Geocoin

A wooden geocoin

Personal geocoins are a personal signature item that normally bears the geocacher's handle and personal design. For example, it was Jon Stanley's (aka moun10bike) original manufacture of a coin that started the hobby in the geocaching game. It has a stylized mountain bike and his caching handle, and on the back the geocaching logo.

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.

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]

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]

In 2012, a geocoin helped authorities return stolen items to a geocaching enthusiast in Seattle, who marked the coins as missing online.[13] The goods were found in a storage unit during a raid and the geocoins became instrumental in connecting the burglars to their crime.

• September 30, 2001: The first trackable geocoin released was the Moun10Bike Version 1 Geocoin #002.[14] The Moun10Bike Version 1 Geocoins are sought-after geocoins. They are all displayed on geocaching.com as owned by Moun10Bike and he has strictly forbidden their sale.[15]
• March 2002: The first geocoin that was produced and sold to the public to collect and release was the Canadian geocoin.[16]
• 2003: The first USAGeocoin was released for sale, making it one of the first geocoins that one can buy, release, and track online without minting an exclusive personal design. The proposed 2002 design was never made.[17]
• 2005: Geocaching.com permitted any geocaching.com user to purchase tracking numbers for approved designs, fueling a sudden surge in number of coins. Minimum purchase was initially set at 1000 tracking numbers.
• Fall 2006: Groundspeak reduced the minimum purchase of tracking numbers, and the minimum number of coins minted to obtain a unique icon, to 250. The drop in the cost to create a geocoin with a unique icon fueled a 'geocoin craze' with hundreds of new personal, group and increasingly purely commercial designs minted.[18]
• February 17, 2007: The First Annual Geocoinfest was held in Temecula, California, USA. This event brought hundreds of geocoin collectors together for the first time in a mass event, with many exclusive coins being given away or traded.[19]
• Fall 2007: Geokrety.org[8] began a free tracking service, Geokrety, for coins and other items, with full support for geocaching sites such as Opencaching.us[9] and partial support for other geocaching sites.
• March 4, 2009: Geocaching.com further reduced the minimum number of codes for purchase to 50, and the minimum number of coins eligible for a custom icon to 50.[20]

Notable Geocoins

The second largest geocoin in the world

• First Geocoin: Moun10Bike Coin, September 30, 2001
• First Geocoin for sale to public: Canada Geocoin Spring 2002
• Largest Geocoin (production run): Generic Coin Ø5" (~120mm)
• Smallest Geocoin (production run, trackable): Europe Nano, 2009, Ø0.5" (~12mm), 1mm thick
• Largest Single Coin (not a production run, trackable): It was handcrafted for the 2011 Geocaching mega event Geofarm in Switzerland. It weighs about 25.9 kilograms (57 lb) with a height of 104 centimetres (41 in) and a width of 110 centimetres (43 in). This giga coin was built after the official event geocoin featuring the event's mascot cow. The coin was auctioned on said event and is now in the hands of a geocacher in Switzerland.
• Second Largest Single Coin (not a production run): It was handcrafted for the Geocaching event "Nordseetaufe 2010" in Germany. It weighs about 40 kilograms (88 lb) with a height of 97 centimetres (38 in) and a width of 62 centimetres (24 in). This macrocoin was built after the official event geocoin that has the shape of an anchor with a red and white rope. However it was not a run of a specific coins, but a coin that was made to resemble the coins that were made. It later had a coin number assigned to it. It remains the heaviest geocoin.

• Geocaching
• Geokrety
• Travel Bug
• Where's George

• Marsh, Terry (2011-05-15). Geocaching in the UK. Cicerone Press Limited. ISBN 978-1-85284-609-1.
• Hinch, Stephen W. (2010-11-01). Outdoor Navigation with GPS. Wilderness Press. ISBN 978-0-89997-650-1.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geocoins.

• Geocoins Information Page from Geocaching.com listing trackable geocoins
• log4.us Oregon State coin and others
• Geocoin Gallery Large geocoin picture database. Formerly geocoincollection.com