Ooops. I forgot one! (More merch…)
For the longest time these were “convention-only” goodies. Now, however, Sandra is prepared to ship all kinds of shapes and sizes of things besides just books, so we’re putting the Tagon Logo Pins in the store.
These solid metal pins add a measure of authority to whichever fishing hat, convention vest, or legionnaire sash they may adorn. And we know those particular articles need whatever measure of authority they can get.
Explore posts in the same categories: Merchandise
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
Oooh, this is great news. I bought 3 of these guys at SPX - two for close friends, one for myself. I lost one somewhere in the house, and so have been bereft of Official Tagon’s Toughs icons upon my clothing. But now this sad situation can be fixed! Huzzah!
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Is that a nickel?
Seriously, I’ve never seen a US nickel. Is that it?
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Ryan Dobie: That is a US quarter. The pins have a diameter of 1 1/2 inches (about 4 cm.)
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I am VERY good at overlooking things that are quite obvious, but I cannot locate a link to BUY/price check the pin?
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Here you go, Citizen Mev!
The pins are listed at $5.
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 pm
You know, Mr. Taylor … instead of a pin, I’d pay good money for a Tagon’s Toughs CHALLENGE COIN. ^_^
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Perhaps it might be a good idea to offer a different form of international shipping if the pin is the only thing in the shopping basket. It seems like the shipping costs of something that would fit comfortably in a regular envelope are grossly inflated.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I didn’t poke at the online shop, but US shipping has indeed become grossly inflated. Looking at http://ircalc.usps.gov/ for Japan, the cheapest available method appears to be over $10. Not sure where you live, but I suspect Howard and Sandra are doing the best they can. Are there cheaper options?
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
The problem with offering the envelope is that alot of people automatically choose the cheapest shipping option, even when buying a book or shirt that couldn’t possibly fit. The solution is finding a way for the online store to “tell” when the items in the cart are too large for a certain shipping option, but that is easier said than done.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 pm
The problem with the pin (and the reason we haven’t offered it before now) is that it will not ship flat without damaging SOMETHING else in the package, or itself being damaged when stacked with the rest of the mail.
If you can pack some foam in there with it, then the foam can take the damage, but that precludes using a simple envelope, or even a padded one (which will not protect the pin from bending and crushing.)
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Aaand I’ve updated the blog post with the links to the store. My bad. Sorry!
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
What’s the OE in the product code stand for?
And is the space after the hyphen an accident, or is there some meaning to that as well?
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:54 pm
*sigh* I had such High Hopes for my paycheck this week…
*plots his assault on the Online Store*
I like the Media Mailers anyways…
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 pm
>>Is that a nickel?
>>Seriously, I’ve never seen a US nickel. Is that it
A nickel has the image of Thomas Jefferson. This coin clearly has the image of George Washington. :)
American coins are uniquely screwed up, IMHO. There are 52 different backs for a quarter. There are 4 or 5 for a nickel. A nickel can have two different faces. A nickel and dime both look silver (neither one is.) The nickel is significantly bigger than the dime and worth only half as much. No where on American coins is the denomination of the coin listed in arabic numberals; it’s always words (nickel dime quarter, penny.) There are 3 different types of dollar coins: One is about 2″ in diameter, the others are slightly bigger than a quarter. Of the “quarter” sized coins, one is silver the others are gold. The gold colored ones are all different designs.
At least our paper money isn’t . . . oh wait. Never mind.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:45 am
Actually (and meaning no disrespect to my American friends), once you’ve used Australian notes, American notes are a bit of a let-down.
1) Ours are made of a plastic compound, so they last much longer (and are not damaged by being accidentally washed in your jeans). Yours are paper. Nuff Said.
2) Ours each have their own bright colour, so the denominations can be identified at a distance. Yours are all green.
3) Ours are each a different size, so blind people (and people who are too lazy to look) can know which note is in hand.
4) Ours are worth less than yours, so we can have more of them for the same amount of money.
