Geocaching souvenirs, badges, and trackable icons
Do you know the difference between geocaching souvenirs, badges, and icons? They’re all virtual pieces of art for geocachers to earn, collect, and show off. However, each serves a different purpose in different parts of your Geocaching profile.
- Souvenirs — where or when you cache
- Badges — what you accomplish
- Icons — trackables you move or discover
Let’s break it down.
Souvenirs — where or when you cache
Souvenirs are similar to stickers on a suitcase when traveling around the world. They’re generally awarded for caching in a particular location or on a particular date.
Location: If you find a geocache or attend an event in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, you will receive the Alberta province and Canada country souvenir.
Date: If you log a geocache or attend an event on a special day, such as International Geocaching Day, you will receive the International Geocaching Day souvenir.
Some souvenirs are awarded for logging a particular cache type during a specific time period. For example, you may earn a souvenir for attending or hosting a Geocaching International Film Festival event during GIFF week. However, if you log a Mystery Cache during that time, you will increase your find count, but you will not earn a GIFF souvenir.
Badges — what you accomplish
Badges are associated with statistics or completing specific tasks such as:
- Number of consecutive finds (365 in one year)
- Milestones (finding 500 geocaches)
- Number of caches owned (10 caches)
- Number of trackables moved/discovered
Badges are manually added to a geocacher’s profile page with HTML code provided by third-party sites such as Project-GC.com or BadgeGen.com. Occasionally, badges are awarded by Geocaching.com, such as the case of the Haunted Hides badge.
Here are examples of badges from BadgeGen:
Icons — trackables you move or discover
Icons are associated with trackable items.
- Generic icons display for most trackable items.
- Promotional icons are created in collaboration with other companies or organizations such as Magic: The Gathering, Michelin, or Jeep®.
- Customized icons are created when individuals or organizations order large/bulk quantities of icons.
Whatever your geocaching style, earning and displaying souvenirs, badges, and icons adds an additional layer of fun and motivation for geocaches. How do you show off your geo-accomplishments?
