Do I Activate My New Coins?

[+ctgreybeard]

Having just started geocaching myself (my son has been active for a while) I am intrigued by travel bugs and, now, geocoins. I've just started with this so I need a little advice.

 

Clearly, if I intend to send my coins on their way via a cache I will want to activate those coins. But I can also see the fun in collecting and trading these coins and, clearly, there is a large group of people doing just that.

 

Is there any benefit to activating (or not, as the case may be) coins that you intend to collect and trade and not drop into a cache?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Bill W

[Jake - Team A.I.]

Having just started geocaching myself (my son has been active for a while) I am intrigued by travel bugs and, now, geocoins. I've just started with this so I need a little advice.

 

Clearly, if I intend to send my coins on their way via a cache I will want to activate those coins. But I can also see the fun in collecting and trading these coins and, clearly, there is a large group of people doing just that.

 

Is there any benefit to activating (or not, as the case may be) coins that you intend to collect and trade and not drop into a cache?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Bill W

 

Activating the coin will put an icon (for most trackable coins) under your list of owned trackables. A lot of collectors now are looking to add the icon to their list, but I haven't registered my newer coins for about two or three months now. I have no intention of trading them later, although that is a possiblility. I simply just haven't been motivated to do so. There are several placed to see the list of icons, the Icon Sockpuppet, is a good place to find them. My reference page has a number of other location.

 

If you ever plan to trade the coin, it is easier to leave it unregistered.

 

Any coins that I have placed in caches since my first coin I released, have all been unregistered. Since they tend to end up in collections, I've left it up to the finder to decide if they want to keep it or have it travel. I would suggest defacing or drilling a hole in the coin in a fashion that would make it undesirable for collectors... but this is still not a garrentee.

[+ctgreybeard]

I would suggest defacing or drilling a hole in the coin in a fashion that would make it undesirable for collectors... but this is still not a garrentee.

Wow! I never thought of that! You're saying, I think, that even if I intend my coin to go traipsing across the world some collector could choose to hang on to it. Unless I try to make it undesireable ... well, I'll have to consider that, I guess.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

Bill

[+ajayhawkfan]

I activate all of my coins because I don't sell them. I minted them to be placed in caches and I want to track where they go. Most end up being collected but that is ok, they end up going to events.

 

The coins I have traded are activated also for the same reason, I want to know where they go.

[+JMBIndy]

 

Is there any benefit to activating (or not, as the case may be) coins that you intend to collect and trade and not drop into a cache?

 

I've recently started with geocoins and have wondered the same as you. The only reason I can see not to activate them, as previously stated, is for trading. If I traded with someone else, I'd prefer to receive an unactivated coin.

[+islander1988]

I tend to keep one of anything I buy, so I activate it for my stats page and to trade numbers with others at events. But if I order duplicates I leave those unactivated since I'll probably eventually sell/trade them, and as stated people prefer to get unactivated coins.

 

It's sort of like the age old question, do you take your action figure off the cardboard & play with it, or leave it in the package so it'll be worth more. []

[+carleenp]

With very few exceptions, I don't activate my keeper coins because I want to use the icons to best keep track of coins I actually move through caching. If I activate my keepers, then it will be hard to use the icons for that purpose. Plus I am lazy.....