Bitcoin Forum

If you are unfamiliar with the WoodCollector saga/drama that dominated the forums for a good three+ months in late 2014/early 2015 you can read about it here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011340.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011340.0)
It is a very long read but it is very very entertaining, there are a few other threads if you want to dig deeper into the rabbit hole here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=930649.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=930649.0)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=932131 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=932131)

Anyway lets get to my point...

Early November 2014, WoodCollector joins bitcointalk attempting to source exotic woods through the worldwide reach of forum members. Within a month he has been introduced (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=846852.msg9447375#msg9447375) to the idea of creating beautiful bitcoin art with the various woods he has been acquiring. This leads to the first of the wooden coins being made/sold December 2, 2014 and carries on until the last coin is sold on February 5, 2015.  In the middle of this time period WoodCollector found himself in a Scam Accusation lodged against him by some very prominent members of the forum. If you've clicked the links at the top of this post you're already well aware of these accusations, if not I highly suggest you set aside about a half hour and laugh, smile, or cringe through those historic threads.

The forum was a much smaller space back in 2014/2015 and if you were active in these times you basically knew every name that frequented your area of the forum. This put the original buyers of these coins in a pretty rough position.. they either had to back WoodCollector or back the more well known members that started and maintained the scam accusation. Red trust was flung back and forth and the fight got pretty nasty at times. I remember watching from the sidelines as this all unfolded and I laugh time and time again when I go through my research and see the only post I made during the drama here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=864472.msg10236571#msg10236571). The best part about it is that I now own this piece. (Too Long Didn't Click - I talk down about the finish used on Blazedout419's supposed $14,000USD piece "The Hive (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=864472.msg9588372#msg9588372)").

Never in a million years did I figure I'd end up owning one of his coins, let alone all nine.
My journey starts in October 2017 with this auction here:
[AUCTION ends 14/10] - WOODEN BITCOIN - THE BLACK SWAN - BY WOODCOLLECTOR (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2223623.0)
A perfect snipe of XX:00:00 at the end of the auction landed me my first two coins 2 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=900692) & 8 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=935930). Not really knowing the size or heft behind these coins I immediately fell in love with them after opening the box and taking them out. It was at this moment I knew I was going to try the impossible and collect all nine.

Questions in my mind arose whether or not people would have kept these.. with all the bad blood and negativity surrounding them I figured somebody may have set theirs on fire, sold them in a garage sale to rid themselves of the memory, or worse maybe a coin were lost in the depths of the global mail system.. every possibility entered my mind to whether or not all nine still existed. Five original buyers.. five people that I would need to have kept these safe and intact for close to three years.. Impossible?

Fast forward eight months, June of 2018 I reached out to all of the original owners, some replied quick, others I waited and waited for a reply.
A sloppy notepad document titled 'WoodCollector Clues" placed on my desktop and every lead/clue/observation for each coin written down. Hours and hours of reading through posts I started to have an idea about who had what, initial bitcoin prices/conversions to USD, and anything else I deemed important at the time. This quest wasn't going to be easy as I started to figure out that not everyone still owned the coins that they had initially bought.

A couple days go by and I receive a message that one of the owners I contacted was willing to sell me their coin with a link to here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1744296.0). Though I know that this member at one time owned three of the coins I figure I won't push the subject and just work with getting the one he is offering me right now. Replies back and forth go fairly smooth and before I know it this coin is on it's way to me. Still unsure if I should ask about the other two he had bought from WoodCollector I decide to leave it for now.
A quick trip to the post office and I'm back with a pretty heavy box, I tear it open and Coin 3 stares me in the face. Happy as ever I log into bitcointalk and notice an inbox message. Its the same guy who now shares with me that two of the coins were given away as gifts to their family members and that if I would like them he could work on getting them back. My reply sent back almost immediately, "Absolutely".
His mother and sister were gifted these three years previous and no way in my mind did I think somebody not interested or invested into bitcoin would hang on to these for this long.
A couple weeks go by and the sister is more than happy to return her coin.. mom wasn't as keen to give hers up but would consider it as long as we gifted her something else to fill the now empty spot where the coin used to sit. Not a problem, I upped the amount I was paying for the other two to make sure mom could put something in place of the coin.
Including the coin that this member had kept for himself this put Coins 3 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=900835), 7 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=949952), and 6 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=929268) into my collection.

This put me at five coins in my collection with four coins left to go. One owner known, one missing, and two coins that were traded away and no longer with the original owner.

My next logical step was to reach out to the only one of the four that I knew still owned their coin. At first this member was reluctant to sell theirs to me for the price that I initially offered. Through conversation back and forth I pieced together quite a bit of information about the steps taken/not taken by the five original owners. I now knew that throughout the drama and after it had settled that they never did talk about getting together or sharing information about each of their pieces with eachother. The tale of the 5000btc regarded as 'likely fake' right off the bat. It was apparent that the initial drama had taken morale down quite a bit and the excitement about any tale of buried treasure had faded.

I sat on this for a month before I finally decided to offer the price that was initially asked for. A reply the next day came back with quite an interesting counter offer. The price was now somewhere in the middle of my initial offer and the asking price, however, they had eyes for Coin 2 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=900692) and a proposition was made in that once I were done examining the coins that I send them Coin 2 with the ability to have it shipped back to me in the future for re-examination if need be. Tempting... very tempting but I could not handle the idea that if I were able to finish this collection that one of these coins would not actually be owned by me. A few messages exchanged back and forth and a deal was struck with the full asking price and the option for first dibs on Coin 2 if I were to ever fall into financial trouble, lose interest in the collection, or decide to part them out if I failed to complete the nine. This added Coin 9 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=947144) to my collection.

During this time period I had been scouring the post history of the last two owners, I had not received a reply back from either of them so it was up to me to try and piece together a timeline or any information I could. I decided to focus on the member that had purchased two of the coins back in 2015. Their post history didn't offer me any leads and their "Last Active" wasn't giving me any confidence either.. it seemed they had been taking a break from the forum for the time being. Now don't ask why but I decided to read through their Trust Ratings.. Trusted/Untrusted Feedback.. nothing about any trades for WoodCollector items.. scrolling down further into their Sent Feedback my eyes shoot wide open.. "Traded some WoodCollector 'hand-carved' pieces....." dated September 2015. I look at who had received the feedback and my heart lifts.. quite a well known name in Collectibles community and very active.
I reach out to this member and am hit back with the confirmation that they do still own these two coins. I read further and my heart sinks.. the price they are looking for is well over anything I've paid yet (I'd been pretty generous with my offers previous). The fact is in the original scam accusation threads this member was somewhat on the front lines in the feud with WoodCollector.. these pieces actually had some real life(forum) meaning to them.
Time and patience has been the main contributing factor in getting as far into this tale as I have so I left off with a simple, "let me know if you're ever in a position to sell".
Five months go by and this member was working on his next collectible release to the community and we get to chatting again. I end one of my messages with a lowball tease offer compared to what he initially asked for.. he replies that he would actually entertain a sale as he had just fully funded his next project and after the release any desire to sell his two WoodCollector coins would be basically non-existent. A trade deal that consisted of a loaded Casascius coin, an original Kialara bar, a loaded BTCC Titanium coin, and some additional bitcoin was reached and Coins 1 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=880599) and 4 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=900656) put the collection at eight of nine collected.

