If your pockets jingle with Geocoins, your Saturday night is spent cleaning and collating your immaculate Geocoin collection or you just want to be wowed by a wonder of the geocaching world – take a look to your left.
What you behold is touted as the world’s largest Geocoin. Geocacher Louis Cifer and a team of others created the handcrafted 40 kilogram (88 lb), 97 cm (38 inch) Geocoin.
Geocoins are traditionally no larger than an U.S. silver dollar or a 1 Euro coin (see the photo to your right).
A Geocoin is a special trackable coin created by geocachers as a kind of signature item or calling card. The shape of coins varies from round to square even interconnected hoops or unique forms like miniature swords.
According to Louis, the hefty anchor Geocoin was created to be an unforgettable gift. He says a group of friends hoped that it would show their appreciation to the host of a geocaching event.
Geocacher AlexSchweigert organizes “Nordseetaufe 2010” (North Sea Baptism 2010). The official event Geocoin for “Nordseetaufe” was a much smaller anchor.
Louis and friends took the event coin theme and super-sized it. A 80-year-old anchor was purchased, sand blasted and painted gold.
They then welded a plate commemorating Nordseetaufe 2010 to the anchor and added the unique tracking code.
AlexSchweigert was presented with the massive Geocoin, named “Der Dicke” (The Big or The Heavy) on October 23rd.
Louis says, “It was a huge surprise for AlexSchweigert and he was very impressed.”
Louis says the Geocoin, which weighs about as much as the average 12-year-old boy, even had a Twitter account. Geocachers Tweeted mysterious updates about the coin before it was unveiled. “Der Dicke” is listed as the “world’s largest geocoin” on the German language geocoin Wikipedia page.
Geocachers in Germany have been discovering “Der Dicke” at events since mid-October. But now the Geocoin has a permanent location in the hometown of its owner, AlexSchweigert. If you see “Der Dicke” in person, you can log the Geocoin as “discovered.”
To do that, you’ll have to travel to the anchor’s new location outside of Hamburg, Germany. “Der Dicke” should be easy to find; right now it’s located at a geocache, also called, “Der Dicke.”
