Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys, I've got a 2011, 1 BTC error Casascius coin for sale. If you want to own a piece of history, but don't want to pay 3-4+ BTC for a flawless one, this one is for you! While its not in bad condition, it does have a reasonable amount of tarnish on the front (lower left) for its age, and some scratches on the back holo. With the impending Casascius shutdown, I've got no idea what a coin in "circulated" condition will go for, so if you are interested in it, pm me or post an offer in the thread.

I will accept Bitcoins, mailed cash, or gold/silver

Any agreed upon price would include Priority Shipping with tracking, and Signature confirmation if you want it.


If anyone is interested, feel free to pm me.

I'm fine with escrow if you pay the fee.

http://puu.sh/5Hlet.jpg

http://puu.sh/5Hlgn.jpg

Pics and price added.

looks beat to hell

Can you provide more information?  This looks cool but where did it come from, how many are there?

Yup, which is why I'm not selling it for 3-4 BTC like pristine ones.


It is a 2011 Error Casascius, the first run of physical Bitcoin coins produced by Casascius.

Here is a bit of additional information:

https://www.casascius.com/

http://casascius.uberbills.com/

http://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1DtmMLhBQoiwUtdg18h7AFA4m57Vte3EGi


I'm sure the tarnish could be removed easy enough, however I'm not going to do it myself, as that is generally frowned upon in coin collecting. When cleaning a coin, it removes mint lustre, which can damage the coin far more value wise than leaving the patina in tact. Whether that is the case for Casascius bitcoins, I don't know, but I'll let the buyer decide if they want to clean it or not.

I agree, in the case of not knowing how it will effect the value though, I will allow the buyer to clean it if they so choose. If you clean an old bronze roman coin, it loses like 95% of its value, however this isn't a coin from an ancient civilization, so I just don't know how it would effect the value. Its up to the market I suppose.

I should mention, although I'm looking to sell it for 2.5 BTC + if it doesn't sell in a few days, and I just get bored, I'll throw it up for auction starting at 2 or 2.25 and see where it goes.

You can check my sales thread in the signature, I am a long time seller of Casascius coins of all years, as well as graded coins. I can tell you I just saw an add for a graded MS60 (terrible grade) coin. The reason it received such a terrible grade from ANACS is because the coin was marked "cleaned". This is probably the worst thing you can do for a "collectible" piece.

I know a guy that used Brasso to polish his brass coins :P

Thanks, I wasn't sure what cleaning one of these coins would do to it, I definately wouldn't do it myself.


Part of the allure of these coins, is owning a piece of Bitcoin history, as these are the first physical bitcoins ever produced from what could remain the standard in physical coins fiveever.

u can always vacuum seal a lot of the coins to preserve them. no need to get them graded.


They better be around forever. I have lots invested in these coins.  Mike better not quit pushing and fighting. I want consecutive series releases.

Just seconding what nightowlace is saying here.
I bet johnniewalker could even add a few interesting stories about cleaned coins.

Some of the original coins are now getting old enough they're beginning to show some tarnish. A little longer, we'll get to see what sort of natural toning develops.
I have two or three I'm letting develop in this way. Yes, I'm holding out hope to get a highly desirable specimen (http://www.ebay.com/itm/1880-O-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-MS-64-Gem-BU-Coin-Toned-/180932870935?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item2a20708317). Who knows how it'll turn out.

Daily Bump for people getting home from work with some coin burning their pockets.

Order now, and overnight shipping within the U.S will be included. I need the Bitcoins for crack... I mean various Bitcoin investment stuff.

I will give you the 1BTC that it has on the coin but that is the most I can offer. I am not trying to low ball you by any means I hope you get more but just in case you decide to rip it open and redeem it I will trade you so that it doesn't get destroyed.

1.15

Thanks for the offers, but I'll pass.

In light of Casascius' temporary/permanent shut down I will be holding onto this coin for a while to see how it all plays out.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/12/casascius/

Opening the thread back up, as I'm curious to see if the lack of news from Casascius has influenced the market.

I think if you cleaned the coin up and put it on ebay you'd get at least a $700 premium over the face bitcoin value.

Mayhaps, however I'd really rather not clean the coin. It could either increase the value, or decrease it. Most of them have tarnish on them, as no one thought they were going to be super collectable when Casascius first started making them, so a lot of them weren't put in Air Tites like the later coins. The scratch on the back is probably the most damaging to value, however as ones without scratches are going for a 2 BTC + premium, I'd imagine that mine is still pretty valuable.

I can't say I'm really desperate to sell the coin, so if the right offer comes across I'll take it. I think I could just use the Bitcoins in a better way right now, but if it doesn't sell, I might end up holding it for years until its worth some serious coin.

Based on the images I can't help but say that it looks like the hologram has been tampered with. Some of the honeycomb is visible.

I'm not implying anything but from my experience with my holograms which also have a honey comb pattern is the only way to have the honeycomb pattern be shown is to have the hologram peeled back in some form or fashion, unless Mike himself put a damaged hologram on to this coin (which I doubt).