Now.. the last guy/girl. It had appeared the account was hacked or sold sometime in 2017 as the posts turned from things a regular person would say into things that someone selling accounts/scamming people over skype and telegram would say. I turned to focus on all of his pre 2017 posts to look for anything that could connect him with anything really. (Side note - In this time period the scammer did actually contact me back asking me how many accounts I would like to buy and for how much. Confirming that this was not the regular owner of the account).
I noted down speech patterns, unique misspellings, shitcoin projects they supported, and any language differences they used in their earlier time on bitcointalk before the account was stolen. After having what I considered a pretty good background check on this guy I started following reddit and twitter links they had posted. One reddit link in particular stuck out as they had made an attempt to brigade it for upvotes so I figured this person may have been one of the people posting there. The thread dated back to 2014 and consisted of twelve posters.. this seemed like a lot of work that would end unfavorably. I clicked into each poster's profile and started putting my knowledge of my documented posting habits to the test. One in particular stood out and matched a few things I had noticed from their bitcointalk behavior.. I shamelessly messaged them with an obscure "Hey, just wondering if you own WoodCollector Resolute?". Vague enough that a scammer would have no idea what I am talking about and hopefully not have them attempt to try to lead me on down a trail of attempted scamming.
Two months go by without a reply. I had used a throwaway reddit account that I hardly logged in to after a few days went by but one day I check and the reddit envelope shows that I have a message.. I open it and read the message, "Yes I own this, why?".
Butterflies fill my whole body. Did I just stumble my way into finding the last coin I need?
The next month I spend making offers and waiting days at a time for a reply. This was the last coin I needed, I found this guy with sheer luck, I couldn't cheap out now and was basically at his mercy to be able to complete this collection. We finally come to an agreement, this coin costing me more than any coin I've bought yet but to be able to finish my quest I am completely fine with this.
We move from reddit, to telegram as they are more comfortable talking there.. everthing seems to be going according to plan but also slower than I'd want.. until one morning I wake up to a "teeGUMES, we have a problem. The coin is actually my wife's and I just talked to her and she doesn't want me to sell it". Obviously I figure this is just a scheme to squeeze a little bit more out of me but what can I do? I need this coin. As sexist/stereotypical as it sounds I throw out an offer of our original price + the price his wife would accept to buy herself a nice gift, I'm thinking jewellery, shoes or something nice. He says he will pitch it to her and after a few days they both accept. I get him back on bitcointalk and set up escrow and patiently wait. As is the story with this last coin the actual shipping of it takes a couple weeks to actually happen. I know based on the customs stamps that he didn't ship it when he said he did.. I truly believe he was going to come back at me again for another increase in price. Thankfully he eventually came through and that added Coin 5 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=927942) which completed the WoodCollector public coin collection.

Nine coins, 475 days from the first one entering my house to the ninth one being torn out of its box. I set out to complete this collection and through an outstanding amount of time and patience I did just that. I can not express the feeling that went through me when I looked down at all nine of them together for the first time. Never before had these all been in the same country/town/city.. and now I look at them in the same room together.

Now supposedly there is a tenth, and if you've read through the links I had provided earlier you will know that there is not much if anything known about it, it may not even exist. The treasure may not exist (lets just say for a second it did, how many of us would have been running out to dig this buried capsule up during the 2017 bullrun).
My curiousity for this story took me through a crazy journey, talking with and meeting the owners of these coins. Each and every one of them was actually surprisingly kind and in the end they could see what I was trying to achieve by putting this collection together.. and most importantly each and every coin was damn near intact and in fairly mint condition.

With all this being said, you may think i'm an idiot for collecting these due to all the Scam/Fraud/Liar accusations.. but in my mind as long as nobody died or got hurt, drama adds a whole new level to the strange things we collectors like to collect.

Let me finish this all off with:
Hey Mr/Mrs. Coin Ten, if you're out there.. lets talk :) I've got a treasure map and you've got the compass.

All 9 front
https://i.imgur.com/FPoqb4Wh.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/FPoqb4W.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/FPoqb4W.jpg)

Proof they're mine/current
https://i.imgur.com/ZccdRePh.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/ZccdReP.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/ZccdReP.jpg)

All 9 back
https://i.imgur.com/kDk000th.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/kDk000t.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/kDk000t.jpg)

Backs with proof
https://i.imgur.com/IYx4Rshh.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/IYx4Rsh.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/IYx4Rsh.jpg)

Two forum members ended up getting laser engraving/CNC machines and made these to disprove WoodCollector's Hand Carved claim
https://i.imgur.com/cAEfJImh.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/cAEfJIm.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/cAEfJIm.jpg)

The stack from OP
https://i.imgur.com/SdJcd1Ph.jpg
High res - https://i.imgur.com/SdJcd1P.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/SdJcd1P.jpg)

I was not around for this.... cool story, nice coins and a great accomplishment!!

nice story. must have been great.

I love a coin with story/history.


Great pictures :O

Thats a good story. When you need a helper in the jungle please invite me ;D

Was this coin ever made public?  I think I might be the mystery recipient...

Never made public. Zero clues given out. I've read and reread every post probably 20times each.

Are these the ones that you put together to find the 5,000 cas coins that he buried?

O wait no, those where those gaint pieces that people paid like 15 grand for

Amazing story and hunt for these. Congratulations! Now that's a serious collector indeed!  :D

Get out lol that's crazy.  Cant believe you tracked down all of these coins.  Good luck sir I hope you find what it is you are looking for.  :D

I guess you and teeGUMES are going on a $25,830,000 treasure hunt! ;D

This is an insane story. I can't believe you tracked all of these down. If completed this must go to Hollywood for an amazing movie. Either a documentary or a cool action flick that is befitting of its tale played by whoever you choose. Good luck and WOW again!

iBHK8

Oh I did not see that, contact discovery channel see if they will fund the adventure and they can televise it  :o

Wow story and a half. Really hope it’s true and really hope you find the last coin and Bitcoin. I don’t want to read the historical threads as I may fall down that rabbit hole too ! Hopefully someone in the collectibles knows where it is . Come on finish the story folks !!