. . No, wait a minute . . :)
5) We have a Queen, and she’s on the $5 note. So there. :)
3)
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:37 am
Johno: Ours aren’t made of paper. They’re made of linen. Or rather, they’re made in the same way that paper is made, but the fibers are much, MUCH more durable than the fibers used to make paper. Paper wouldn’t survive the wash at all. US money does.
Other than that, you’re right (and European money is the same way): different colors and sizes make it difficult to mix up what you’re counting, spending, etc. American money is moving in that direction, albeit very slowly. The new $10 is a different color than the other bills, for instance.
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:01 am
Sam: The OE stands for Odds & Ends. The space after the hyphen was an error and has been corrected.
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:19 am
@Howard: There’s an error in the link in your blogpost. The + sign should be removed.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Fixed now. Thanks.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
“Johno Says:
1) Ours are made of a plastic compound, so they last much longer (and are not damaged by being accidentally washed in your jeans). Yours are paper. Nuff Said.”
As noted, they’re linen. However, being American, we must misname just about everything, or use anachronistic names.
“2) Ours each have their own bright colour, so the denominations can be identified at a distance. Yours are all green.”
We’re working on that. The latest generation of common bills do have color differences: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/section.cfm/4 Of course, it’s slow going since you have to introduce them slowly, one at a time. You have to remember, this is the same country that refuses to switch to the metric system.
“3) Ours are each a different size, so blind people (and people who are too lazy to look) can know which note is in hand.”
Not working on that one.
…
“5) We have a Queen, and she’s on the $5 note. So there. :)”
For some odd reason, every time we’ve put women on the currency, it was on poorly designed $1 coins that nobody ever used unless forced to.
“rbliss Says:
American coins are uniquely screwed up, IMHO.”
Yup.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Ah, I correct myself on the regards of women on US currency. From the Treasury’s PR site: http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?action=fun_facts8
There have been more. Most are quite rare today, but apparently Helen Keller appears on the Alabama version of the quarter.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
@ rbliss
>>A nickel and dime both look silver (neither one is.)
Nickels look that way, because they are … um … made of nickel. Which has a silver hue.
Dimes *used* to be made of silver, but ten cents of silver nowadays would be so small, a handful of dimes would look like a handful of smalelr-than-usual RICE grains.
>>The nickel is significantly bigger than the dime and worth only half as much.
Again, has to do with the original metals they were made in - nickel for the 5-cent piece, and silver for the 10-cent piece.
>>No where on American coins is the denomination of the coin listed in arabic numberals; it’s always words (nickel dime quarter, penny.)
Actually, for the quarter, “one quarter dollars” *IS* the denomination. That it maps out so easily to 25 cents is pure (happy) coincidence.
The dime, I believe, is a similar case: “Dime” is intended literally as “1/10 of one dollar”. Don’t have one laying about to check at themoment, though.
Pennies actually DO say “ONE CENT” - on the obverse, below the Lincoln Memorial.
Nickels … okay, you got me there, I don’t think they’ve said “5 cents” for a long time, now. And again, I just don’t happen to have one ready to hand, so I can’t check and be sure.
>>There are 3 different types of dollar coins: One is about 2″ in diameter, the others are slightly bigger than a quarter.
The larger one is the old type, which fell into disfavor because it is so large, and in the quantities dollars are spent today, it was an impractical coin. That’s the same reason so few Half-Dollars are minted today … indeed, I can’t be certain they DO still make half-dollars.
The silvery-colored modern Dollar coin, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, was EXACTLY the size of a quarter. And exactly the weight. And the same color, too. A VERY poor attempt to revive the idea of a dollar coin, as it was far too easily mistaken for a quarter.
The newest one, the gold-toned Sacagewea dollar, is an attempt to redress the failings of the Suan B. Anthony coin: it’s sufficiently larger to FEEL like a not-quarter in your hand, it’s a different weight, and a different color. However, it too has fallen into disfavor, this time simply because vending machines - the entire purpose of tryign to re-introduce dollar coinage - are not set up to recognise and accept the Sacagewea dollar, and the owners & manufacturors of those machines are unwilling to spend the very very large sums of money needed to retrofit for that capacity.
>>At least our paper money isn’t . . . oh wait. Never mind.
