Bitcoin Forum

Stacks Bowers has begun allowing physical cryptocurrencies in their auctions with a 0.1BTC Lealana coin being sold last fall.  There are a number of physical cryptocurrency lots in their Spring 2022 Rarities Night auction including Casascius 0.5, 1, and 5 BTC coins funded and unfunded from 2011-13, and 2013 Lealana Bitcoins and Litecoins of all denominations.

I have put up for auction (online bidding currently active) with a live auction finale April 5th 5PM ET full Lealana Bitcoin and Litecoin sets with them.

Stack's Bowers Rarity Night Lot List (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/auctions/3-VJEB2/the-spring-2022-auction-session-3-rarities-night-featuring-the-andrew-m-hain-huberman-pieper-collections-lots-3001-3223)

My coins for auction include this lovely Lealana BTC set from 2013 (Serial #24)

0.1 BTC PR70 Deep Cameo (PCGS)  (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGL6/2013-lealana-01-bitcoin-btc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-1btcm9ir-serial-no-24-black-address-serialized-25-mm-proof-)
0.25 BTC PR69 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGLN/2013-lealana-025-bitcoin-btc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-1btc3ihv-serial-no-24-black-address-serialized-30-mm-proof)
0.5 BTC PR70 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGMA/2013-lealana-05-bitcoin-btc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-1btcy1fh-serial-no-24-black-address-serialized-39-mm-proof-)
1 BTC PR69 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGMR/2013-lealana-gold-b-1-bitcoin-btc-gold-plated-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-1btcp6vy-serial-no-24-black-address-serial)

In addition to that Bitcoin set I have also put up a Lealana Litecoin set (Serial #45)

5 LTC PR68 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGN8/2013-lealana-5-litecoin-ltc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-ltc5zzxb-serial-no-45-black-address-serialized-25-mm-proof-)
10 LTC PR68 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGNO/2013-lealana-10-litecoin-ltc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-ltcxjbwf-serial-no-45-black-address-serialized-30-mm-proof)
25 LTC PR66 Deep Cameo (PCGS) (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-VJGO4/2013-lealana-25-litecoin-ltc-silver-loaded-unredeemed-firstbits-ltoguwua-serial-no-45-black-address-serialized-39-mm-proof-)

Happy Bidding!!!

PCGS grading crypto.. since when?

Approx October... One person convinced Stacks Bowers to put up a 0.1 BTC Lealana coin in the November auction and they use PCGS... I followed suit and now theres probably around 20 PCGS graded crypto coins.

I just sent 8 Lealanas and Casascius coins to PCGS. I haven't received them back yet but I'll give a report to the forum on the experience when I do. One coin in particular is a .25 Lealana with a Gold Hologram Black Buyer Funded. I asked them to give this a special designation due to the rarity. We'll see how much they are willing to care about special details.

All the best to you as you sell your coins. You are forging the way on a new auction sight. Here's for the hobby growing. Stacks Bowers entering into physical bitcoins is a big deal in my opinion due to their history, reputation and large exposure to a big collecting base outside of traditional bitcoiners.

Steeley

Sent PCGS an email yesterday but haven't heard back yet. This is great news. Ill be anxious to hear how it goes. I have some Lealana's I like to send in. Your right I hope they put all the info on the banner. The color of the first bits and that gold holo make a difference and I hope they take it seriously.

They do actually designate special coloration of addresses, error coins, special coloration of holograms, etc. Especially at request. They’re good at PCGS and care.

Had my coins graded by them in 2018.

How does Stacks Bowers work? Whatever the final price of the auction they add 17.5% and that is their fee? Or is that fee just charged to the buyer and then Stacks Bowers also takes a cut of the final price of the auction? Then I guess there is also sales tax added for the buyer.

I guess my question is what is the amount that the seller finally ends up with?

Stacks Bowers will negotiate a specific fee structure for your coins.

I’m not sure on sales tax because I haven’t looked into the buying side but I know I’ll have to pay long term capital gains tax.

Thanks for the correction. I’m assuming yours are some denom of Casascius or Lealana 1LTC? I know there was only 1 Lealana coin PCGS graded before mine of larger denominations.

Very nice coins. I am looking forwards to see what they go for.

Thank you. Me too.

Awesome, thanks for the insight. Man, this is exciting to see what these will go for. Good luck!!!!

Well. There was a 0.1BTC Lealana also PR70 that sold in Nov for a 500% premium. I’d be ecstatic with a 6x face value sale like that, but not necessarily expecting it.

Yeah, I do remember that. But that wasn't even a funded coin!! And I think we all know its not as rare as the information claimed it to be, though it still may be a fairly rare variation. But these are funded coins which, at least in my opinion, are way more intriguing. I think we are going to see you get a very very nice premium.

It was funded. But definitely not so rare a coin. Definitely not sets either.

Anybody can bid with no verification how is that a secure auction?

Bids under $5k you verify if you win. Over $5k you can’t bid without verification.

My IQ is going to get lower with every post,

If you call they up you to 10k, if you do an application than you can get approved for more.

If you make an account same day limit is not high enough to matter at all

Thanks for the additional info. Most countries don’t really require KYC until you hit around $10k so that makes sense.

Only coin I don?t expect to break $5k is the 5 LTC coin. But someone trying to get the whole set may go over that.

