What is a Travel Bug?
A Travel Bug is a Trackable that moves from place to place, picking up stories along the way. Travel Bugs are a registered trademark of Groundspeak, Inc. used to describe a dogtag used in Geocaching. A travelbug is moved from cache to cache, and its travels are logged on the geocaching website (www.geocaching.com) by the geocacher who moves the Travel Bug. Each travel bug tag is printed with a unique PIN, which is needed to post a log online. Some tags are fastened to an object, such as a plastic figurine, before they are put in a cache. By attaching the Travel Bug to a small item it can make it more interesting for the finder. You can create a theme for example so if your favourite sport is football you could attach a small football keyring to the Travel Bug. If you want your Travel Bug to have a particular mission e.g to travel to France, you could attach something connected with France.
Travel bugs are tracked on the Groundspeak-owned website Geocaching.com, but there are a number of other tracking sites such as Geotag Tracker or Traveler Tags that log other trackable items.
Some travel bugs have goals to travel to a specific cache, location or a certain type of location. Other travel bugs simply have the goal of traveling as far and widely as possible. Similar to a travel bug, a geocoin is a coin printed with a tracking number, to allow its movement to be logged online.
Most travel bugs consist of a “bug” (which could be just about anything pocket-sized) with a metal plate attached by a small chain. The plate has the PIN on it.
Unlike Geocoins, which for the most part have separate icons to reflect the different styles and series of coin, travel bugs are normally represented by a generic travel bug icon (though the attached items are unique, the travel bug dog tags are all nearly identical in appearance).
Promotional Travel Bugs
Jeep travel bugs
As of 2007, Groundspeak has created five different series of promotional travel bugs, each with a unique icon.
Each year from 2004 to 2007, Jeep has sponsored a contest, the Jeep 4X4 Geocaching Challenge, featuring a different series of special Jeep travel bugs. The travel bugs are released throughout the United States with no specific mission in mind, but every finder is entered into a drawing for a new Jeep and other prizes. There is a separate contest for photo entries for each Jeep travel bug series. In 2004, five thousand yellow Jeep Wrangler travel bugs were released, followed by five thousand white Jeep Wrangler Rubicon travel bugs in 2005, six thousand green Jeep Rescue concept vehicle travel bugs in 2006, and eight thousand red Jeep Commander travel bugs in 2007. Each year, the Jeep travel bugs have followed a different naming convention. The first series of yellow Jeeps were simply numbered, and the 2005 white Jeeps were given first names . 2006 Jeeps were named after different peaks in the United States, and 2007 Jeeps were named after different rivers in the United States.
In late 2006, to promote diabetes awareness and to gather support for a United Nations resolution, the International Diabetes Federation disseminated 20,000 “Unite for Diabetes” travel bugs to be released by volunteers throughout the world. Unlike the Jeep travel bugs, each Unite for Diabetes travel bug has a specific mission. Every individual bug is assigned to one of 20,000 target cities around the world. The Travel Bug’s mission is to travel to, then around, its target city, collecting geocaching logs and photos along the way. Like the Jeep series, the Unite for Diabetes series is tied to a contest
What is a Geocoin?
Collectible Geocoins come in all shapes and sizes, and can be tracked in the same way as Travel Bugs.
A geocoin is a metal or wooden coin minted in similar fashion to a medallion, token coin, military challenge coin for use in geocaching. Most geocoins are trackable on the internet using a serial number and website address engraved on the coin.
Personal geocoins are a personal signature item bearing the geocacher’s personal design, similar to a heraldic device. Geocoins are often minted by caching organizations and as fund-raisers for geocaching events.
Geocoins with tracking numbers that have been registered on their associated websites are said to be “activated”, whereas geocoins that are still unregistered are termed “unactivated”. Activated geocoins that have been left in a cache are meant to be moved from cache to cache like a Travel Bug, whereas unactivated geocoins may be placed in geocaches to be found by others and kept as trophies. Unactivated coins may be also traded or given to other cachers like a calling card, as prizes, as awards, or merely sold and collected.