The American public is being coddled, and slowly _eased_ into the idea of a truly new, revitalised paper currency. The mint believes -probably quite accurately - that if they just jumped straight to a truly new and counterfeit-resistant paper currency … for a time, noone would believe the new bills were *real money*.
Since we have a “fiat” currency, the resulting lack of confidence in the new bills would drastically impact the power of the U.S. Dollar … the result would be horrible inflation, and exchange rates for the Dollar would plummet.
Thus, we are changing by “incremental steps”, no single step being drastic enough a difference to make people do more than “oh would you get a load of what they did THIS time”.
…
…
Sometimes one forgets that most people don’t even know as much as an _amateur_ numismatist like myself. To me, the money we have here in the States makes perfect, logical sense (which is not to say there isn’t room for improvement). But, I have that wee tiny bit of needed extra insight, that renders the “huh?” stuff into “Oh, right!”
^_^
@ Johno:
>> 1) Ours are made of a plastic compound, so they last much longer (and are not damaged by being accidentally washed in your jeans). Yours are paper. Nuff Said.
Linen, actually. And the primary reason to stick with that is … the expense of upgrading. Right now, it costs less to deal with degradation of our linen bills, than it would to convert all our mints over to printing on an alternate medium. There’s also the issue of vending machines … which I am not sure could adapt to a new print medium.
>>2) Ours each have their own bright colour, so the denominations can be identified at a distance. Yours are all green.
As noted, that’s being worked on, in small incremental steps.
>>3) Ours are each a different size, so blind people (and people who are too lazy to look) can know which note is in hand.
This wouldn’t work here - due to those vending machines.
Seriously, how do you handle a machine that takes “paper” bills (wether the “paper” is linen or plastic or whatever), when every denomination is a noticably-different size?
I think I prefer the solution Canada came up with, for their bills: a series of rectangular holes punched into one corner of the bill, in a pattern that specifically denotes the denomination of the bill.
>>4) Ours are worth less than yours, so we can have more of them for the same amount of money.
HEH, but then again, that means you get less per $1 than we do.
>>5) We have a Queen, and she’s on the $5 note. So there. :)
…
…
Okay, you got me there. ^_^
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
@ rbliss:
~ There are indeed three types of US dollar coin readily available and in common circulation, but the 2-incher is not among them. The three are, in fact, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, the Sacajawea Golden dollar, and the new President series dollar, which is the same size as the other two, gold in color, and has the face of one of the presidents past on it. So far, they have, to my knowledge, stamped dollar coins of the first five US presidents, with more to come in the future in the tradition of the US states quarters.
@ Pax:
~ The obverse is the front of the coin. The Lincoln Memorial is actually on the reverse of the penny.
~ The nickel does say “FIVE CENTS” on the reverse.
~ Actually, no, the Susan B. Anthony dollar is larger than the the quarter, but aside from what is stamped on the coin, that was it’s most defining feature. The coin is silver-colored and rifled on the edge like quarters and dimes, but was unpopular because it was not easily enough distinguished from quarters.
~ I deal with many vending machines which do accept dollar coins, whether they are Susan Bs, Sacajeweas, or the new Presidents series. Newer vending machines seem to be made to accept such. I’ve also encountered vending machines that accept credit / debit cards, thus one more tiny step toward the elimination of cash…
___
Back on topic, I wants one of them pins! I trust you’ll have them with you at WorldCon / Denvention, right Howard?
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Here are my personal suggestions.
1) Quit trying to replace small bills with coins. When the song “Putting On The Ritz” was written, it was “white spats, and fifteen dollars”, which was a LOT of money for the time. If someone carried fifteen dollar coins, he (or she) had enough money for a train trip into the major city, a night out with his wife/girlfriend, a night at a fine hotel, dinner, breakfast, and the train ride home, with change to spare. Nowadays, it _might_ buy one person a reasonable meal at most real restaurants.
2) Quit using coins the same size as other coins. Smooth edged, reeded, octagonal, whatever - in someone’s pocket, especially to cold fingers, they’re all the same as a quarter. Period.
