Geocoin

Last updated
A 2004 USA Geocoin Geocoin usa.jpg
A 2004 USA Geocoin

A geocoin is a metal or wooden token minted in similar fashion to a medallion, token coin, military challenge coin or wooden nickel, for use in geocaching, specifically as form of a calling card. [1]

Contents

Many of these are made to be trackable on various websites to be able to show the movement around the world [2] and visitors to be able to leave comments when they find the coin. Each coin has a unique tracking ID, which can also be used when logging it to a designated website. [3] [4]

A geocoin typically has a diameter of 1.5 inches (38 mm) to 2 inches (51 mm) and a thickness between 0.098 inches (2.5 mm) and 0.16 inches (4 mm). Coins with the size of 1 inch (25 mm) are called microcoins, because they fit into microcaches (e.g. film canister). The smallest geocoins with a diameter of 0.5 inches (13 mm) are called nanocoins, and have been sold since 2009. If the diameter is larger than 3 inches (76 mm) the geocoin is called macrocoin, and contains the saying of "that’s not a coin, it’s an anchor".

Signature items

A wooden geocoin CWG - Czech Wood Geocoin.jpg
A wooden geocoin

Personal geocoins are a personal signature item that normally bears the geocacher's handle and personal design.[ citation needed ]

Geocoins are often minted by caching organizations and companies. Though not specifically a personal signature item they are a form of signature item for the organization that developed them. However, most are custom-made for geocachers, usually in batches of 100 pieces or less. [1]

Reviewer/Moderator/Lackey Coins are another form of signature items over the years these have their own following. Many of them have taken the time to create their own signature item.

In the first few years the number of coins that were a signature item for a geocaching group, or individuals far outnumbered the coins that were made to sell. However now they tend to be smaller percentage as the industry has a number of coins manufacturers that develop coins for events, holidays, or special coins. The cost to make a personal coin is fairly high.

Tracking websites

When a cache listed at geocaching.com contains a geocoin, an icon (often unique to the type of the coin) is shown on the cache page's "Inventory" section. This icon will also appear in the inventory of any cacher holding one as well as in each cacher's historical trackable item listing. Icons will also remain in the inventory of cachers who log the 'discovery' of a geocoin's number without physically removing it from a cache. "Icon collecting" – the act of having these icons listed in one's trackables listing – is an associated hobby. Many people bring geocoins with unique icons to geocaching events so that others may see the coins and use the tracking number to collect the icons online, and it is not uncommon for collectors to activate some or all of the coins in their collections in order to have a matching online collection of icons associated with their geocaching.com accounts.

Other websites for trackable coins have included the 2002Canadian geocoin, [5] Utah geocoin, [6] Oregon State coin, [7] and sigitem.com.

Free tracking service for coins and other items is available from Geokrety, [8] with full service for geocaching sites such as opencaching.us, [9] and partial service for other geocaching sites. An owner of geocoins can also set up his own website to monitor these moving mementos. [10]

Theft

It is not uncommon for activated, released geocoins to go missing, whether because a cacher is unfamiliar with the logging and tracking process or due to outright theft. Some geocoin owners will purposefully attempt to destroy the resale value of the coin by drilling and tagging it with an extra tag, marker, or other item that is intended to underscore the fact that the geocoin is meant to travel, not to be kept. [11] Another somewhat controversial anti-theft measure is to create a copy of the geocoin, releasing the copy and keeping the original. [12] [13]

In 2012, a geocoin helped authorities return stolen items to a geocaching enthusiast in Seattle, who marked the coins as missing online. [14] The goods were found in a storage unit during a raid and the geocoins became instrumental in connecting the burglars to their crime.

History

Notable Geocoins

The second largest geocoin in the world Groesste geocoin derwelt.jpg
The second largest geocoin in the world

The Ginormous Geocoin is 46 inches in diameter, made of cast iron spray-painted GOLD, and weighs about 115 pounds. The geocoin code is engraved along its rim (the code consists of 4 letters, 1 number, followed by a final letter).

Coin finishes

Collecting terms

Geocaching terms

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geocaching</span> Outdoor recreational activity

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity, in which participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called geocaches or caches, at specific locations marked by coordinates all over the world. As of 2023, there are over 3 million active caches worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loonie</span> Canadian $1 coin

The loonie, formally the Canadian one-dollar coin, is a gold-coloured Canadian coin that was introduced in 1987 and is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint at its facility in Winnipeg. The most prevalent versions of the coin show a common loon, a bird found throughout Canada, on the reverse and Queen Elizabeth II, the nation's head of state at the time of the coin's issue, on the obverse. Various commemorative and specimen-set editions of the coin with special designs replacing the loon on the reverse have been minted over the years.

The dollar coin is a United States coin with a face value of one United States dollar. Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver certificate (United States)</span> Paper currency used between 1878 and 1964

Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. The certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but still valid legal tender at their face value and thus are still an accepted form of currency.

The Freedom Tower Silver Dollar is a "one dollar" coin minted under license of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in 2004, although the CNMI does not have legal authority to issue or authorize currency. Despite vague statements in advertisements, it is not issued by the United States Mint and is not considered legal tender, nor is it considered non-circulating legal tender. The CNMI receives royalty fees from proceeds of the sale of the coin. The coin is actually minted by SoftSky, a Wyoming commemorative coin maker.