EDIT- Just been reading through the old threads. Fear I’m well down the rabbit hole now ! What a intriguing saga. Just hope it comes to a fairytale ending. I’ll be watching this closely. THANKS teeGUMES

I can't wait for like 50 years to pass, and someone actually finding the treasure and it be worth billions.

I think a lot of people would owe WC an apology

Realistic scenario: IF there even was a treasure, WoodCollector has likely dug up the case and sold everything during the last bubble.

He said he doesn't remember where it's buried if I can recall correctly

I read about woodcollector a while ago and the treasure story but figured he was just full of shit..

Even on the slim chance that their is a treasure it is amazing that you have collected all 9 coins and OG might have the secret one!
Very interesting, subscribing for more..

I would agree that there is next to no chance the treasure hunt is real.  That being said, still interesting.  I'm not sure if I've ever posted this publicly or not.  I guess my best evidence that this could be coin #10 is that this picture (prior to the addition of gold plating) was sent to me on 2/5/15 which seems to line up perfectly with the time frame.  That being said, this one may have a similar back design and the size seems to be about right, but the denomination clearly stands out as being unique.

https://talkimg.com/images/2024/01/11/sltWb.png

I really thought the wc treasure hunt the coins where a lot bigger and he said that it's impossible to find the treasure with just photos

great story to read! I totally know the feeling that you're having while collecting them lol, I get the same feeling when I'm wandering around flea markets.

They're extremely large. These coins are all either between 11 to 12 inch diameter and just over 2 inches thick, besides the bear and the koi fish one(8in and 10in).

---

^added this because we moved to page 2 and it may not be seen.


After talking with OgNasty and looking back through my notes I don't believe his is Coin 10, but thus far it is the only coin that possibly fits the bill.

Some quotes from WoodCollector (can't quote some because of locked topics so ill provide quote + link)

"9 of 10 have been "claimed" #10 is a design i did myself and will be listed for sale once 1-9 have been delivered to the clients. There will be no more 2015 coins in the collection to be designed or commissioned at this point in time. There is still an infiniant number of possibilities in art that i can make for clients."
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=927942.msg10189137#msg10189137 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=927942.msg10189137#msg10189137)



Although the above does seem like it changed because WoodCollector ended up saying this which claims he has "given" it to someone rather than make it a sale.



There are weighted reasons on both sides for OgNasty's coin to be Coin 10 or not be Coin 10, the timeline certainly fits as his was made after Coin 9, similar size to the rest of them all, and OgNasty can recall that WoodCollector reached out to him first rather than Og ask for these to be commissioned.. but take WoodCollector's words for what they are worth, he said that 10 would be a design of his own (even though we know he used stock images) and that it would blow everybody's mind. If he was going to do this why put a NastyFans logo on a coin and present that as your masterpiece? Although I do believe the coin OgNasty posted is beautiful and no shade thrown at NastyFans, it seems more like a branding/partnership sort of piece rather than the coveted secret Coin 10.

As I said earlier though, this is day one and the first other Wooden Coin to pop up. I fully expect more information to slowly unravel, still love seeing this story/journey play out even more.

It also states that no more will be “designed or commissioned” at this point.  I highly doubt that OGs has anything to do with it from the clues you’ve presented.  Just my couple Satoshis on the matter. ;)

I don't believe he ever mentioned it was part of a 10 coin set.  I'll do some more digging, but I would agree that it's best case for being the suspect is the lack of alternatives.  

Never paid too much attention to this part of his last post..


I can't place Vietnam or Singapore to any of original owners.. time to find out who moved in 2015 and then we might have a location.

After reading that I am pretty sure that OG's piece isn't the 10th coin. OG's piece is a copy of his own coins, while WoodCollector made it sound like the design was a piece of art (and worth $100,000).

EDIT: I also find it pretty strange that he went from asking $100,000 for it to giving it away to a forum member.

I believe that was him avoiding the "scammer" label and just putting the matter to rest. I don't think anyone was going to buy that coin and I don't think there is hidden treasure unfortunately.

Weekend exposure bump.
Also collecting community ideas/suggestions of different ways to discover clues if any on the coins themselves. If your method provides a clue there will be a reward for the first person that suggested it.

Will be monthly bumps from here on out, just want maximum exposure right now since its so fresh fresh

Great looking wood coin set you got there.
Thanks for sharing.

Wow gonna get in this read tomorrow.... looking very good and read a small part already.... curious for the rest of it

Also just for knowing is it for sale or not? ::)

What's interesting is his claim that all coins must be present to figure out he puzzle, which I find pretty fascinating, I've been trying to figure out how that's possible. Perhaps only the 10th coin would have revealed why, maybe with pointers for each coin in a specific arrangement around the circumference of the 10th coin. Man I wish and hope this story was true, and kudos to you for tracking down all 9, that's worthy of some reward in itself.

Perhaps the tenth coin is ultra massive and all the nine lay into indentations within it unveiling a map o.0

Really great collection. I also like the Nasty coin a lot. It's some special wood, right? Looks great.

I do not know if I remember the woodcollector ending correctly so may he be still around? Were there hints that other accounts were connected with him? But I guess you already tried that route.

It might be useful to offer a reward for information directly from WoodCollector or informations that are legit and substantially leading to get in contact with him. Might be his financial situation is not so very great. Though it also might be that he demands a huge amount of reward or even creates a tenth coin then. So the chance of getting the legit 10th coin is slim. However, reading your thread, it seems you are really into the treasure hunt and I mean it by the coins being the treasure in the first place. :D


Might be that it is like this riddle some other user built later. This image hiding privkeys to wallets. So maybe the weight of the coins is a factor in calculating gps coordinates or something on the line of a riddle that needs to be calculated. Maybe hidden layers of invisible ink or whatever. Combining symbols into a pattern. I think if this would have been real then a lot of interesting possibilities would exist to create a hidden location of some form.

Nope the quoted post is the last time he was publicly on the forum. Since then his account had either been hacked or given away and was used to troll.

The chance is very very slim I will admit. It was my hope and still is that whoever had the tenth coin will see that the first nine have been collected and reach out to me/someone in the community. Of course there are always the "opportunity scammers" out there that may try to contact me but I am aware and ready for that. I never wanted to go on this adventure alone either so I'd more than likely invite some of the original owners, it still blows me away with how well of condition these were kept in for four years. Without them I would have never made it even this far on the journey.

