On Geocoins

Admittedly, I have refrained from the geocoin craze. Simply, I am beyond the collecting and accumulating stage of my life.

I watch in amazement at what has been taking place over the last year. It is unbelievable. Years ago, I chatted with Jon about making a coin. He provided me a lot of good pointers. I was this close to minting a run. Do you know what stopped me? Uniqueness. Jon was already known for having a coin. USA and Canada coins were in the works. Another coin, I thought, would be too much. Now look at things!

Looking back, I am happy I never minted. This has gotten so out of hand. While the sheer collecting aspect is amazing, what really is notable is that geocoin collecting has virtually nothing to do with geocaching. Coins are so rarely placed in caches any longer. Minting coins usually involves a public order to share the costs of the run.

Those who want to track on Groundspeak pay astronomical fees for that privilege.

And for what? It appears that mostly what happens is that either numbers are shared so others can gain the icon, numbers are shared at events so others can gain the icon, or that some people actually swap the coins . . . so they can gain an icon (whether it be on GC.com or the coin collecting site).

Check out this coin. It was activated 25 November 2005. It hit a cache for the first time on 12 January 2006. Before that, 11 others logged the coin. What does that indicate? They possessed the coin? They found the coin? They saw the coin? Someone gave them a number?

And what does this have to do with geocaching? So few of these coins ever are dropped in a cache. And when they are, it is usually done so off-site so friends can pick them up. We saw this with the Jeep travel bugs (detailed on a page here, but you’ll need to read it via a link elsewhere).

Way back when (and I wish GC.com’s search worked) Jeremy claimed one could do whatever he pleased with a travel bug. Now, that is no longer the case.

This is what people are calling “virtual” travel bugs. Essentially it is just fake logging that actual coins are moving around (or travel bugs). However it seems more rampant with geocoins than travel bugs. It makes me want to reconsider allowing more geocoins on the site.

But this is exactly what almost all geocoins are. And tonight, one of Mr. Irish’s volunteer cache reviewers posted the following:

Do like I did today. Make people come up to you and write the numbers down. If you ask me for the number I give you a blank stare. If you don’t look at my coins then you don’t get to log them. Explain to others at the event so they will know this is the proper way to do it. Be proactive. I think passing out printouts is sort of odd. I don’t see the point in logging a coin you have not seen physically. I’ve had a few emails about logging my volunteer coins by me sending them the number via email. They get a polite “No” with an explanation of why.

So, the proper way of dealing with geocoins, according to the esteemed mtn-man, is one has to look at the coin. So, the icons indicate you have seen the item, not actually found the item.

This seems to fly in the face of what smileys represent, eh?

And if scavenger hunts and virtuals have been moved to waymarking.com because they never really fit in, geocoins don’t have that problem?

The difference, of course, is that geocoins are bringing in money to the Groundspeak coffers. How anyone can justify $700+ for a Moun10bike coin is beyond me. Here is a version two on ebay. Current bid is $ 243.50. Hell, I balked at $ 5.06 in shipping and handling for two of AK’s coins. Just thought it might have been good swag, but really, $27 for two coins to give away? Of course, I could pump my chest by going to an event and permit people to view them. That, of course, is the proper way to do it. Right, Greg?

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