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Kraków Geocoin


Murazor

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A new geocoin is just around the corner: one intended to spread wide the glory of the city of Kraków.

 

The coin concept was formed in my mind about a year ago, and I knew that there was one designer who was ideal for making my vision real: CW88 – Christopher Waddell, the author of many fantastic coins including Egyptian Scarabs, Global Nomads, and Mehndi Mandalas to name a few. And fortunately Christopher agreed to do the job.

 

The creation of the concept art and making it to be a blueprint took quite long time, but it was surely worth it. In meantime the project was consulted with another world-class geocoin maker (about whom I don’t know if he wishes to be named, so I don’t do it, but he of course may disclose himself if he wants). And finally a few days ago the samples arrived! There still will be a few slight last minute changes to the enameling, but the general look is fixed now.

 

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The theme of the coin is Kraków (transcribed in English either as Cracow or Krakow). It is the second biggest Polish city, the former royal capital of Poland. Nowadays it holds the strongest geocaching community in our country. The 3D high-relief coin obverse depictures the perspective view of the spire of the St. Mary Church tower, the most prominent Kraków landmark. The 2D reverse contains several motives characteristic to the city.

 

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This coin will be big and heavy! The dimensions are: 2.5 inch high, 2 inch wide, up to 10 millimeter deep.

 

There will be four basic versions available for purchase:

Antique Gold LE “Day”

Black Nickel / Shiny Gold LE “Night”

Satin Silver XLE “Winter”

Satin Gold XLE ”Summer”

 

There will be also other special versions including the Artist Edition.

 

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Both of my parents immigrated from Poland, my mother had been back several times after dad passed away once was to bring my Bubcia (grandmother) over to visit and stay for a few years until she wished to return in her final years. I'd love to get a set honouring them and my heritage.

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There will probably be pre - orders but not earlier that when the retail prices are known.

 

A na polskim forum zajawka się jeszcze pojawi, już niedługo.

 

The coin looks great and I am very interested in any coin that Christopher has designed so I guess we will have to wait for awhile till we can pre-order a full set :(

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GORGEOUS coin! Please put me in for a set, too! Will you post here when the pre-order time comes?

 

Yes, it will be announced here when the coin is available for orders. But it will take some time until this happens... The most probable time is late Summer or early Autumn.

 

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It's a good time to write more about the Kraków Geocoin. First, about the design:

 

The obverse, as I've said before is based on the "flaming Gothic" spire of the tower of St. Mary Basilica in Kraków. The church has two unequal towers and the higher one does not technically belong to the church but to the city. It was used as the city watchtower. A watchmen was looking from there for fire or enemies. Nowadays an honor fireman guard sits there all the time and plays a bugle call every hour night and day.

 

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The reverse shows a few motives characteristic to Kraków. You can see:

  • The monogram of the king Casimir the Great - the crowned letter K that could be also read as R "Kazimirus Rex".
  • The "obwarzanek" cake. A relative to the German "Pretzel".
  • The Wawel Dragon - legends say that a dragon once lived in the cave beneath the Wawel Castle. The dragon wears a four-corner red cap with a peacock feather - which is characteristic to the region.
  • Lajkonik. In 12th century during the Mongol invasions on Europe local rafters ambushed a Mongol leader and took his horse and clothes to the town. The yearly Lajkonik parade commemorates it.
  • A trumpet - it sounds from the tower every full hour.

 

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Edited by Murazor
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The second part of additional information about the Kraków geocoin:

 

1) The set will contain four versions:

  • "Day" LE: Antique Gold finish, translucent red background, white and blue lettering.
  • "Night" LE: Two tone Black Nickel / Polished Gold finish, translucent black background, white glowing lettering.
  • "Winter" XLE: Satin Silver finish, silver glitter background, translucent blue lettering.
  • "Summer" XLE: Satin Gold finish, blue pearl background, gold glitter lettering.

2) The dimensions of the coins are: 64mm tall, 52mm wide, 10mm deep at the base, 5mm deep at the top of the spire. The weight is 60g. The coin stands firmly upright without an external help when put on a flat surface.

 

3) There will be a short pre-sale for these sets announced here on this forum. It will take place late summer or early autumn. Stay tuned... After the pre-sale period and after the premiere event that will take place in Kraków, Poland the remaining coins will be available for individual purchase. Note that in principle it may happen that all the XLE-s are sold in sets and thus not available individually. The price is not determined yet but it probably will fit in the 20-25 Euro apiece range.

 

4) There will be also the Artist Edition - Antique Silver with glowing reverse. Coins from that edition will be available only from CW88 probably in October. CW88 will also have a few coins from other editions for sale, but not too many of them; yet it will be the second chance to obtain these coins.

 

5) All the editions are declared limited, there will be no remint. AE may be the only exception, it is up to CW88, but normally he does not make remints of AE-s. (It is possible however that the second run could be made containing a few different versions. But I won't bet for that personally.) The mintages of the most common LE-s will be 70.

 

6) All the versions will be trackable at geocaching.com with their own icon 23j670h.gif and "CW" prefix - the hallmark of the artist.

Edited by Murazor
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Sooo .. we can buy a full set ... which will not be a 'full set' right from the start ... <_<

What does that mean?