This spring/summer I have a couple friends that are interested in seeing this story and we are going to explore the coins a little more thoroughly. Weights/dimensions will all be recorded, getting a pretty strong magnet, and a handheld 100x magnifier. Will probably try to acquire some different types of lighting aswell. Having them Xrayed was also suggested.

This is also a very possibly real scenario. Worst case scenario, I've never had someone hold one of these in their hands and not say "hoooly shit" after getting lost in them for a few minutes. I'll probably have a custom shelf made that allows them all to stand upright. Or a coffee table that allows them all to be laid down into it and then glass encased.
-------------------
| O       O        O  |\
| O       O        O  |
| O       O        O  |
-------------------
\                         \

Beautiful isn't it?

Guess that is a coin collection that can't be stolen so easily. :D :D :D


Just thought about the ",", since it's something one has to deal with in coding. The US and europe are using opposite ways of dividing decimals and thousands. In the US $5000 would be written $5,000.00 and in europe $5.000,00. It's surely not a thing worth to mention since there is no real reason for trickery at that point.

Another thing you might try is finding all the old threads and zombifying them. Even if he would have lost the account he might be still here and wants to observe developments on the topic. Be it for being in risk of some kind because he made something bad or watching for opportunities. In any case, he might get a notice through a new account about a new post in the old threads.

First time I have seen the type of wood specified .  The nastyfan coin says purpleheart wood.    Were the other nine coins made of pupleheart wood?  Looks like it from the photos but, can't tell for sure.   

The dolphin

WoodCollector specified each type of wood in the list of coins I quoted him on in the first post here. Coins 1 and 2 both were Purpleheart. I believe that was put at the top of the NastyFans wooden coin because the silver and gold rounds/seats always listed the type of precious metal like that. Example 1oz .999 Fine Silver , 2oz .9999 Fine Gold. Makes sense if he was trying to replicate a NastyFans coin, otherwise the top would be missing a "detail" of sorts.

Thanks tee, that makes perfect sense.

Hi TeeGUMES, this might be slightly off topic - please delete if you need to - but there was a big treasure hunt in the UK a good few years back . It was called Masquerade. An artist buried a golden rabbit and left clues to it’s whereabouts in a book. Obviously he sold a far few copies of the book!! I don’t want to send you down a different rabbit hole , but it is probably worth googling it , as it may help you get into the “mind” of a treasure hunt creator.

Any updates to all this?   :o

Work in progress.

Last week I picked these up.

https://i.imgur.com/mkV74Vjm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/k8esehAm.jpg

And I am going to be constructing a sort of "dark box" that will fit the coins and have a slot in top that will accommodate different sorts of lighting.
Waiting until its a bit nicer outside so I can turn it into sort of an event, have a few people look aswell over a few drinks. Others may be able to spot something I miss.

Wow, this is probably one of the best treasure hunt story I have ever heard. Hope you have big success in achieving victory.

Nice!  Looks like you're covering a lot of the possibilities.  Other thoughts I had:

* Can any signal can be detected?  (like placing near a radio makes the sound go all distorted)
* Are they all perfectly balanced?  Or perhaps lopsided in some way, where one side is much heavier than the other?
* How heavy are they in general?  Does that seem reasonable based on the density and type of wood involved? (if not, perhaps something is inside, etc)
* Perhaps gentle chemical tests can be used to spot a number of things, such as the presence or lack of wood glue (no idea if this is possible, just spit balling)

Man I could go on forever just thinking of possibilities haha.  I am just still floored that you have 9 of them together in your possession.

I too am floored that you have 9 all together, how long did that search take place?

Feel free to edit your post if you think of anything else, I am always eager to take on new ideas. Until Coin 10 becomes known to be in existence it is up to our imaginations as to how we proceed.
I 99.9% will not try anything that damages the wood, even though it could be a possibility I would rather have these presented at a museum or a potential sale to someone that has the treasure hunting bug.



My first two coins came through the door on October 24, 2017 and the last(ninth) came February 11, 2019 for a total of 475 days start to finish.

I 100% thought it was impossible and that I would end up with at most 6 or 7 of them. Ran into some obstacles along the way at each step.. only the first two coins were ever for sale in an auction. Everybody else I tracked down and had to make appropriate offers that would entice each owner to want to give up their coin. All it would take was for me to rub one of them the wrong way and my collection would have been incomplete no matter how hard I tried. With each owner I was completely transparent about how many of the coins I owned at the time and that it was my end game goal to reach all 9.. I knew this could potentially inflate the amount that they would want for their coin but I never wanted to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

The journey taught me a lot of patience and if there is a Coin 10 out there I am very capable of waiting much longer until the right set of eyes end up on this thread.

Fantastic job :)

"All it would take was for me to rub one of them the wrong way and my collection would have been incomplete no matter how hard I tried."

You are so casual with this, but man it's a big deal.  I really do understand, and I know not many others will.  I did this kind of stuff for years with virtual items and would successfully get things no one else was able to simply by treating people reasonably and being open/honest about everything.  Can't give you enough kudos for being successful in gathering the 9.  Takes smarts, empathy, creativity, and honesty to pull off something so legendary.

middle left coin stands out as different due to the design.

High(er) res pics?

Best I've got currently.
https://i.imgur.com/Jkrw4aOl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/rD4KZyOl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Jkrw4aO.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/Jkrw4aO.jpg) High res front
https://i.imgur.com/rD4KZyO.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/rD4KZyO.jpg) High res back

By far the most shiny of them all, was hard to get a good picture.

Just my opinion but, the number 10 I think is a clue. 

Where do you see a 10?  Maybe I'm missing it.

Also @ tee - do you confirmed have #'s 1 through 9?  Could there be a chance that you have the #10 in your collection already and are missing another #, like the 6?

https://i.imgur.com/4WMEdKa.png

This here?

Six of the coins are denominated in 10BTC. The other three are 1BTC.

Yes each coin is very well documented in the original thread posted by WoodCollector https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011340.msg10971986#msg10971986 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011340.msg10971986#msg10971986)
This is the post of his that I have quoted in my OP.

Well I wonder what denomination the 10th coin is, it's all fascinating to me and causes one to ponder the possibilities.

Got it, plz forgive my laziness. 

Monthly exposure bump. It is my hopes that eventually someone that is not regularly around sees this and reaches out with new information.

Have not searched for any clues yet. I keep pushing it off because I am scared to find or not find clues and have this adventure end.

I tried to check a few of the BTC addresses on the backs of the coins but couldn't get any to pass a checksum. Seems like they're alternating between large and small letters as capital/lowercase. My guess is a misread some of the characters because it's tricky to see in the images.


Do you have any of the correct addresses handy?

