Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I have access to a coin mint, and am considering producing a run of 1oz pure silver bullion coins, resembling the beloved bitcoin. The print will be something like this, embossed relief, but will indicate silver content and year, and will be silver and not copper color, etc.

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/8199/bitcoinimage.jpg


So my question to all of you is, what would you be willing to pay for such a coin? Obviously it will be quite a bit over spot price until I could produce a huge volume (any investors?).

(1) You should make sure to print that it is 0.999 1oz Silver somewhere on the coin

(2) I'm interested.  :)

I put out a feeler to see if anyone would be interested in a glbse offering to raise the money to print 100 coins.  Basically a hundred shares at 2 BTC each would entitle each shareholder to one coin per share.  Got zero replies.

But as long as the price is right, I'd buy a few. Maybe a $10-15 premium above spot.

I wanted to put a picture of Satoishi on the face, which would be a generic silhouette with a question mark, and the text IN SATOISHI WE TRUST.

I would SO buy this. Been meaning to buy some silver anyways...

Id take one

"in coin we trust"

is better :]

I'd buy at least one just because... maybe more depending on price.

Probably at least one, thanks

+1

I'd probably take one too

sign me up for atleast one :)

+1

I still like "In Cryptography we Trust"

I'd probably buy one, depending on when they actually hit the market of course (saving for a wedding is srs bsns)

I like "In Coin We Trust" quite a bit.

I'd buy one for $10 above spot, in BTC of course.

Out of curiousity, are these actually tied to BTC in any way besides the branding? 

Some dude got imprisoned for what you're planning watch out lol.  It's not illegal, but they got him anyway because he challenged the system.

The premium for ASE (http://www.apmex.com/Category/160/Silver_Eagles___Uncirculated_2011__Prior.aspx)s is under $5.00 in small quantities.

I think I'd be willing to buy one for about $10 over spot.  But if you can get your cost down into the $5-$7 range, or lower, I'd get several.

Of course, I'd want to pay in BTC too.

I'd be a big fan of this, but before I commit I'd definitely want to see a proof of concept design of the coin.

Honestly, I'd prefer something really simple with the bitcoin logo like you have on one side and the other side having something else but certainly claiming .999 fine silver.  I'd also want to pay in bitcoins.

If you were to do half-ounce rounds instead, it might be possible to get the price down to 1BTC (market depending, of course).  It would be very interesting to see in 5-10 years how much the silver coin is worth in Bitcoins, or how many Bitcoins it would cost to buy the silver coin. 

No, just novelty... and a kinda cool combination of two kinds of real money.

It would be cool if somehow you put an off-line wallet inside the coin and issued these with a wallet address that people could use as a "savings" account.

If they are sold as a commemorative medal it will be fine definitely anything but sold as a currency.

Just out of curiosity, where do you get your silver planchets?  Or are they just coin blanks?

I have connections to a private mint... not sure where they get their stuff from. I imagine they poor huge glowing smelters of ore into little coin shapes, but that's probably not how it works ;)

I like the idea and would buy one or more for sure

Not sure if there's some reason that this thread fell way back, but I'd definitely be interested in something like this!  My interest in silver has been increasing recently and I'd love to have a few coins that looked like bitcoins! 

If the price is good I could buy at least one

I bought some of the 1g ones over at http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=23256.msg400707#msg400707


If there was bigger ones avail I would prob buy them as well

I think the Liberty Dollar case would have turned out very differently if they had not

a) printed a dollar value on their coin, with the $ symbol
b) so closely duplicated many aspects of old silver US coinage (Lady Liberty, "Trust In God," the word "LIBERTY" )
c) encouraged merchants to give them out in change to people who had paid in US currency and were expecting US currency as change.

This Bitcoin silver round would presumably not do any of these.

I'd be interested in buying a few. However, everyone should make it clear that the value of one of these silver rounds is in no way related with the value of an actual Bitcoin.

WANT!

+1 for "in coin we trust". I would also like a few.

+1 interested. I plan on using bitcoin-to-silver as a major investment method.

Can we get an idea of threshold you need? 1000 oz minimum? will that mean $6 over spot? etc.

Would definitely get some!

"In Hash We Thrash"

Actually they got him because he was using the coins he produced as currency. As long as you did not present the coins as currency and treated them strictly as a hobbiest items you should be good to go.

The case you are referring to is Bernard von NotHaus and the Liberty Dollar. Key points were he used $, In God We Trust and other marks that "could confuse the public", ok BS we all know but that's what they said, and he presented the coins as tender.

