Pathtags - Small Collectible Pieces of Art Within the Geocaching Community

Pathtags are small collectible tokens, most commonly used within the sport of Geocaching. Pathtags.com is the business website that not only allows customers to design their own custom pathtags but also gives customers the ability to trade these tokens, or commonly referred to as "tags", throughout the world.

Pathtags are metal coins slightly smaller then a quarter. The base of the metal tag is iron which then can be plated in either silver, gold, black nickel, or copper. Each tag has a small hole in it, which pathtags.com promotes this as a handy display feature to allow the owners to display on peg boards, key chains, etc. My personal favorite feature of the tags is that since the base is iron, the tags are attracted to magnets. This magnetism opens up tons of more possibilities for owners to display their pathtags.

Customers create pathtags for a variety of reasons. The most common reason a customer creates a tag is to create a personal swag item to place in caches within the Geocaching sport. If you aren't familiar with geocaching, a quick summary is a treasure hunting game where participants use GPS devices to find hidden caches in various public places. These caches sometimes contain small trinkets or swag that players will swap out with other trinkets or swag. Tags are also created by various organizations as promotional items or created by customers simply to trade with other pathtag collectors.

Pathtags may not be an entirely original concept since pathtags are very similar to tokens used throughout the decades as trolley tokens, railway fare tokens, bus tokens, etc. What makes pathtags unique and very collectible is the database maintained at pathtags.com and the ability for customers to create their own designs. The pathtag database lists the majority of pathtags made since 2006 and with over 10,000 designs made in the last five years, that is a lot of tags to trade and collect.

Registration with pathtags.com is free. The registration allows customers to track any pathtags they find in geocaches or pathtags they have traded trade for. Each pathtag design has a serial number associated with the tag. The number is stamped on the back of the tag and is used when logging the tag into a customer's account. The free registration also gives the user the ability to offer trades to other members of the pathtag community.

For customers who want to design their own pathtag, the process is relatively inexpensive. For less then $2.00 a tag, a customer can create a collectible tag. Pathtags.com requires a minimum order of fifty tags with the prices getting slightly cheaper with the more tags you order per design. The company also retains the design for three years so a customer can always come back and re-order if he or she wants more of the same design. In my opinion, the price is extremely reasonable for the ability to create a little piece of collectible art.

In summary, pathtags.com is an aesthetic appealing website that allows pathtag collectors to connect with other collectors throughout the world with a trading database and a community forum. If you have one collecting bone in your body, check out the website but be warned, the small shiny pieces of metal can be highly addicting.