That is something I do need to add to my notes, I will take a closer look in the next few days and attempt to work them out.


I believe the original buyers sent their own addresses in to be put onto them (maybe not the 1Unity vanity address). Also nobody did send me their CoA although two of the owners did mention them. I will reach back out to the ones I can get ahold of and see if they made their own public address or if WC created them.

Definitely a poor choice to have all caps font and to just make the supposed lower case letters 1 point smaller than the uppercase.

Wow, I had forgotten all about good old WC. IIRC I was the first person to commission a piece from him. I probably still have his email address and could reach out to him for clues on these coins.

edit: do not forget the Bitcoin dildo he made either...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=871618

Lol how can anyone forget that. You definitely were the first, I reached out to a few people with the 3 or 4 bitcoin B's that he made but due to price I decided to just stick with completing the wooden coin collection. If you could throw an email out that would be pretty cool, I figured if anything he may have "Watched" his old thread with the tale laid out so I also posted a teaser linking to this more thorough thread.

I bet I couldn't even get .25BTC for my "hive" BTC

It's funny, I thought I would always forget about WC, but he never really escapes my mind.

I also commissioned a custom piece from him. A wall mount for a quarter collection, and I remember I paid 1 btc for it, but i agree with blazed, probably no chance i would even get 0.25 btc for it.

I paid wc 7.5btc to design and commission an extraordinary the No.1 physical crypto coin in the world but he disappeared without any product delivered nor refund.
Chatted up on Skype, he showed some initial print slides, then vanished. The tenth coin you are looking for could be this one.




 

Not much of an update UPDATE:

Quite a few new eyes in the Collectibles section due to the crossover/interest from the 10 year anniversary art contest so we have an opportunity for some non regulars to see this.
The darkbox I wanted to build/have built is still non existent, I just don't have the space for it right now. Definite future plan though.

I have acquired two of the three wooden BTC's that WoodCollector sold. Myaswell add them to the collection right?


*Original WoodCollector pictures used below, I will have picture's of my own with OP quality if/when I have all three together.

https://i.imgur.com/gaa3uOOl.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/cZuoJvyl.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/yGjL8QEl.jpg

In my collection:
The Hive (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=864472.0) originally owned by Blazed (Blazedout419)
Culture Cultivation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=923222) originally owned by wheresmycoin

Not in my collection:
Transcendence (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=868931) currently owned by ducatitalia

Q1 2020 bump.
Eyes on, where you at coin 10?

I am just looking to buy a woodcoin (the maker woodcollector)
Please pm me with the asking price. Thank you.  :)

This collection can be yours for only 5% of the potential treasure in the tale of WoodCollector's buried bitcoin.

Tee - Give me a price that you are looking for. I being honest my budget is between 50 to 100.

50-100BTC is a decent price teeGUMES , I’d try and barter for the higher end of that range though  :)

Maybe he will let you smell it if you are lucky for that price.

Math may not be your strong suit so I'll help you out here.

5000BTC x 0.05 = 250BTC    this is my take
5000BTC x 0.95 = 4750BTC  this could be yours

Now you ask yourself if it is worth the 1 in a billion chance that this thing is all true.
If your offer is 50BTC to 100BTC then you still need to come up a bit before I'd even consider talking. If you meant $50 to $100 then I'm gonna have to ask you to move along.

Thanks for your interest alamjob239 but your window shopping trip will have to resume.

Ok you are teasing me. You love watching me salivating. Let's do one woodcoin for auction and we will make you happy. By the way I love window shopping it give me more pleasure than actually having it. Just remember me that I love to have one of your woodcoin then you have someone to talk about these glorious coins. We will have good time.  :) Wait a second - am I smelling again!

ok I am out!
 
OK wheelz1200

If you took one second to read up you would know teegumes is not in the market to sell these, they are looking for the last coin.  Stop bumping this for rediculous reasons

Absolutely fascinating story, than so much for sharing. A friend sent me a link here, glad he did!
Cool piece of Bitcoin history revealed in the thread.
Here's hoping to success!

So here's an idea as far as the need to be physically next to the coins - what if they have embedded NFT chips? You my be able to tap your NFC enabled phone over the coins to see if anything registers. Also loo for invisible inks, blacklight, etc..

A great idea as well. I won't lie I've been slow to get through the many different ideas with finding the clues as I don't want my part in the story of this tale to potentially end.. but you never know if I ever found a number or some letters it'd also be such a good feeling and drive me mad searching for more..

I'm a fan of big round wood things(keep your jokes :p) and I'll be adding one of your FractalEncrypt Bitcoin Full Node Sculptures to the mix.. in a way it will be my temporary coin 10. Such an amazing piece and welcome to the forum.

https://twitter.com/FractalEncrypt/status/1213146377162768384 (https://twitter.com/FractalEncrypt/status/1213146377162768384)
https://i.imgur.com/4M4DD1A.jpg

Patience is a virtue.

Thank you for this quest and (rekindling) the tale of treasure. Inspiring.
Perfect display of patience, resourcefulness and persistence.
You have earned those coins and I think you made them more valuable, good luck with the hunt for #10 and clues.

I was here - in a past forum life - and saw this unfold as well, like others who commented here.
Quite the thing... A promise of treasure...

There should be treasure. If not in this adventure, maybe the next...
BTC marks the spot.

Clay

That is a beautiful piece.

[BREAKS THE GLASS TO TOUCH IT]

Thanks so much for the kind welcome! Crazy to see this come full circle (LOL).

So I ran some simple blockchain analysis on Blockchair, I was looking for (and I believe someone in the thread suggested this) 1000 unique outputs holding exactly 5 BTC (that are still spendable) that were created between July 2014 and April 2015 (I arbitrarily figured these dates may be when WoodCarver would have issued his coins), and I got 630-ish results;
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/outputs?s=value(desc),time(desc)&q=value(500000000),time(2014-07..2015-04),is_spent(false)#
This means he probably didn't create them during this time, or at least not all of them at once.

Then I ran the numbers back to January, now we have plenty of results, about 1300+ 5 BTC outputs that are still spendable.
https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/outputs?s=value(desc),time(desc)&q=value(500000000),time(2014-01..2015-04),is_spent(false)#

I think we can narrow these results to see if maybe a batch of 1000 was created at once, (via script) it seems that would be the way someone would generate 1000 addresses, or no? Or...in essence we're looking at the funding dates of the addresses, not the creation dates. so how would you think someone would fund 1000 addresses? At once? over time?

This is EXACTLY why I went public with this thread, I never even thought about this. Definitely need someone more tech-literate than myself to look into it.
It honestly makes me so happy to see other people get excited about this and share their ideas.. it's often months with nothing but every once in awhile someone with a fresh set of eyes comes along and drops a bombshell idea or new set of information. I absolutely love it.

