Our Traveling Coins Database

Did scanning a QR code on a wooden coin bring you here? Log your find here!

This is my version of Cruising Ducks, because I was tired of the manual processing with cruising ducks, not to mention carrying a bunch (flock) of rubber ducks around on cruise ships. Besides, I wanted something that could travel anywhere. So, yes, I know there are geocoins out there, but this is mine.

Cruising Ducks started on Facebook - there are any number of rival groups now - and they all have the same premise - people leave a rubber duck on a cruise ship somewhere and someone else finds it and "logs the find" somehow. (Think geocaching for someone who didn't know geocaching existed.) Then, the finder keeps the duck or hide it somewhere else. In the most exciting world for someone hiding ducks, the duck would go home with someone and then get hidden on another ship on the new owner's next cruise.

Each group has a "standard" log file you can use to track duck travels. However, all of the logs are all paper-based, which is fine, but there is no way I can create a form small enough to be attached to a small rubber duck and also contain more than a couple of log entries.

First, I just added a custom email address to the tag on our first batch - ducks@gilhooly.org - and had one nice conversation with a woman who found one of our ducks and was going to take it on another cruise, but then we lost touch.

This is the next step. I assumed that anyone that had known about any of the Facebook groups had enough technology knowledge to recognize a QR code and know what to do with it. (We will see.)