 

My bad ... I misread what Murazor posted. The 'full sets' can be pre-ordered, and then the Day and Night single coins a few weeks later.

 

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Edited by nevadanick
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You can preorder a full set of all four coins next week. If you just want a single coin you have to wait one more week.

 

Too bad... The Day and Night LE coins I'm looking for are limited to 70 per coin. 45 of them are sold exclusive in Poland so there are only 35 of each left. From these 35 you have to subtract the coins reserved for those who were involved in the making of the coins (these details were stated in the polish forum). I guess there will be less than 30 left for the rest of the world. The first coins will be sold as full sets (4 coins) and the rest (single coins) one week later.

 

Unfortunately I can't afford a full set and just wanted to buy the Day and Night version but I guess there won't be much of them left... :(

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A few clarifications:

 

Yes, international pre-orders for sets will start next week. The set contains four coins. There are versions however, that are: "artist edition" and "trade only version" and they are not included in the set. The artist edition will be available from CW88 only and the trade only edition is, well, trade only - not for sale.

 

After the pre-sale there will be introductory event held in Kraków. And after that event the normal sale of single coins will start. For sure "Night" and "Day" will be available then individually. "Summer" and "Winter" may be available if they are not already sold within sets.

 

The mintages of the LE-s are 70 each. The mintages of XLE-s are 48 each. A number of coins is reserved for Polish geocachers, indeed. But this reservation is valid only until the international pre-sale starts. If some sets or individual coins are not bought by local cachers, they will be available internationally. The coins belong to a higher price shelf, and there are not too many geocoin collectors in Poland, so I doubt that all the "reserved" ones would actually be bought by the local community.

 

Note also that a few more coins belonging to various versions would be also available in the CW88 web shop - probably in about a month. There won't be many of them however.

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I am proud to announce the beginning of the international pre-sale of the Kraków Geocoin. The mintage run has been finished and the coins arrived safely to the city they are about. The design and production work took over one year, but it was well worth it. The official inauguration event will take place in Kraków on Friday Oct. 10th. But there is a possibility to book a set of these coins just now.

 

The set contains four coins: “Day” Antique Gold LE; “Night” two tone Black Nickel / Polished Gold LE; “Winter” Satin Silver XLE; and “Summer” Satin Gold XLE. The set price is 99 Euro. It includes worldwide shipping and it may be paid via PayPal or via bank transfer.

 

In order to book a set you should contact the geocacher nicknamed semaprint: http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=semaprint

(don’t contact me, all I can do is redirecting you to semaprint).

 

A few notices:

 

* All the coins are trackable on GC with individual numbers, own icon (one for the whole run, already set up) and the ”CW” prefix. There are no official proxy tags for these coins.

 

* The dimensions of the coins are: 64mm high, 52mm wide, up to 10mm thick. The weight is 60g. The coins are individually packed in dedicated pouches made of synthetic velvet with silver inscription.

 

* It is not possible to buy individual coins during the pre-sale. It is for sets only.

 

* The pre-sale lasts until 2014-10-10 0:00 GMT (or up to the moment when all the sets are sold – whichever comes first).

 

Reaching this point I would like to thank all the people who made my dream of making this coin come true: first of all CW88 – the artist, and semaprint – my business partner. And all those who I consulted the project with during the creation process.

 

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All right! The pre-sale is over, the premiere event took place last Friday. The reception of the geocoins was highly positive: quite a few people decided to buy the coins on the event after seeing them in real. Now there's time for the "standard" international sale. The sets are mostly sold out, there may be one more remaining (if semaprint hasn't sold it already) if it still is available, the standard sale price for it is 105 Euro including worldwide shipping.

 

But the most important thing is that the "Night" (black nickel) and "Day" (antique gold) versions may be bought individually now. There are still a few of each of them remaining in stock. The price of one coin is 25 Euro plus 5 Euro for international shipping of up to four coins. It may be paid through bank transfer or PayPal. As previously - if you are interested, please contact semaprint directly via his profile http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?u=semaprint (don't contact me about it).

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A few final remarks:

 

  • You can see all the versions of the Kraków Geocoin along with their descriptions, photos and other data here - this is my author's set.
     
  • There are still a few coins from both LE70-s: "Night" and "Day" to buy from Semaprint. The four-coin sets are gone - sold out!
     
  • The antique silver AE's will be for sale in the web shop of CW88 - hopefully in a few weeks. Very limited quantities of LE-s and XLE-s will also be sold by CW88, but I don't know whether he will sell them openly or using private channels only.
     
  • I have a few antique copper XXLE-s "New Roof" for trade - I can trade them for other rarities I desire.
     
  • I have also one Antique Bronze ULE "Team" edition for trade. (Currently I know about only one coin I'd surely trade it for in fact. But maybe there are more.)
     

 

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There is a unique opportunity to buy two versions of the Kraków geocoin that are normally not offered for sale.

 

CW88 has put a single New Roof XXLE 20 (antique copper) and a single Team Edition ULE 9 (antique bronze) for sale on the e-place.

 

Well, taking into account that I am not intending to sell my copies of these versions and my "trade wants list" is very short, these auctions may be the only chance to get them for a long time. Good luck!

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