When I get home to my notes in a few days I'll chime in with some thoughts/ideas with the blockchain analysis stuff and some WoodCollector timeline.

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

First well done on getting 9!

I own number 10, i used to own Unity and the Black Swan... I was on this forum a lot many years ago - lost the email now - I also have some other smaller coin that he sent me thats somewhere in my house here.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2223623.0

PM me - I was sent #10 as an apology believe it or not in 2016 out of the blue, if i get into my previous account here i have a load of interesting PMs with WoodCollector.

I live in Asia and #10 named, 'Lagniappe' is in my deposit safe in UK (where previous were shipped from when i sold them) - its a 100 BTC on the front and purple wood (not sure name) - very shiny. Not sure but i also remember it being bigger than the other 2.

I will be in UK on 19/2 so gladly send you some photos soon.

Wow - to find this thread as well, i just popped in to see if he was still around! Has smoothie seen this thread :) ??

Very exciting. I have sent you a PM but I would like to keep most of this in the public. I am of course very skeptical and have been ready for somebody to approach me with a fake Coin 10 that they have crafted themselves/had made locally by a wood worker. I won't go into the certain things that I would be looking for on the coin but WoodCollector has a few "tells" when it comes to his coins that someone would only know about if they were holding multiples of them. No better person to be able to tell if it is actually his work or not than someone who has nine of them :P

First lets start with a definition from wikipedia.
"A lagniappe (/ˈlænjæp/ LAN-yap, /lænˈjæp/ lan-YAP) is "a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase" (such as a 13th doughnut on purchase of a dozen), or more broadly, "something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure."[2]"

Interesting name for the coin.. WoodCollector definitely used unique/meaningful names for each of his coins. He did say he was going to gift Coin 10 to a forum member of his choosing, 'lagniappe' seems to fit within this scope.


Now I pose a couple challenges to verify you are actually ukcrypto/litecoinaddict

1. Can you provide a picture on top of this blanket with the most recent block number and last 6 digits of the hash?
https://i.imgur.com/791DvAcl.jpg

2. Can you sign a message from this bitcoin address 125gVqUrFqoa3yo1cBxWuiZZa9UNeFV6JH?

3. In private messages in 2017 you signed one of your replies with "Regards, xxxxxx" assuming your name in place of the x's what would this have been? (Answerable in PM of course) aswell you were working somewhere quite unique at the time of sending Unity/Black Swan to me.


I will add a few questions to this as time goes on, I am reviewing the conversations "we?" had back in 2017 to see if there are other defining questions I can ask that only you would be able to tell/show answers to.

I very much await February 19th and the pictures you can provide! Also the smaller coins that WoodCollector crafted would be pretty neat to see aswell.. not once has anyone mentioned ever having seen one in public or having purchased one.

You of course can provide answers to any of the questions I have posed here or simply tell me to F off :P it's up to you to further advance this tale if you'd like and I'm happy you found this thread.

Wow shit just got exciting!

One year anniversary from my reveal post. Five year anniversary from WoodCollector's final post.
I decided to update the story in OP (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5127772.msg50443964#msg50443964) and fill in some more details. (WARNING - long read and probably filled with horrible grammar/paragraph breaks)
Original OP story Archived (http://archive.is/ByLM9)


Also a small update with this post:

We are nearing two months since he has last logged in. I haven't received a reply of any sorts back from him but if it is indeed the original ukcrypto I believe he may be in one of the more widespread Covid-19 affected areas of the world and I wish the best health for them and their family.

Some people are really gullible.  Woodcollector was a scammer.  There's no hidden treasure.  Enjoy your "hand carved" slabs of wood.

Its too bad Hellot resorted to a passive aggressive personal attack rather than share his experience in the matter.

Hellot was around (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=935115.msg10272988#msg10272988) in the earlier days while the "hand carved" vs "laser engraved" drama was all going on. A quick review shows Hellot actually watched WoodCollector's supposed "proof of hand carving" YouTube video (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=935115.0) which was posted and then taken down (supposedly from WoodCollector's YouTube account being mass reported and suspended). Of course this video caused all sorts of further controversy and people were still split for or against WoodCollector. This also led to the start of WoodCollector's many alt accounts coming out in support of himself.

The thread linked has different factions championing for both real and fraud and it gets pretty heated throughout the 28 pages.. I actually didn't have the thread linked in my OP and its also a really great read.

I'd also like to add to anyone reading, my focus here is on the collection of these pieces and the preservation of one of the more dramatic pieces of bitcointalk's Collectible history. As shown in Hellot's reply we still have people with firsthand experience popping in and out, each having played a different part in this whole thing. If it weren't for both the naysayers and the believers these pieces wouldn't be nearly as collectible as they are now. I could give two shits if the treasure is real. The story is interesting, the coins are beautiful, and I'm happy with where I'm at right now in the tale. I'm not sure if I've ever taken a stance for or against WoodCollector himself yet, I'll have to review my own posts to see.. from memory the only thing I can think I've ever posted on the matter was that I am a 5% 5% 90% split with real/fake/curious.

Personal attack aside thank you for coming into the thread and reminding me about the WoodCollector YouTube video Hellot.

   
You're holding a bag of laser engraved wood made by a scammer.  I don't think they are as collectible as you seem to think they are given the fact that you were able to obtain almost the entire supply.  Too funny.

And he probably paid more than you hold total in your wallet. I am not going to get into specifics for privacy sake, but getting a hold of all of these was not cheap or easy.

 
I'd bet it was both cheap and easy.  Not like he had to leave his house and scour the countryside, there was a digital trail to each buyer and Bitcoin wasn't always expensive.

Spoken like a true user who missed the bus.

First time I've seen this thread. Pretty cool that you collected them all. The WoodCollector saga was probably one of the first big dramas I think I witnessed or was involved in here. Shame he turned out to be such a scumbag.


I think the more realistical scenario is that this was all a load of BS just to attract mystique and intrigue to try give the coins some value and demand and pump up the price.  Wood Collector was a real shady dude and we probably only just scratched the surface of his shenanigans.


I think he created many different coins and it's probably not related to these. I think part of the scam would likely be that he kept the tenth or make out that he sold it to someone and thus that inflates the price of someone wanting to track it down. He's asking for a ludicrous amount below and states he's suggested he's made others the previous year:


teeGUMES, do they all come with the 'certificates'? Are they numbered at all?