3) Replace larger bills with coins. People carry fewer large bills than small bills generally - I know I may have eight ones, three fives, two tens, and a twenty in my wallet. Carrying eight coins vs three coins is a big difference.
4) Make a ten dollar coin out of copper, with a smooth edge, and make it the same size as the old half dollar coins. Make a twenty dollar coin out of bronze, with a reeded edge, the size of an old dollar coin.
5) Quit worrying so damned much about counterfeit money. Yes, it can be a problem, but if the job is good enough, it doesn’t affect the economy. We don’t have a gold or silver standard to worry about ‘debased currency’. (Sweating, drilling, filing, and even rereeding) Catch the buggers, but just take the counterfeit money out of circulation once it hits the big reserve banks. (Unless it’s obvious, of course)
6) Leave the penny alone. It may technically cost more than a penny to make, but what people keep forgetting is that it lasts a LONG time. That “costs two cents to make” is evened out over a twenty to forty year usage.
7) Have the Treasury department hammer the gasoline industry. They’ve been allowed to get away with using a unit of currency that has never been minted, mandated, or allowed - the tenth penny. (We’ve never even used the farthing or ha’penny, let alone a tenthpenny)
Vending machines used to be able to take half dollars. They removed that ability over a decade ago - maybe two. I still carry half dollars when I can; I need to order another $50 or $100 worth of them. I _like_ larger coins. I don’t know that they were ever able to take a dollar coin, however. The only ‘dollar coin capable’ machines I’ve known about were the ones they have since removed from the post offices in favor of the computer systems that aren’t anywhere near as useful to buy postage.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:51 pm
@ Linxan:
*blush* you’re right, I always get Obverse and Reverse backwards when typing/talking, even though I really do *know* which is actually which.
I hadn’t actually heard of the Presidents-series dollar coins; something more for my partner and I to collect, I guess. ^_^
As for the Suzie-B … the size difference was _so_ small as to be all but imperceptible except under close examination. I *know* I’ve accidentally dropped ‘em into machines and had them register as $0.25 pieces before. And I know I’ve gotten them as less-than-a-dollar change from cashiers - once, three Suzies and a dime, for change that was supposed to be $0.85 …!
@ Bookworm:
>> 5) Quit worrying so damned much about counterfeit money. Yes, it
>> can be a problem, but if the job is good enough, it doesn’t affect the
>> economy. We don’t have a gold or silver standard to worry about
>> ‘debased currency’.
The problem is this: our currency is based on people _trusting_ that currency to be worth what it says it’s worth. Counterfeit dollars, since they can be refused at any time, _undermine_ that trust by their very existance and circulation.
Thus, the trust itself, upon which a fiat currency relies, is what gets debased. There were places overseas where U.S. currency, especially $20 and $50 bills, were not being accepted *at all*. No test, no “let’s see if it seems real”, just “we won’t accept those, for any reason”.
That harms the value of the dollar on the International markets, which is thenmirrored by the domestic markets when companies have to raise prices on various finished goods, to reflect the increased cost of buying parts and/or materials from foreign suppliers.
>> 6) Leave the penny alone.
It’s obsolete, and no longer truly necessary.
>> 7) Have the Treasury department hammer the gasoline industry.
>> They’ve been allowed to get away with using a unit of currency
>> that has never been minted, mandated, or allowed - the tenth
>> penny. (We’ve never even used the farthing or ha’penny, let
>> alone a tenthpenny)
There’s nothing illegal about that.
Actually, if I wanted to, I could mint “1/1000 Dollar” coins. As long as I didn’t try to pass them off as U.S. Mint and/or otherwise-government,e ndorsed, and could convince people to accept them … it’d be perfectly legal.
That’s one of the premises upon which things like “Disney Dollars” are based: no law forbids _Private_ currencies … as long as the issuer (and user) are up front and honest about it being, in fact, _not_ a public, government-endorsed unit of currency.
May 4th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Pax:
At least you have an excuse for that. The Australian $2 coin is smaller than the $1 coin, and made of the same metal. (It’s slightly thicker, but it’s still lighter.)
