I have many coins that were produced by KV. They're nice coins. Many people have gone to them based on good work and price, and are completly satisfied with their work.

 

I shopping for quotes on the Indiana coin now, and will probably get a quote from them as well.

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I went through Aaron Charles (coinsandpins.com) for my personal geocoins and I had a great experience with them. Here's the timeline:

 

April 6, 2005 - send in first draft of design

April 13, 2005 - three changes later and final design approved by me

April 28, 2005 - receive coins from them

 

I don't know if I was extremely lucky for it to take only three weeks from sending in the first design to receiving the coins but the process was smooth for me.

 

You can email me with any other questions.

It's worth mentioning that Aaron Charles started a MOVE while working on your coin!

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I used coinsforanything.com . They also produced the GA Coin and the GBES coin. I gave them final artwork on 4/14. I had my coins in hand on 5/6. Just under 3 weeks and their policy is 3 weeks from date of final art submission.

 

No offense to KV or those that think they're the shiznit, but with the poor customer service they give to their small clients (re: geocachers) and delays in order deliveries, I would never even consider them.

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I used coinsforanything.com . They also produced the GA Coin and the GBES coin. I gave them final artwork on 4/14. I had my coins in hand on 5/6. Just under 3 weeks and their policy is 3 weeks from date of final art submission.

 

No offense to KV or those that think they're the shiznit, but with the poor customer service they give to their small clients (re: geocachers) and delays in order deliveries, I would never even consider them.

Does anyone have specifics about the delays or other problems at KV?

 

(I've never done any business with them so I'm not questioning it, but would like info on who/when, and if how many people this has happened to )

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KV was pretty easy to work with... their time frame can be lengthy. They do good work and their work is obviously in demand.

 

With that said there are certainly other fish in the sea. I have coins from a lot of companies... one of my favorites is CKayaks who had their coin made by BEX Engraving & Mint. Not sure at their cost but if and when I think of making another coin I'll probably contact them.

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When we (the Alabama Geocachers Association) had our coins minted in 2004 we used KV and had absolutely no problems and received excellent customer service. They helped in the design process and we received the finished product in a timely manner. I feel that I can recommend them.

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KV coins do a good job with the coin itself! Only problem is the time delays and keeping you informed on what is going on!

Our coin order was originally for 100 coins only. With all the demand I upped the order to 300 coins! Now I don’t know what happened next-- Did Rick not let the factory manager know about the increase in my order or as Rick say did the factory manager just forget to increase the order?

One thing I thought would have happened is that the rest of my order would be treated with urgency, but this did not happen! In my business, if I make a mistake I bend over backwards to accommodate the client. With KV coins this is not the case!

At the end of this all--my payment has been taken a month ago from my credit card by KVcoins and I still have no answer on when all my coins will be ready. Needless to say I'm a bit p..............off

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You know Coza, it's unlawful for any company to charge your CC anything other than the deposit (where applicable) before they ship your order. You can report them to your CC company. If the CC company receives enough complaints, they revoke the company's merchant account. Trust me, that's a big deal.

 

Welch, if you read the post from Team Tecmage, it contains two of the specific incidents I heard about with regards to KV.

 

My guess is that if the coin order is several hundred, you'll get better service from KV than if you order 100 or 200 coins. Most of the other order delay complaints I've heard about were from 100-ct orders. Didn't the AGA order at least 500 coins originally? That's probably why the service they received was satisfactory. Just my POV & $.02.

Edited by AtlantaGal
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it's unlawful for any company to charge your CC anything other than the deposit (where applicable) before they ship your order

Well to the defense of KVcoins, they did have 100 coins of my order ready. (I told them to keep the 100 coins until all coins are complete) I assume Rick though the order is complete when he charged my credit card!

Will just have to wait patiently

:D

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Welch, if you read the post from Team Tecmage, it contains two of the specific incidents I heard about with regards to KV.

 

Thanks, but it wasn't apperent if Tecmage was referring to KV or someone else. (It turns it was KV) Finding the south africa thread was simple. All that was there, was the thread opening saying that KV was screwing with the order, and a comment that it happens a lot. Thats not very specific :blink:. Coza posted here with details :ph34r:. The order number was increased, the production was not :unsure: , their was a delay waiting for the rest of the order to be made so they could all ship together.

The ray & rose thread, in the NW forum, had details. KV says they're busy with rush orders, and pushed the ray & rose coin back, and does a poor job of telling the customer what is happening.

 

know of any other orders that were messed up?

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The blazerfan coin issue sounded more like an employee had a case of sticky fingers. That can't be pinned on KV as a company.

 

[edit--spelling]

It can and it should. These coins are collectiable. To have an employee snag a few that should have been destroyed to preseve the collecability of the customers coins is no small matter. The comanies integrety is at stake.

 

I'm glad this issue was brought up as it's one more point of negotiaton that I recieve all coins including tests samples etc.

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The blazerfan coin issue sounded more like an employee had a case of sticky fingers. That can't be pinned on KV as a company.

 

[edit--spelling]

It can and it should. These coins are collectiable. To have an employee snag a few that should have been destroyed to preseve the collecability of the customers coins is no small matter. The comanies integrety is at stake.

