I aggressively collected geocoins from May 2006 through to the end of 2008. Presented here are 986 of the approximately 1,040 geocoins I acquired during the frenzy.

Four Spirit - Black Tortoise

Four Spirit - Black Tortoise

BLACK TORTOISE: NORTH -  WINTER - WATER

When sssooocool announced these pottery geocoins on the forums, many balked at the price, but I jumped right on board. They are beautiful, and at the end of the day didn't cost much more than a standard geocoin. These geocoins start as hand-carved plaster casts from which they are moulded and fired in a high-temperature kiln. Each one is finished by hand buffing. Check out the gallery below to get an idea of what went into their production.

The geocoins' icon is the Chinese character for "spirit" and is made up of three other characters: The upper part is the word "rain", the bottom is "sorcerer" and the middle part means "three mouths." That is interesting, indeed!

The four animals in the set each represent a direction, a season, and an element. On the reverse the animals' names appear in Chinese, with the top character being the colour and the bottom the animal name.

It was an exciting day when I received the package from Taiwan containing the geocoin set!

Size: 59 mm | Weight: 43 g

fourspirits.jpg

01 Plaster S
The design is hand engraved on gypsum boards
01 Plaster W
The design is hand engraved on gypsum boards
02 Plaster Mould
Plaster production moulds are created from the artist's engravings
03 Pouring
Pouring slip into a mould
04 In Moulds
Each set of moulds can produce a maximum 20 coins
05 Removing Mould
The semi-dry clay being removed from the mould
06 Trimming
Trimming the clay by hand
07 Sponging
Sponging the clay by hand
08 Engraving
Hand engraving the numbers and lettering on the edge
09 Drying
Coins drying before being fired
10 Before Firing
The dry coins ready for the kiln
11 Kiln
Coins in the kiln
12 Polishing1
The coin is black when it comes out of the kiln
12 Polishing2
All coins are polished by hand to bring out the 3-D detail
13 Set
The completed boxed set

Related Geocoins

Creative Commons License

All geocoin photos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. Attribution is required for personal use. Absolutely NO commercial use allowed!

If you see your coin issue here, I am happy to supply you with any size image you request.

The CLEMENTS Family | Barrie, Ontario CANADA