The Susan B. Anthony dollar sounds like a joke about how stupid Americans are.
That’s why Australia’s transition to polymer banknotes (and replacing the $1 and $2 notes with coins) was done in a blaze of publicity. I gather there was a lot of publicity around decimalisation too.
Compare that to the US $2 note - it’s real, but rare, so not everyone believes it’s real.
Easy - you feed them into the machine lengthwise. Only the lengths differ.
Worse yet - for a while, someone in Iraq was making counterfeit US $100 notes of better quality than the real ones.
I think the wide availability of colour printers was what spurred the Australian mint to switch to plastic. It let them put in features like:
* transparent windows with opaque white bits in them, and
* translucent circles with three points of a seven-pointed star on one side and the other four points on the other.
The closest thing Australia has to a counterfeiting problem is that some New Zealand coins are the same size, weight and colour as Australian coins. There’s a lot of NZ 20c pieces in circulation here.
May 4th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Historical note:
What’s now the nickel used to be known as a “half-dime” up until the time when the metal changed. It had a similar form factor (shape and size) to a dime. I know because I used to have one … and hopefully I can find it again.
The main use I saw for the Susan B’s was as change from the train ticket vending machines. Mind you, it was the 1980’s.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:17 am
“The Susan B. Anthony dollar sounds like a joke about how stupid Americans are.”
There’s a lot of stuff I suspect to have been merely jokes on us. Take 1992-2000, for example… :)
I have to say that I’m not a fan of the looks to the new money.
What, did it not look enough like Canadian money that we have to queer it up with falshy colors?
Why not add scratch and sniff while we’re at it?
May 4th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
^_^
Getting back on topic, I will reiterate: I would LOVE to have a challenge coin from Tagon’s Toughs. My mastery of geek-fu would thus be rendered indisputable and undeniable!!
May 4th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
What is a “challenge coin?”
Or rather, what is it USED for?
May 4th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Surprised you didn’t already know this, Howard. A challenge coin is a large commemorative coin, popular with military units. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin
It is USED to show your unit affiliation. Your buddies may CHALLENGE you to produce it at any time. Fail, and you’re in for it…
I have seen people who retired from active duty and went on to Federal GS-level jobs (which often strike challenge coins of their own), who had entire trophy cabinets dedicated to their challenge coins.
I happen to have one from the USS Louisville–the guys on that boat loved giving their insignia away to visiting contractors, great guys I tell you.
I also happen to own a metric caliper:the real deal measures 38mm in diameter and 3.5mm wide. The pin looks close to that already, just need to make it thicker, have an engraving on the reverse (and guess what, we’re in a thread that discusses coins with many different back designs, such as the US Quarter. How many Habits do we have, again?), and get rid of the pin back.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
“swj719 Says:
May 4th, 2008 at 8:17 am
“The Susan B. Anthony dollar sounds like a joke about how stupid Americans are.”
There’s a lot of stuff I suspect to have been merely jokes on us. Take 1992-2000, for example… :)”
I’d counter with 2001-present, except jokes are supposed to be funny.
Because nobody ever liked the Susan B. Anthony dollars, I once heard tell (from an older and more traveling man) of a bar that always gave change in them. Not to be an ass, though–it was because he’d also hold unadvertised happy hours, with huge discounts IF you pay in Susan B. Anthony dollars. And so were the regulars rewarded for returning, and newcomers rewarded for sticking around: so they could spend their change on the cheap.
He called them “BroadBuck Night.” Gotta love the sense of humor from back then.
May 4th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
…what happened, I made two posts explaining a challenge coin, they both vanished. I make that one about Susan B’s, it appears straightaway.
Oh I know. Linky to wikipedia threw it.
Howard, Wikipedia for Challenge Coin, it will tell you much. I happen to have a real one: it measures 38mm in diameter and 3.5mm thick.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:24 am
I fished your post out of the spam-trap. Thanks for the info!
May 6th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I’ve got a couple from Soldier’s Angel’s last big fund-raising drive, and they are impressive.
Chuck one at a buddy, and you’ll dent something important. :)