 

I'm glad this issue was brought up as it's one more point of negotiaton that I recieve all coins including tests samples etc.

Thanks RK. I wasn't really clear on why I mentioned that incident. I followed a link to EBAY, and the same employee had more than just Blazerfan's coin for sale. He had several challenge coins for auction too. Yes, it is a single employee doing something, but my concern is how does/did the company deal with the issue once they were aware of it.

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The blazerfan coin issue sounded more like an employee had a case of sticky fingers. That can't be pinned on KV as a company.

 

[edit--spelling]

It can and it should. These coins are collectiable. To have an employee snag a few that should have been destroyed to preseve the collecability of the customers coins is no small matter. The comanies integrety is at stake.

 

I'm glad this issue was brought up as it's one more point of negotiaton that I recieve all coins including tests samples etc.

Thanks RK. I wasn't really clear on why I mentioned that incident. I followed a link to EBAY, and the same employee had more than just Blazerfan's coin for sale. He had several challenge coins for auction too. Yes, it is a single employee doing something, but my concern is how does/did the company deal with the issue once they were aware of it.

I'm not saying that the company doesn't have certain resposibilities if one of their employees is helping themselves to merchandise. Quite the opposite.

 

Where I work, theft is considered a very BIG DEAL. We have had people very far up the food chain get fired for it. Some of them have been only a few months from retirement. I would hope , and as a customer, expect that the same thing would happen at KV.

 

What I am saying is, don't blame the entity (KV) for the transgressions of one employee. It's not possible to watch what everyone is doing at every moment. I have 20 people working for me, and I can't watch them all, all the time.

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...What I am saying is, don't blame the entity (KV) for the transgressions of one employee. It's not possible to watch what everyone is doing at every moment. I have 20 people working for me, and I can't watch them all, all the time.

I agree KV isn't to blame for the theft of an employee. However what's the outcome? Why did that happen? Does KV know? They should if they don't then KV is to blame for not doing the right thing, following through and either firing the employee, chaning the policy that let employees have coins, or doing something suitable. They owe at least one person an explanation and they do need to know that we pay attention to this kind of thing.

 

No you can't watch them all, but they do represent you, and if they do you a disservice you can't look the other way.

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I agree that KV as a whole os not to blame. I also feel that something should be doen about the employee. It may also be that the employees have their own collections of every coin made, and that is allowed by the company. Although, if that be the case, there should be some kind of guidelines.

 

I will say that my coins are in the art work phase at KV. He (Rick) has been in contact with me everyday and ALWAYS answers the phone there. He is very nice and is doing everything he can to make my coin look the way I want it. Personally so far I would rate his customer service a 10....and I know that could always change. He said since I am having a sample coin made, it will be around 6-8 weeks when my coins are ready.

 

Just my .02

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I know of someone who is working with KV as well.

 

They were very responsive during the design phase as well, but once it went to sample and order phase communication all but stopped.

 

By the time the samples get to him it will be 6 weeks. Add 3-4 more for the order (at least) and it's going to be a long wait......

 

Design = great

Communication = poor

Coins = great

Service as a whole = poor

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I've been working with KV on the Dallas / Fort Worth coins and the design process has been slow and laborious.

I initially chose KV because they're in San Antonio, Texas. I hoped to save on shipping since they only 4 hours away, and assumed that they would be familiar with both Dallas and geocaching. Neither of these things have worked out for me. They didn't have a clue about Dallas and the shipping was about the same price as others.

 

I'm considering forfeiting my $50 deposit and going with another manufacturer that will be able to get the coins done quicker and with less hassle. :huh:

 

Edit - spelling

Edited by 9Key
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FYI, I know of a geocacher who got some samples from KV, and guess what??? ONe of them was an un-numbered geocoin from one of the active cachers that had his coin made there. This is sounding more like what may have also happened to Blazerfan...

 

Here is some company info and links:

 

Idaho coins were done by Aaron Charles, the names were laser etched on them, cost is about .45 each for the etching. The epoxy coating is .35 each. The die cost for the Idaho coin was not extra for the shape. Some places charge extra, others don't. Usually pretty fast.

www.coinsandpins.com

 

KVCoins has done a number of private coins and does good work as well (Facedances, Cojones). Seems to be slower than most.

www.kvcoins.com

 

Gary at Quality Lapel Pins is another place, he did CavScout's coins.

You will have to ask him about speed and service. He said he was happy.

www.qualitylapelpins.com

 

Coins for anything is the company who made Georgia's. Jeff is a good contact for them.

www.coinsforanything.com

 

Crown Awards did the Texas coins, they were nothing fancy, but look fine. I got a couple of samples from them for some full color coins. There work looks fine.

Talk to John Guido. Prices are cheap for higher volume, but they don't offer

3-D or epoxy coating. No frills company. (P.S. The cheapest coins are like fake money, not very good. Texas used the next step up, an alloy I believe). Orders take about 4-6 weeks after art approval.

www.crownawards.com

Edited by thefabfive
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My experience with KV coins was exactly that my order was pushed back several times because of military challenge coin orders. They were great to work with through the design phase and worked with me through the many changes that I made on the coins. They have been made aware of the forums as I pointed it out to them when I was having trouble with them.