Sometimes when peeling back the holograms from the paper they come on some of my holograms (the gold foil ones mostly) end up showing "tampering" when nothing has been done. I haven't found out what causes this but it is a very small percentage of my holograms that does this.

In any case are you the original owner of this coin? Sorry if I missed that bit of information if you already shared it.

Edit: Did this coin fall from an elevated place? Or something else perhaps?

You still hoping for BTC2+ coins for it?

I am not, but the coin is still in tact. I bought the coin before it would have made sense to tamper with them. I am under the impression that one of the previous owners put it in their pocket, as the scratches on the holo look very similar to key marks, or something similar that one might put in their pocket. Thats what my inner detective tells me.


I do still feel that 2BTC would be about the lowest I would take for it. I'm not new to the numismatic field, and I am aware of the price difference between a Mint coin and a Circulated coin. Most of the 2011 Casascius coins are in circulated condition, as they were not originally thought to be collectable, most however without the scratches on the hologram. Given the current market and Casascius situation, 2.5 BTC would be ideal however anything over 2 would get my interest.

It would really help if you would post a higher quality photo of the hologram side of the coin.  I don't know how anyone can judge the quality of your coin based on the poor quality photograph you've provided.

I'll give it a shot, I don't have a fancy camera, just a standard 8MP point and shoot digital camera, nor any artistic talent. My point was to exemplify the scratches on the holo which I got, but I'll see about adding another picture.

Often photos can exaggerate defects in a coin.  If you could take a photo outside in natural light on a cloudy day it might help. 

Well thats just it, all I have is natural light in my house, I have multiple sky lights and windows, and a grand total of about 100 Watts worth of lightbulbs throughout the house. Without the right weather my photos turn out even worse. The photo of the hologram I took does indeed exaggerate the defect by the scratches in the hologram. They are far less noticeable in person, however I wanted to make sure anyone who was interested knew exactly what they were getting. I'd rather underpromise and over deliver than over promise and under deliver. I did get another few pictures, however they too aren't that good. I'll upload them as soon as I find my camera's USB cable.

1.1BTC

1.15BTC

Heh, as before thank you for the offers, however I don't think I'd sell it for anything under 2 BTC. If you guys want to keep putting in higher and higher offers, you are welcomed to until you reach a point I like, however I don't know of any senario in which case I'd take less than 2 BTC.

I have no idea where I put my camera USB cable which is slowing things down a bit, however I'll post the additional pictures when I stumble across it. Those ones aren't great either, but they show different angles and such.

You win 1.1 was my max. Haha

i offered 1.15 on the 1st page. that offer still stands and i was first

Thanks for the offers, but like I said, I don't think I'd consider anything under 2 BTC for it.

I'm going to set my buy it now price at 2.25 BTC including shipping. I'd also take 2.25 BTC worth of Gold, Silver, or cash in the mail for it, if you don't want to spend your hard earned BTC.

I'll bump this up today and once more on sunday or maybe monday as I have to go to the post office anyway. If no one is interested, I'll just hold onto it a bit longer.

where is the error?

Misspelling of "Casascius" on the hologram.
Does anyone know how many misspelled coins were made?
My impression is about 3,000
That doesn't seem very rare to me.

A lot have been redeemed. Especially because btc was such low value back then.

About 3,500 1BTC brass coins have the error, I believe. Mintages are all over the place, for example, there are around 7,000 2013 brass 0.5s. Not sure on the count for 2012/2013 brass 1s.

Thanks for the information.

This. The most collectable things, are the things that were not meant to be collectable. The early Casascius coins weren't silver or anything else of value, and they weren't advertised as collectable. They were essentially just cheap car wash tokens that were made to represent the idea of Bitcoins as a tangible asset. If you think about numismatics, the things that are the most collectable, are things that aren't supposed to be, and the things that are least collectable, are the things that were made to be.

Ex. Old Baseball cards: Collectable because kids had them and didn't take care of them. No one thought they would be worth big money, so now they are rare the same with other old toys. They were made in huge numbers, people used them, their numbers depreciated, and now people want them.

Ex. Beanie Babies: Designed to be collectable, people hoarded them for collectors value, worthless.

bump

Some ketchup (no joke) would have that looking like new. Don't get it on the holo though!

Heh, yes I have been advised  ;)

However, I'm not going to do any restoration work on it. If someone else wants to, they are welcome to.

Daily bump

How does ketchup differ from 'regular' cleaning methods? Logically, it's impossible.

*edit According to uberbills http://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1DtmMLhBQoiwUtdg18h7AFA4m57Vte3EGi (http://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1DtmMLhBQoiwUtdg18h7AFA4m57Vte3EGi), this is a june 2012 coin.

I'd assume its the acid in the ketchup, mild enough that its not going to corrode the metal more, but strong enough that it will actually work, but thats just my guess, I'm not cleaning it.

The 2011 Casascius coins were made, and they were funded at time of sale. If he didn't sell them until 2012 then they weren't funded until 2012.