It was very unlikely anyone would have bought it for anywhere near that. As far as I recall WC had a fair few alts so it wouldn't surprise me if he just "sold" or "gifted" it to one of those accounts then that person at some point offered to sell it for as much as he could get and that would have been part of the scam.


He probably took it down himself. It proved more that he didn't or couldn't make these pieced by hand by what he showed (or didn't). I remember watching that video and really wishing someone made a copy of it. It gave away a lot of information about where he lived or at least where he worked on his woodcarving because if I remember correctly it showed him coming out of his house and walking to his garage or something like that and I think you could see the street and possibly the front of his house/drive. I tracked down one of his previous addresses back in the day. Can't remember exactly how I did it but he'd posted pictures of some of his works with a lot of the interior and they were matched to a online house listing. Think his name is out there as well and last time someone contacted me about him there was some evidence that he might have died in a car accident or something but I guess that's assuming we had the right name/person.

Thanks for your detailed insight hilariousetc.. i'll answer what I know.


Though he claims each coin came with a CoA I only ever had it mentioned to me by one of the owners. I received pictures but once the package came the card was not included with the coin / CoA.
Edited: Going through a box of my paper collectibles I did find this CoA.
https://i.imgur.com/wgBDhajh.jpg


One of the last items I received was one of the three bitcoin BTC's that WoodCollector had made "Culture Cultivation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=923222.0)" and I received a CoA with it.

https://i.imgur.com/2ovJfOLh.jpg

The quality of the printing job match fairly well so I can assume the first picture was indeed the CoA for the coin. These were done with a home printer and signed off "Bruce Wayne". Although more of these would be nice to have for provenance sake even some of my biggest critics admit:
I also can confirm that these coins weren't just premade and ready to ship. Coin 5 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=927942) had the Hand of Fatima placed on it as a direct request from the original buyer. The coins themselves are not physically numbered, only in the way they are listed in WoodCollector's quote in OP.


Regarding the YouTube video I did watch it back then without realizing the importance it would mean to me now. I do remember thinking that it didn't prove or disprove anything and I just disregarded it at the time. I believe he took it down himself for his own safety. It was brought to my attention some time in 2018 / 2019 when I was purchasing the wooden Scam Busted (https://i.imgur.com/cAEfJImh.jpg) piece that there was a crackteam of forum members tracking WoodCollector through all the public information he was posting and everything else they could gather. I saw pictures of his supposed house and was given other links to very personal information. Along with the Culture Cultivation piece and the CoA I posted earlier I received the full packing slip dox of WoodCollector. The member that sent it had made it public but I asked him to take it down, though this wasn't the first time I had seen the same dox. I decided against my own investigation into the name on the packing slip but one day I probably will be bored and see what I can find.

I actually received a C.O.A. too, I put it away and couldn't find it otherwise I would have included it. It looks a lot like the one pictured on the "Culture Cultivation" version. I will take a second look for it.

Bruce Wayne was a name - or pseudonym - he used that predates his time on this forum. I remember finding some of his work that he'd tried to sell elsewhere under that name.


To be honest to me it was more proof that he couldn't do what he was claiming. As far as I recall the intricate design was already done and it just showed him butchering the coin with a hand tool. A lot of people called him out on it so that's probably another reason he took the video down. I'm surprised he posted it at all for numerous reasons really.

Here's a collection of the better screen grabs from the video:

https://i.imgur.com/Si39Fl3h.png
https://i.imgur.com/enwwnpGh.png
https://i.imgur.com/buyv88ph.png
https://i.imgur.com/qdEty5rh.png

The completed coin was never seen as far as I know.

I read through the WoodCollector threads referenced, and others, and I would say I am very happy there are so many experts in wood making. I don't think you needed to be an expert to see what WoodCollector was doing after certain facts were highlighted.

Fraudulent or not, the coins look pretty cool. Even as laser engraved, the coins would probably not be trivial for most people to design and make.

I can say, looking at his threads that WoodCollector was a very good salesperson who knew how to gin up interest in his products. Once his reputation was ruined, he used this ability to create interest in his threads and eventually started trolling. My guess is his primary trade is some type of sales, and maybe art was a hobby of his.

I don't know if the 10th coin exists, but as time goes on, it appears less likely the 10th coin will be available for sale after this public plea. Nevertheless, your collection is very nice and is a unique part of bitcointalk history.

I have just read through the whole thread. It was an interesting journey down the memory lane. I followed the drama closely back then - I did not take any side of this drama, since I am highly allergic to drama.

I knew Nubbins from the collectible community, many of the involved people was people I traded with, so I was mostly in the background an neutral.
However I chatted a quite a bit with WC on forum PM and then later on Skype.
He was mainly was he asking me questions / seeking information about different technical aspects of bitcoin, cryptography and blockchain.

I just found my old messages, starting at 2015-01-17, then my last forum message with him was 2015-01-20, from there the conversation moved to skype.

He talked a lot about this infamous "coin 10" ... I have no opinion if the coins exist or not.
I don't know if this info is even relevant?

Nevertheless I will not post a private conversation in public, but teeGUMES you are welcome to send me a PM and I will share those few details I know.

About the youtube video, the only thing I remember was that he smoked a lot of cigarettes while "carving"  ;D
His appearance in the video and the surroundings did not give me the impression that he was one of the few grand master wood artisans.
But I know nothing about wood, so my impression is not really relevant.

September "eyes on" bump.

Nothing much of an update, the person claiming to have a possible coin 10 has never returned.
I am however working on editing my story down into a magazine type format to hopefully get into one of the future volumes of citadel21 (http://www.citadel21.com). Attempted to outsource this but it lacked the passion I need to put into it myself. Considering the OP has been about a years worth of revisions to get to something I was really happy with the magazine article will be a ways out.

You should contact that idiot on Youtube that a few months ago claimed to have done meticulous research to expose Satoshi Nakamoto. Maybe he can find him since he's an expert of this board and bitcoin. I'm sure someone could create a nice article or video on the whole event. It would be interesting to know if he's actually still alive or not. As for the tenth coin, that probably doesn't exist or only exists as part of whatever the scam he was trying to pull was.

There's an update to the woodcollector saga here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5321663.msg56490105#msg56490105

I'm fairly sure that's our guy. I was going to post it in here but it has names and addresses in it so needs to be Investigations. You should probably shoot him a message on his facebook accounts and see if he's willing to come clean or at least explain some of his behaviour. Doubt he will but it's worth a shot if you're still looking for that other coin  ;D (but I'm almost certain it doesn't exist and it was just some elaborate scam he was pulling).

A very good story.  ;D

That is some impressive detective work, maybe you should start working as a private detective  :o
There might be a end to this saga after all, I would not in my wildest imagination have thought that he would be found one day.
Some still believe the treasure is real...