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RK - I tried to make a list once, but not enough people supplied me with information, remember?

I remember. :)

 

Something like that is a long term project. I think there is a big benifit to geocaching to do a list of the companies rate them, rate their work, and perhaps most important detail the process so people are not going in blind. I just ditched a project with Pokerchips.com because they absolutly wanted my credit card before I saw a proof and verified the order was correct. They had other issues as well but so far as I could tell they did have a good product.

 

I just asked someone else if they would be willing to help. Never did hear back. That's another reason it's a long term project. :D

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RK - I tried to make a list once, but not enough people supplied me with information, remember?

I remember. :D

 

Something like that is a long term project. I think there is a big benifit to geocaching to do a list of the companies rate them, rate their work, and perhaps most important detail the process so people are not going in blind. I just ditched a project with Pokerchips.com because they absolutly wanted my credit card before I saw a proof and verified the order was correct. They had other issues as well but so far as I could tell they did have a good product.

 

I just asked someone else if they would be willing to help. Never did hear back. That's another reason it's a long term project. :D

How would we begin to rate them? I am willing to help, but I have never done anything like that.

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Coins for Anything did us a wonderful job on the Georgia coin. I would rate them 9 - 9 - 9 across the board. Jeff was very patient with our changes and the reorder for the second batch, I would happily recommend them and we plan to use them again next year.

 

T1

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I think it's a matter of persistance. There are a lot of coins out there and being worked on but not that many in the scheme of things.

 

The suggestion above is a good start. Terracachers has started to kick the idea of a coin around. It would not be hard to do 3 or 4 versions from thee for for makers and kickstart the effort with it.

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I am working now with KV Coins on the upcoming 2005 GGA Geocoin. In my correspondence and phone conversations with them they have been very helpful and responsive.

 

After reading this thread I sent a link to Rick at KV Coins and asked for comment. I didn't quote the link, so I know he has read it. He replied:

 

Thank you for this information. Unfortunately it isn't good news for us. We are currently working on this problem with new management to get our customer service issue solved.

 

They've given me a delivery date of June 8th, I asked for June 10th. So far I am quite satisfied with KV Coins.

 

Of course, my opinion will change if they don't come in and I wind up tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail after our June 11th meeting.

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I initially was going to go to KV for my coins, since the ones I've seen looked great, but for any company to treat my order as less important than another is not acceptable to me. So I chose not to risk that.

 

I chose coinsandpins, based on the recommendations here.

 

I sent my rough design into them on Monday night, 06/06/2005, first thing Tuesday morning had an acknowledgement e-mail from them, and today, 06/09/2005 got the price quote.

 

The die artwork has started, and is planned to be completed for me to review next week. If all looks well, it heads to production.

 

So keep your eyes open for my new coin...coming soon.... :lol:

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KV Coins are doin good by me with the CA Geocoin order. Design phase 9, Contact 5, Timeline? I chose to skip the sample coins phase. They have been accomodating to me changing the amount ordered. Easy to talk to on th phone, little slow with the email. asked for samples and they sent a bunch. so far, realitivly pleased with my experience with their company.

 

I also worked with Pressed Metal up in Canada...great customer service, easy to work with in the design process, and great coins.

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I'm very satisfied with KV Coins. They were very responsive to emails, Rick was always available, everything was up front and clear. I really couldn't ask for better. We were under the gun timewise and they pulled off a small miracle. Picture of the finished coin below. I apologize for the rotting wood background, that's the railing of my deck. :lol:

 

e54fd0c9-cd8c-4a4a-86a0-78c900a1e887.jpg

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That is a nice looking coin rebel. I like how the letters cross over the outer ring like that.

Hope these become available for those of us outside of GA! :huh:

As of now, I have 2 extras available for trade. These were all presold, but several folks in the coin group got em, so there will be some others around for trade too.

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Got my geocoin from coinsandpins today.

My first contact with them was on June 6th, 2005, and the coins were ready to be picked up at my local Fedex on July 1st.

So about 3 1/2 weeks, which included me making a change to the design.

 

My only complaint is that they did not contact me when the package was shipped. It ended up sitting at my local Fedex for 8 days, because coinsandpins had a mistake in my address.

 

I randomly e-mailed them yesterday to find out the status, and it was then that they supplied me with a tracking number. When I went online to track it, I saw it had been here over a week, and had 3 bad-address delivery attempts.

 

But other than that, I was very please with the service, price, and outcome of my coin.

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That is a nice looking coin rebel. I like how the letters cross over the outer ring like that.

Hope these become available for those of us outside of GA!  :o

As of now, I have 2 extras available for trade. These were all presold, but several folks in the coin group got em, so there will be some others around for trade too.

Hey AtlantaGal,

 

I would be interested in trading for one of your GGA coins. I was looking for your list of wanted coins, but I couldn't find it.

 

I have a DFW among others available for trade.

 

Let me know

 

Thanks

JimT

Terrible Ts

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