Geocoins : Low success rate?

nomad_penguin · Post by **nomad_penguin** » 18 June 07 7:56 pm

Hi all,

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but here goes.

What are people's experiences with Geocoins? I got excited when we (SNP and I) first started geocaching and bought a couple of coins. The first one was released into a cache and never got any further. Although it is a bit early to tell, it seems the second one travelled 600 km or so, got put into a new cache (out in the middle of nowhere, well, Kersbrook

) and has also gone missing.

It seems to me that either:
a. I've had two unlucky experiences.
b. I have such a good taste in coins that everyone wants the ones I buy.

c. Someone doesn't like me very much.

I can't quite understand how a coin can be 'taken' from a cache by a muggle but the cache itself not muggled. It is possible the 'taker' is a geocacher, which would be really sad. Or, the coins are floating around in someone's car/backpack/whatever and they haven't realised.

It's left a bit of a bad impression; I have a coin to release overseas in a fortnight, and I still will, but I have absolutely no faith in it's safe return to Australia.

From here on in I think I might head down the travel bug path, although they don't excite me as much. Coins have fantastic designs, are shiny

, and I really like picking them up and moving them on. I guess there are other people that feel the same way, they just don't move them on

.

Thoughts?

Post by **caughtatwork** » 18 June 07 8:03 pm

Theft is my opinion.

I was going to get into coins, but there are too many people lamenting the loss of their coins, so I'll give them a miss.

There are also too many to collect, so my obsession would cost too much and would never be achieved, so I decided not to start.

I have three coins, one activated but not done anything and two unactivated. I might just give them away to a collector rather than see them "go missing"

nomad_penguin · Post by **nomad_penguin** » 18 June 07 8:12 pm

caughtatwork wrote: There are also too many to collect, so my obsession would cost too much and would never be achieved, so I decided not to start.

And geocaching isn't addictive?

If you have an addictive personality like me (and I don't mean irresistible to be around

), geocaching is a bad hobby. You can't find all the caches in the world, but you can damn well try!

Team Falling Numerals · Post by **Team Falling Numerals** » 18 June 07 8:17 pm

I have two that are MIA. Another two are stalled in the bottom of someones caching bag. These are a minority of mine out there.

I will continue to release coins but I do tend to only release cheapies - these days I certainly don't release anything that is too nice but that being said I am steeling myself to release some of my Aussie coins (from the travel set) but they will have a bloody great hole drilled through them and a Gecooin Buddy to remind someone that they need to be moved on.

Grank · Post by **Grank** » 18 June 07 8:28 pm

Team Falling Numerals wrote: they will have a bloody great hole drilled through them

I released 7 like this last year - 3 still going strong ..... the rest are in a graveyard.

Post by **caughtatwork** » 18 June 07 8:46 pm

nomad_penguin wrote:
caughtatwork wrote: There are also too many to collect, so my obsession would cost too much and would never be achieved, so I decided not to start.
And geocaching isn't addictive? If you have an addictive personality like me (and I don't mean irresistible to be around ), geocaching is a bad hobby. You can't find all the caches in the world, but you can damn well try!

It's been damn hard to stop obsessing about every cache in my vicinity that I haven't found. I'm slowly getting over it.

Team Seedsman · Post by **Team Seedsman** » 18 June 07 9:38 pm

Penguins in the words of Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush Don't Give Up, check the the date difference of the first & second posts of this GeoCoin of mine that had been missing...
http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=371520

setsujoku · Post by **setsujoku** » 18 June 07 10:38 pm

My first coin did a couple of stops around adelaide, then i gave it to a cacher that was going back to the mount, from there it spent a little while in the mount, before being picked up and as far as ive been able to track, its somewhere down the south east (not in the mount) still

Another coin that i was given, from an american cacher, was a compass rose coin, and i dropped that over in perth, it travelled a few caches, and then the other day i got an e-mail saying that the cache it was in had been muggled

My only other coin was given to me by nibbler, and is a GCA coin. it travels to every cache with me, and doesnt leave my sights at events. it has travelled a huge number of km's and i know that it wont disapear into thin air

belken · Post by **belken** » 18 June 07 10:40 pm

I have 17 coins released. 3 are now missing. 1 was missing one in the UK for 9 months and then popped up again. I have had mixed success with 2 in the US that come and go. I stopped stressing and feel grateful if they continue to pop up.

I do have 35 more to release. Just saving them now for Dubbo.

Team Wibble · Post by **Team Wibble** » 18 June 07 10:56 pm

3 coins that I have released are still going strong.
So I have a 100% success rate so far....

Bunya · Post by **Bunya** » 18 June 07 11:12 pm

I have released 27 of my own coins (some local, some sent overseas) and 30 sent to me by cachers overseas to release here.

As best I can recall, these are the losses so far - four to apparent theft (all overseas) and three to muggled caches (one overseas, two in Oz).
So that's 50/57 = 88% still OK.

And I kid you not, but someone who has one of these coins in Adelaide has just emailed me to say that they have handed it on to someone who is going to Dubbo - oh well . .

TeamAstro · Post by **TeamAstro** » 19 June 07 12:41 am

Team Wibble wrote:3 coins that I have released are still going strong.
So I have a 100% success rate so far....

3 released of the Wibble 10000 collection!

..Astro

Grank · Post by **Grank** » 19 June 07 9:38 am

Grank wrote:I released 7 like this last year - 3 still going strong ..... the rest are in a graveyard.

This thread made me review my coin status - two more seem to have stalled in the hands of a finder; I checked the profiles of the those finders .... no activity for some months and a total find count (TBs and caches) < 10. My hopes are fading for those two as well - hopefuly they'll respond to my PMs soon.

Cheesy pigs · Post by **Cheesy pigs** » 19 June 07 11:03 am

I must admit I have a bit of a careless (care-less?) attitude about coins I have released.

Just like TB's, they will get forgotten or muggled or stolen, and that is just life. I only set free coins that I have more than one of, or I am just not that attached to. If they go missing, so be it. I'm not going to get my panties in a twist about it.

Stolen geocoins are worthless to the cachers who have stolen them because they are activated and cannot be traded or sold or reactivated.

But, all in all, geocoins are most excellent things. Have I mentioned I love geocoins?

Edited due to grammatical errors

Grank · Post by **Grank** » 25 June 07 8:53 pm

Grank wrote:
Team Falling Numerals wrote: they will have a bloody great hole drilled through them
I released 7 like this last year - 3 still going strong ..... the rest are in a graveyard.

This must be a magic thread

Two of my coins that were out of action for nearly six months have been located in a cache ... no explanation of how they got there and no recent previous finders of those caches noted that they were there.