Which is the sense of a letterbox?

Question

Why I have to hide a letterbox? and what it has to leave to people?

Answer 1

You don't have to :), but if you want to, cf. here: https://www.geocaching.com/help/index.php?pg=kb.chapter&id=127&pgid=822

Basically, a letterbox is a physical cache which contains a stamp (so that the finder can stamp his own field diary with it.)

In the stricter sense – and many letterboxes are done like this – it is often like a multicache, but where you find the next waypoints not with the GPS and co-ordinates, but with a description of how to get there. Often this is "wrapped" in a nice story, and that is what makes some letterboxes really worthwile.

Comments

Totally correct. Except that Groundspeak made a change to Letterbox Hybrids recently, in that they must have some "Coordinate component" in them now. So at least part of the letterbox trail now has to have coordinates, a coordinate conversion, projection or such. At least that's what's being enforced by local reviewers in The Netherlands now. Personally I like the alternative ways of getting to the endpoint in older letterbox hybrids better than the now enforced "at least partly coordinates mandatory" guideline.

Answer 2

It's worth noting that letterboxing predates geocaching by nearly 150 years! Details of letterboxing as a hobby can be found on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_(hobby)