I would buy one or more, if the markup over spot wasn't too high.

+2

I am interested in buying a few.

In a few months, I'm interested.

im interested as long as it isnt too high over spot!

A realy nice idea.

+1 for "in coin we trust" and also the silver quality should be imprinted

I think i would buy one for an reasonable price (maybe 10 - 15 % over spot) and if you consider also sending it to god old Europe  8)

I would be interested if the price is right in several.  Also like the idea of .999 silver and an ounce would make a nice piece.

+3

So is the OP still around? I haven't heard a thing on this since my first comment... I'd buy a few in a heartbeat as long as they aren't ridiculously high above spot. Been looking to get heavier into precious metals anyway.

Hell just collect old dimes. Any dime older than 64 is worth almost $3 melted down.

Glad I started hording copper and silver coins some 20 years ago, wish I had checked even more as I went along than I did. Not sure how many pounds of copper pennies I have but I can barely pick it up.

Isn't melting money for scrap metal (w/o the proper license) a crime? Hoarding might be legally ok but the use is limited to resale. trying to recycle and purify the silver out of the pre 64 coins is often quote as a criminal act.

I simply bought some us junk coins few years ago. Not so easy to find silver dollars in circulation in EU ; )


just make sure you stay under the customs/tax limit when ordering, 2-3 max or you end up paying taxes on silver import. this would be immediately 20% to the value of the shipped rounds.

It is 100% legal to melt US silver coinage.  All quarters, dimes and half dollars before 1964 (and the old silver dollars - Morgan and Peace dollars) were 90% silver, and you can melt them as much as you want.

Currently it is illegal to melt copper pennies and nickels, but many people are hoarding them because they are worth more in metal content than face value.   (http://coinflation.com | http://coppergeek.com | http://www.crazycoinguy.com/)      You can sell copper pennies above face value on eBay, the market price tends to be somewhere in between face value and melt value, to account for the fact that you can't currently melt or export them but most believe these laws will be eventually lifted just as it was for silver coins.

thanks a lot, your clarification was helpful. knowing that some melting is banned for sure I did not know where the line is what can/can not be melted. now i would write it more precisely after learning the difference.

I would be willing to pay the value of what its weight in silver is.

Precious metal coins are generally only ever worth their weight. (I used to trade in 1oz gold coins).

Wow, used to trade 1oz gold coins, huh? Then I'm sure you know that that anybody who is going to mint coins is going to expect to cover their minting costs PLUS the value of the metal, right? ...

I just checked his profile info for the last visit time, has logged in today. maybe we do not signal enough demand and this thread is not worth his attention ; )


You got my attention, what about junk silver from europe with a bitcoin countermark stamped on it?
you woud have it for the spot price, no discount, I need to pay for the die.
And you can choose what old silver coinage to countermark for you.
have dutch gulden, german mark, austrian schilling, czechoslovak krowns.

would buy / resell.

I was working with Mick on this 1 oz silver coin.  We ultimately decided the demand wasn't high enough to warrant the bulk purchase.  If anyone is interested in helping bring this coin to the market, feel free to contact me.  I think a few dozen preorders would be enough to make this happen.

http://i846.photobucket.com/albums/ab22/1973mb1973/5cabc6ce.jpg

Looks really nice, but 42USD is pretty steep for my taste.
Gonna go with the 1g 999ers from mjb over on the other thread.

As long as it has a sane premium on the spot price and it says 1oZ .999 silver on it I'll buy one  :)

HAHAHAHA! No you didn't.

A minted precious metal coin is worth 5%-30% and sometimes higher because of its stamped value, condition, year and quantity minted. Coin retailers typically buy at 90% value from people looking to get rid of their coins. Unless your market trading or paper gold/silver trading very rarely does anyone ever pay spot value.

If this is true and you bought at spot or below then you owned a 'chop shop' and shame on you. How many beautiful coins did you destroy?

Philharmonics, American Eagles, Maples... All sell at ~6%+ new (typically from kitco I get 2009-2011 uncirculated).
https://online.kitco.com/bullion/completelist_USD.html (https://online.kitco.com/bullion/completelist_USD.html)

No he didn't.  He went to prison for making counterfeit coins.  Nobody would mistake a bitcoin coin to be legal tender or US coinage.

Why exactly would someone sell a 1 oz silver coin for value of 1 oz silver?  Did you think this out?

If you have traded in any bullion you would know coins never sell for equal to their spot price.  Coinage cost money.

