This geocoin brings together three of my hobbies: Geocaching (obviously), coin collecting (not so obvious, as you'll see in a second), and mountain biking.

I started mountain biking in 1996. The image on the coin is a re-creation of an actual event. That's me in my first season at Three Stage in Pretty River Park, near Collingwood, Ontario. Actually, I am about to end my first season. The time is the Fall, and the steep downhill trail is wet clay. Slippery, slimy, "elephant snot" clay. I am out of control, with no brakes, and thinking that I should crash soon. The thought is that if I go down on purpose in the right spot, it'll be okay. Before I can choose the right spot, the wrong spot chooses me. My front tire slides off the trail, into a rock, and I do my first major endo. Flipped over the handlebars, I land on a pile of rocks. Hard. So when you look at that image on the coin, that's what it is all about. (The bruising on my body caused my normally mild-mannered doctor to swear in amazement.)

The backside of the coin utilizes a 3-D die to get a nice effect on the cassette. You may notice that it is a 7-speed cassette. It is 1996, after all! I made the coin 4mm thick to achieve the effect of a bicycle wheel.

The other hobby is coin collecting. That hobby goes way back to my high school days. After a long hiatus, I took it up again around the turn of the century. I have two main collections. The first is Canadian colonial tokens, which are a plethora of coins issued in the Canadian colonies between 1812 and 1860 when Britain failed to provide coinage for commerce. The other collection is world coins after 1900 with animals on them. For that, I have started up a coin zoo. You can see it HERE.

TRADING: I am looking to trade other geocachers for their personal geocoins. My first priority will go to cachers with their own coins. If you don't have a geocoin of your own, please don't fret. I do maintain a wish list HERE, and there are many personal coins on there. However, I will have to wait a bit to give those cachers a chance to contact me first. Even if a personal coin is not on my list, I am open to suggestions. Be sure to check my "Got It" list on geocoincollection.com (same link as the wish list above), since it is more up to date than the collection here on my site (I'm a little behind).

I look forward to doing some trades!

- Danoshimano

SPECIFICATIONS

Size: 42mm x 4mm thick
Weight: 44g
Material: Copper base with antique silver and black nickel plating
Obverse: 7-colour enamel
Reverse: 3D die
Sequentially numbered 001 to 150