Dudley's Self Family Free State Coin

Please just keep moving and not retire for quite a long time. Currently, I'd like to see it get to Oberon, New South Wales where it could hopefully be found by JABs. Once it is finished with Australia, I would like to see it make it's way to South Africa to be found by CarbonHunter and then to South America. Eventually, if it makes its way back to North America, I'd probably make a trip to collect it and bring it home.

I'm a life long Free State native and so it's natural that my first geocoin would be a Maryland one. Purchased from DancingFool at Maryland Geocaching Society 2006 Eastern Shore Meet and Greet at Tuckahoe State Park.

From Marlyand on Wikipedia:
Maryland is a Mid-Atlantic / Southern state located on the East Coast of the United States. According to the most recent information provided by the 2005 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau, the State of Maryland is the second wealthiest state in the United States, with a median household income of $61,592.

Maryland is classified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a South-Atlantic state. It is also commonly referred to as a Mid Atlantic state. It was the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution, and is nicknamed the Old Line State and the Free State. Its history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and Southern regions of the United States. As a general rule, the rural areas of Maryland are more Southern in culture while densely populated Central Maryland exhibits more Northern characteristics.

Maryland is a life sciences hub with over 350 biotechnology firms, making it third-largest such cluster in the nation. Institutions and agencies located throughout Maryland include University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, UMBC, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

From Maryland Flag on Wikipedia:
The black and gold design on the flag is that of the Calvert family. It was given to Calvert as a result of storming a fortification in battle (the vertical bars approximate the bars of the palisade). The red and white design is that of the Crossland family, the family of Calvert's mother, and features a cross bottony. George Calvert adopted a coat of arms that included a shield with alternating quadrants featuring both the colors of his paternal family (in the 1st and 4th quarters) and of his maternal family (in the 2nd and 3rd quarters).

The Maryland colony was founded by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, hence the use of his family's coat of arms in the flag. Initially, only the gold and black design was associated with Maryland. The red and white Crossland design gained popularity during the American Civil War, in which Maryland remained with the Union despite popular support for the Confederacy. Those Marylanders who supported secession (many of whom fought in the Army of Northern Virginia) were reluctant to use (and to fight under) the banner that was associated with a state which, grudgingly or not, remained with the Union; they adopted the Crossland banner, which had the benefit of being red and white (seen as "secession colors").

After the war, Marylanders who had fought on both sides of the conflict returned to their state in need of reconciliation. The present design, which incorporated both symbols, began appearing. It was flown October 11, 1880, in Baltimore, Maryland at a parade marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of Baltimore. It also was flown October 25, 1888, at the Gettysburg Battlefield for ceremonies dedicating monuments to Maryland regiments of the Army of the Potomac. Officially, it was adopted as the State flag in 1904 (Chapter 48, Acts of 1904, effective March 9, 1904). In 1945, the legislature made a gold cross bottony the official ornament for a flagstaff carrying the Maryland flag.

Countries visited: USA, Singapore, Thailand, Czech Republic (not placed in a cache), Austria, Slovakia, Jordan, Malaysia, Austrailia, Ireland, the UK, Portugal, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Poland.




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