KC0GRN's Experience Minnesota Geocoin (LE Copper/Sage Green)

Part of my Collection.

This is one of the rarer editions. I believe it's Centris' favorite edition of the coin. For historical purposes, here's Centris' explanation of the Experience Minnesota geocoin. I thought it was a great explanation of the project and the design.

Experience Minnesota Geocoins:
From Centris:
Brief history of the "Experience Minnesota" geocoin

I've been working on those coins since March and it feels really great to see them finally come to reality.
I had originally planned to release them on the anniversary of the first Minnesota Cache Bash (an event that started the friendships/relationships that would become the first Minnesota caching group), but the KB event thing came up and we started working on his coin so my timeline changed so that coin could be released first.

I jokingly once posted here that I was going to have gold, diamond encrusted trackable geocoins made for all the pre-mngca "old timers" and original board members. Then somebody took me seriously and messaged me and asked when was I going to do that. So just for fun, while I was waiting for thing2 to get out of his scout meeting one day, I made a coin design that had a night scene with little stars on it. I submitted the design to a coin company and asked if there was any way to get rhinestones on the stars and make a coin out of it..... well there was, but it was very expensive. The original coin order was for 20 coins only and the cost per coin was over $23 each (no kidding).

Well one thing led to another, the coin manufacturer convinced me to make a larger edition so I changed the shape and the design on the back a bit, settled for the big dipper/north star and the yellow enamel instead of bling, and now here I am with a whole box full of coins. They turned out nice -- I added several manufacturing upgrades to them. I'm very pleased.

This was just a fun project for me. The look on the front is a tribute to the organization we had before MNGCA. Joel provided the front graphic and I modified it just a bit plus changed the colors to the regular gc.com colors.

The back is intended to be a night scene... it reminds me how much I love to sit and look at the night sky away from the city lights. The other graphics are in memory of a special time I had out camping with my husband once. A really happy and peaceful evening out in the Minnesota woods. The graphics are sparce, not much detail, but all I wanted was to try to convey that feeling of spending the day hiking and exploring then ending with a quiet starry night.

I also got special permission from groundspeak to use the CITO logo on the back of the coin because of my ongoing CITO cache here in MN.
These coins have nothing to do with the MNGCA or GEM or any other geocaching group -- they are a personal project that I did just for fun. Mostly because of some fond memories I have of caching with some long time friends and some happy times here in Minnesota.

Also don't freak out when you see the price of the EM coin... they cost me significantly more to make than the KB coins did, mostly due to the unique shape and size and the upgraded finishing features.
I have worked the figures out in excel over and over to determine where my break even point is for both coins. They are both priced accordingly.