The Casascius Bitcoin Analyzer says that there are only 805 pc of Casascius 5-btc physical coins still being active today.

What are the additional 1000 pc of 5-btc coins lying there? Another brand of which nobody ever heard of?

Lol, I just realized that my username is already laser cut into the wood and he’s just Dremelling away outside the lines

Master wood carver using a Dremel with a sanding drum  ;D Guess his chisels were getting sharpened  ;D

Thanks for the memories

I guess the 10th and final piece has not been recovered.

The hidden 5,000 bitcoin, much like the cake, is a lie.

Chris @ TBPCO.

I looked at the pictures and I actually found some clues in addresses.

What happened in this post:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5321663.msg56490105#msg56490105

FOr me I see the following
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.

Thnaks

[EDIT]
Okay was able to see the post. So, all this was a scam. Feel bad for tee. He/she worked hard on colllecting all 9 coins.

Do not feel sorry for me. I had almost all of the information when I took on this adventure of acquiring all nine coins (besides most of the recent detective work done by hilariousetc). This collection was never about finding a 5000BTC treasure.. that was almost immediately wiped off the table through blockchain analysis and the search for 1000 transactions of exactly 5BTC each (+ remaining at their load destination) through the time period of creation of WoodCollector's tale and months prior.
Would it have been nice? Fuck yea. Did I expect it? No.

This was about challenging myself to find all of the coins while meeting interesting people throughout the process. With the recent passing of TECSHARE, the original owner of Coin 9 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=947144), it goes to show how easily this collection could have remained broken and incomplete. Hardly any of these coins were ever put up for sale after their initial offering from WoodCollector. I reached out to each person individually and created relationships and trust while including each of them in their own way into being a further part in this tale. I'd say through this adventure I made my first "friends" in the world of bitcoin. Information was shared, laughs were had, promises were made and nothing will ever take any of that away. Some were excited to take the journey with me, while others were just happy to quell the burn they faced from the WoodCollector fiasco.

I always did wonder how somebody could create such a tale and persona across the Bitcoin Collectibles community and then never Google their name years later to see if any progress had been made. This is something that always puzzled me.. I always expected to be reached out to by a newbie account with even just a "Congratulations" or something of the like and then have a conversation with whom I'd figure to have been WoodCollector. Don't worry though I had always planned for fake Coin 10's and WoodCollector's to try and scam bitcoin from me, I had very precise questioning and information still unknown to anyone on the forum locked away in a notepad in case this ever happened. Do I want to reach out to the person unmasked by hilariousetc? No, that's not how the tale plays out in my mind.

Naysayers win this time as I do believe hilariousetc's information, this however does not change my love for this collection. I've found myself collecting more and more drama pieces with some of the most ridiculous history behind them. Alitin Mint Jeanne D'Arc.. loaded with 1BTC still in it's case.. Microsoul Russian Roulette Coin's unpeeled with potentially a 1BTC prize laying underneath, if the keys are there and in proper format.. these nine humongous wood coins... Casascius and Denarium coins a plenty, I just don't get the same feeling of excitement looking at them as I do with my little corner of potentially breached/mishandled/outright fraud coins/collectibles I have. I am proud of my collection and that will never change.

As always, I'll finish off my post with:
Hey Mr/Mrs. Coin Ten, if you're out there.. lets talk  :) I've got a treasure map and you've got the compass.

Well said, teeGUMES. :)

Chris @ TBPCo.

I get the same error...now y'all have me curious!

You need to be at least a full member in order to view threads in that section because it contains personality identifiable information aka dox information.

Intriguing, what makes someone a full member? What kind of member am I?

I was kinda hoping you or someone would try reach out to him and/or he would reappear to explain himself. It would have been nice he if just came clean about it all but he strikes me as the person who wouldn't be honest and would just troll further. I an surprised he hasn't reached out to you (or someone else claiming to be him) to try fish out some money from you for the last coin but maybe he's completely unaware of all this. Maybe he's best left be but I hope the law catches up with him at some point. If I can find the info out then law enforcement should be able to as well but maybe they're just not looking for him. I wonder if anyone from the Bonsai community took legal action against him.


It's just an investigation into what is almost certainly his real identity. He's no Craig Wright satoshi that's for sure.


You're a Newbie until you get 30 activity. You need 120 activity and 100 merit to become a Full Member: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2766177.0

This is wild asf!! I cannot believe all this happened and how much bitcoin he scammed, compared to the price the past year or so...  It does give me some ideas for future projects or ways to increase the worth of my artwork so I appreciate you sharing the entire experience and story.

Wish you all the best and maybe one day he will make it right.. I cannot imagine the weight of being that unimpeccable would be on his shoulders..

https://i.imgur.com/xrRK39M.png

Lol at first I was looking through your pictures on the blog looking for a bonsai tree as we had found information that WoodCollector moved onto scamming the bonsai tree community, then I read the above excerpt from your About PBA (https://physicalbitcoinart.com/pages/about-me) page and burst out laughing. Guess I'll say "Hello WC or WC's friend" and add this hilarious coincidence to the WoodCollector saga.

If you ever hit Full Member here you can look at this thread and there might just be some pictures of somebody you know -- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5321663.msg56490105#msg56490105 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5321663.msg56490105#msg56490105)
The friend you "met" in 2019 with a Bonsai Garden could very well be WoodCollector who was being accused of scamming bonsai enthusiasts in early 2020 in the thread above.

An ego like his I figured he'd eventually Google his old username and come across this thread.

I'm still very happy with having completed this collection, they look incredible displayed. Was I scammed? No, I bought these for the history/story. Does this directly link PhysicalBitcoinArt to WoodCollector? No but one hell of a coincidence.
Ask your friend about Coin 10 and let me know what he says ;)

I thought this recent thread had WoodCollector vibes also, but I guess we could say that anytime a woodworker comes around here now after the PTSD that WoodCollector gave us.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5406899.0

I agree with you that his pieces were quite nice and other than his hand carving claims I don't think he was actively out to scam people, although it does seem that was the end result in several cases.  I think he could have had a bright future here had he stuck around.  Funny that his "friend" popped up with a new spin on this old tale.  One of the interesting stories we've gotten to experience over the years.

Very interesting! If you wanted to send me a private message or email ( physicalbitcoinart@gmail.com) with screen shots of what's posted on that thread, I could let you know. My buddy lived somewhere in Florida.. He has one of the biggest bonsai gardens in the USA and paid me in bitcoin to do work around there. Maybe I could provide his bitcoin address he paid me with and see if it crosses with one you guys paid him?? That is a wild coincidence I must say hahaha