Signature Item -- Old Mexican Pesos

Last year when we were pretty strong in our caching, I thought it would be a good idea to explore some potential "signature items" to make our own. Due to size and durability, I really wanted something like a coin, but coins are costly and can't usually be obtained in super-large numbers.. that is, until I stumbled across a coin shop in Thousand Oaks with a bag full of Mexican Pesos.

The old Mexican Peso had been dumped in favor of a new denomination, and the old Peso remained at the value of .001 of a U.S. dollar. That's a pretty poor exchange rate, so (if you could find a batch) they remained extremely cheap. The story goes that the Peso's exchange rate had dropped to a point so low that Americans were actually purchasing Mexican coin Pesos and melting them down for their metals.. the last thing you want as a government is a currency worth more in raw materials than its stated value!

At any rate, we purchased a ton of these from a local coin collector. They worked out perfectly because our geocaching name is a nod to California's rich Spanish heritage, so it only makes sense that our signature item would be of Spanish/Mexican theme.

Here's a rather poor-quality photo of a few:


So if you see an old Mexican Peso in your SoCal caching, check the log. It's very likely that Team Trace Amigos has visited your cache!