The vatu is the currency of Vanuatu. The vatu has no subdivisions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penny (Canadian coin)</span> Coin worth one cent

In Canada, a penny is an out-of-production coin worth one cent, or 1100 of a dollar. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official term for the coin is the one-cent piece, but in practice the terms penny and cent predominate. Penny was likely readily adopted because the previous coinage in Canada was the British monetary system, where Canada used British pounds, shillings, and pence as coinage alongside U.S. decimal coins and Spanish milled dollars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travel Bug</span> Dog tag used in Geocaching

A Travel Bug is a registered trademark of Groundspeak, Inc. used to describe a dog tag used in Geocaching. It is moved from cache to cache, with a unique tracking number allowing its movements to be tracked through their geocaching website. Some tags are fastened to an object, known as a hitchhiker, before they are released into a cache. Travel bugs have also been used as advertising to promote Jeep or to increase diabetes awareness. A free service known as Geokrety is also available but this is not affiliated to Groundspeak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nights in White Satin</span> 1967 single by The Moody Blues

"Nights in White Satin" is a song by the Moody Blues, written and composed by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album Days of Future Passed. When first released as a single in 1967, it reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart and number 103 in the United States in 1968. It was the first significant chart entry by the band since "Go Now" and its recent lineup change, in which Denny Laine and Clint Warwick had resigned and both Hayward and John Lodge had joined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poker run</span> Charity competition event

A poker run is an organized event in which participants, usually using motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, horses, on foot or other means of transportation, must visit five to seven checkpoints, drawing a playing card at each one. The object is to have the best poker hand at the end of the run. Having the best hand and winning is purely a matter of chance. The event has a time limit, however the individual participants are not timed.

Since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Royal Canadian Mint has struck Summer and Winter Olympic coins to mark Games held in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Locker</span> Storage compartment

A locker is a small, usually narrow storage compartment. They are commonly found in dedicated cabinets, very often in large numbers, in various public places such as locker rooms, workplaces, schools, transport hubs and the like. They vary in size, purpose, construction, and security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooting thaler</span> Swiss Coin

A shooting thaler is a silver coin in thaler size minted to commemorate a Schützenfest or free shooting in Switzerland.

GeoKrety is an online tracking service targeted at Geocachers. Each registered object, called a GeoKret, has a unique tracking code, allowing its movements between locations such as Geocaches to be tracked and registered on the service. While the idea behind trackable items such as GeoKrety originated with the geocoin and travel bug. Geokrety is an independent trackable service that can be used with any geocaching activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Munzee</span> Worldwide Outdoor game where you hunt for QR codes

Munzee is a freemium scavenger hunt game where QR codes have to be found at different places in the real world. The game is similar to geocaching but uses QR code technology, in addition to device GPS location, to prove the find instead of a logbook. Launched in McKinney, Texas in 2011, the game caught on first in Germany, along with California and Michigan. It is now played in more than 188 countries around the world, and there is at least one physical Munzee deployed on every continent, including Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Adams and Paul Revere time capsule</span> American time capsule from 1795

The Samuel Adams and Paul Revere Time Capsule, also known as The Massachusetts State House Time Capsule is a time capsule located in a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House. It is widely believed to have been buried in 1795 by then-Governor Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. It is the oldest known time capsule in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital card</span> Virtual online representation of a plastic card

The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share a common purpose: Identity Management, Credit card, Debit card or driver license. A non-physical digital card, unlike a Magnetic stripe card can emulate (imitate) any kind of card.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins</span> American commemorative coin set

The Apollo 11 50th Anniversary commemorative coins were issued by the United States Mint in 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first crewed landing on the Moon by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Consisting of a gold half eagle, two different sizes of silver dollars, and a copper-nickel clad half dollar, each of the four was issued in proof condition, with all but the larger silver dollar also issued in uncirculated. The gold coins were struck at the West Point Mint, the silver at the Philadelphia Mint and the base metal half dollars at the mints in Denver and San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Proof Set</span> Set of American proof coins

The United States Mint Proof Set, commonly known as the Proof Set in the United States, is a set of proof coins sold by the United States Mint. The proof set is popular with coin collectors as it is an affordable way to collect examples of United States coinage in proof condition.

References

  1. 1 2 Hinch, Stephen (2010). Outdoor Navigation with GPS. Birmingham, AL: Wilderness Press. p. 157. ISBN   9780899976501.
  2. Ng, Hedy. "Pokémon who? Richmond geocachers are the real life scavenger hunters". Richmond News. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  3. "MSU seeks geocachers for statewide outreach project". Montana State University . 2017-11-03. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  4. Athima Chansanchai (15 January 2008). "Treasure hunting for the masses". NBC News . Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  5. "Geocaching Geocoins Canada". Geocoins.ca. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
  6. "UTAG GeoCoin Tracker". May 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-05-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. "Serialized Item Tracking". Log4.Us. Archived from the original on 2014-12-17. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  8. 1 2 "Home". GeoKrety. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  9. 1 2 "OpenCaching North America". OpenCaching. Retrieved 2017-02-15.
  10. Sherman, Erik (2004). Geocaching: Hike and Seek with Your GPS. Berkeley, CA: Apress. pp.  57. ISBN   9781590591222.
  11. "Releasing drilled coins with flips - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 14 May 2009. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  12. "Inventive coin "copy" ideas? - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 30 December 2008. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  13. Claire Martin (24 September 2014). "Geocaching hobby gives more meaning to man's time out of hospital". The Denver Post . Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  14. "Geocaching Geocoins Help Crack a Theft Ring". Official Blog. 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
  15. "(TB1D) Moun10Bike Geocoin - Moun10Bike Geocoin #002". Geocaching.com. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  16. "Moun10bike Coin On Ebay - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 2006-04-17. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  17. "Canadian Geocoins? - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 14 January 2002. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  18. "First USA Geocoin - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 2 January 2007. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  19. "Groundspeak's Current Coin Tracking Policy - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 16 December 2005. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  20. "GeocoinFest 2007". Geocaching.com. 2007-02-17. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  21. "Groundspeak's Current Coin Tracking Policy - Groundspeak Forums". Forums.groundspeak.com. 16 December 2005. Retrieved 2015-02-22.

Further reading