This is the reason why these coins don't exist.  I guess people want someone to pay the markup on silver, fees to have the dyes cast, and the labor costs in order to sell them a coin at the raw value of materials?  That's like going to a restaurant and telling them you'll only pay $0.25 for the deer special because that's how much the shell cost that killed it.

That is a kind of exaggerated comparison, moot point but:

Whenever demand is high premiums for physical silver often jumps upto 100%, coin dealers are greedy bastards. I used to buy at one every month, a random 1oz round, I always was trying picking out philharmonics, then they were suddenly gone and he sold philharmonics & maples extra, for a higher price.
(Those were all circulated coins)

Some requests have been made for Casascius Physical Bitcoins in silver.

To me it is completely crazy.  But so is the markup people are apparently willing to pay.

This would be for very high denomination pieces, like 100 or 500 BTC.  So they would be paying a price that includes both the bitcoins, the silver, and the markup.

How many rounds does it take to make a run worthwhile?  I can add the BTC value, the only minor oddity being that my holograms are gold, not silver.

I don't think it's worth it for what you do. You are niche and an awesome market. Because of the fluctuation of the market, no, I don't think it would be viable, but what do I know. You put an actual value on the coin itself, but the metal could be worth greatly more of greatly less. I suppose it is the same as the US mint stamping $50 gold pieces right now but that is a collectors fair. I would rather see a 1oz silver bitcoin without a value attached to it as a collector/novelty/asset item than one that has a value associated with it that I'll pay a premium for on top of the silver.

I think that depends on the price of a bitcoin, if it ever reaches the values the bulls are hoping for you might use silver, or even gold ;)

Just by some Googling, if I did a run of 500 1oz silver rounds, the cost above silver's spot price to acquire the coins would probably be in the $10/coin range, including artwork, die charges, etc.

Like I've said before, I'd pay pay 15 BTC for a pretty 1oz bitcoin exclusive round without hesitation.

I'm curious as to why more people are not interested in this. This right here is you beginning stages of security of wealth people. Speculation of bitcoin combined against/with the speculation of a precious metal. One is quiet a bit more proven than the other and bets against it to hold you're value. If you ever need liquidity you have 1 oz of silver, if you want to speculate bitcoin you have a secured physical value on a coin.

I'm going to make a 2nd effort to try and make this happen.  I agree with your line of thinking, but as the other poster said, it'd be a $10 premium over spot plus shipping...  That's with almost no profit.  I get messages from people constantly asking me to sell coins for spot price.  People just don't get it.  That's why I haven't put up the $ to make this happen.  I'm considering preorders though.  If I were to get 100+ preorders, I'm in a position where I'd feel comfortable placing the order.

As you might have noticed on another thread, I have pulled the trigger and forked up the money to make this happen.

My silver round will be a 10 BTC piece that is an actual 10 BTC physical bitcoin and will be here plenty in time for Christmas.  The coin is worth an ounce of silver PLUS ten BTC embedded inside.

Nice.  Although I'm thinking of something a little more traditional and mine definitely won't be ready in time for Christmas.  Good luck to you.  Your coins look great.

Sounds awesome!  Have you thought of a price range for this yet?  I imagine 10 BTC + ~$40 USD of silver + minting cost + profit = ?

_(marking) 8)

I did not expect to see this thread topped and had all but forgotten it existed.

Nevertheless the silver coin is available in my site in two versions, one with and without gold plating on the B of the bitcoin logo.

ok, any update on payment options?
i think since january you dropped papyal completely, even for pm rounds

I'd love to add one to my silver collection.

Is this still happening?  I am interested.

Sure, I presently sell the silver rounds at https://casascius.com.

I'll keep my eyes on this, I like the coins, I just cant have any just yet :)

Are these all silver, or do you do gold bars and coins?

I also have gold coins (.999 fine), and gold-plated bars (no significant gold weight).

The coins are denominated as 1000 BTC, but just the gold round is available by itself (no sticker).

The gold-plated bars are either non-denominated (you load value yourself) or have a 100 denomination.  I occasionally do other denominations with a laser engraver.

"In The Blockchain We Trust"

"In Computational Cryptography we Trust"

I like "Strength in Numbers".  If I do a Ƀ coin, I might use that phrase on it.

Reading this thread, was the demand / markup of the silver coins ever enough to prove it worthwhile for you?  I bought a handful from you as you know, and I think they're awesome.  I've given two away already, and the people receiving them were *very* happy, way more so than had I given them something boring, especially cash equivalent.  A bargain IMO.

looks like there is a bit of demand :)