That .1 Lealana on Stacks Bowers was a "Buyer funded" variant, I just saw that it was funded by the buyer. I guess that price would make a little more sense if there was actually some BTC on there. I researched it as much as I could when I initially heard about it, but I never saw any mention of it actually being funded, the description on the listing wasn't so clear. I can only imagine a funded, non "buyer-funded" variant would be much more desirable.  

https://www.stacksbowers.com/News/Pages/Blogs.aspx?ArticleID=lealana-physical-bitcoin-november-2021-showcase-auction

https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-TYP2B/2013-silver-lealana-01-bitcoin-btc-no-3605-series-1-unredeemed-buyer-funded-black-address-troy-ounce-999-silver-25mm-sp-7?utm_source=coinweek

https://www.pcgs.com/valueview/bitcoin/2013-1-btc-lealana-bitcoin-4oz-999-fine-silver-dcam/203114?sn=891659&g=0&h=coinfacts

“The value of this piece was buyer-funded and remains unredeemed, further increasing the desirability.”

Yah the wording is a little weird. The BTC price was a bit higher at the time of that sale, but I’m hoping the rarity and desire for a set will yield a better hammer price than that coin did.

Bump. Check em out peeps. Only 3 days left til they hit the block.

Tomorrow, Tuesday 4/5 5pm ET, auction starts. Expect an hour or 2 before the crypto coins get close. Take a look and enjoy the wonderful coins.

2 hours until Session 3 rarities night starts.

Funded crypto coins? You have any photos?

Links to the auctions/photos in first post.

He means the part about being graded by them in 2018... He was replying to elmejorrematador

This auction finished with very high premiums. Wow. I only scanned quickly but it looks like almost all went for over 2x load. The unloaded Casascius Bit nickel went for nearly $5k.

Good sign for collectors.

Steeley

https://i.ibb.co/g7ct7M2/Screen-Shot-2022-04-05-at-9-41-56-PM.png (https://ibb.co/7z0rzJf)
https://i.ibb.co/L8m7P4R/Screen-Shot-2022-04-05-at-9-41-41-PM.png (https://ibb.co/KXdvGCh)
https://i.ibb.co/rpVLbmc/Screen-Shot-2022-04-05-at-9-41-22-PM.png (https://ibb.co/Lg3qQ8J)
https://i.ibb.co/Ny1bL8H/Screen-Shot-2022-04-05-at-9-41-07-PM.png (https://ibb.co/HHN3rWk)

Who are the clients of this auction house? Are they high/end collectors who don't know the forum prices? At premiums like these I think we can anticipate other auction houses to join in on this.

Even redeemed cas coins pulling a few thousand when the y can be grabbed on ebay for a few hundred dollars.

a bitnickel for almost $5k? who is buying this stuff?

From what I've gathered so far, I'd say it's a "Yes", strangely enough. ::)

I can't imagine there are a lot of lealanas that are MS70 I was thinking that contributed to the high premiums

I did keep my coins excellent, but there is a huge market of numismatists that are getting their eyes opened to a new area with these coins. I’m sure there are a lot of 66+ that will get huge premiums over the next few years.


In all honesty I got what I was hoping and then some out of the LTC coins. But I was hoping for another $50-100k minimum on the bitcoins. This entering the mainstream is really going to change things.

PS thank you @Eclipse33 for posting the prices. I was going to in the morning.

PPS I got shot down by 5 major auction houses trying to get these listed. Stacks Bowers is the leader on the crypto front. I hope other auction houses start to accept crypto.

Wow, congrats!! Can't believe the prices they went for. Actually, I can believe it, but I suppose being familiar with these coins and knowing the prices over the years its just amazing to see these finally capturing huge premiums. Its actually not that ridiculous when you compare it to something like baseball cards. The amount of money people are dropping on those things these days is just retarded, so many of those cards aren't even rare. I know Steve Aoki dropped like 10 million on sports cards. I think we're going to be seeing a lot of that, just super rich guys looking to diversify in anything. 

Does Stacks Bowers remove the tax that needs to be paid before they send you your funds? Or is that all on you? Have to say i deeply regret ever selling of any coins in the past, physical and digital for that matter, hahaha.

Thanks for sharing the info with us and blazing some trails.

I honestly wonder what the requirements are for a coin to make that grade. I have some coins I feel were not graded fairly by PCGS. One of them is a gold Titan. Its just a beautiful coin and they gave it an MS 67. As well as some other Lealana's I have I thought would be at least MS 69. I'm most likely eventually going to have them regraded, maybe by ICG, because I honestly fell like the guy who graded mine's wife yelled at him or something that day before he left to work, hahaha. Of course i know there are some criteria they follow, but at the end of the day it human judgement. I also have a very rare 1 centavo from the Philippines minted by the US Mint which may very well be the best specimen in existence. My father picked it up in the Philippines back in the 60's and its been in a coin slip till i had it graded. The person who graded it found it to be suspicious because of the toning!!! Like I did something to it to make it that way. Anyway. I'm sure plenty of us have similar grading stories.

@PhysicalCoins4Sale

If you don't mind me asking, how much of a fee did the house take? What was the experience of getting your coins graded by PCGS?

What was the process. 

Stacks Bowers will negotiate fee structure with you based on your specific consignment. They also have to charge sales tax depending on the location of the buyer.

The experience with PCGS was pretty quick and excellent. Stacks actually handled the whole thing and grading cost just over $100 a coin (paid out of the sale price). Stacks being a large customer of PCGS probably gets a discount and definitely gets some pull on getting coins rush graded. The BTC set they had graded very quickly so they could start advertising it and the LTC coins took a few weeks. Basically if you call in to Stacks and set an appointment to drop off or ship in your coins, they handle the rest. I actually brought mine in to NYC personally and they insured them for free and shipped them to CA for the grading and auction. Very smooth experience.

No they don’t. It’s on you. Which is a good thing because you’re taxed differently depending on how long you held the coins and what bracket you’re in. In my case, holding the coins for about 9 years (over 12 months) it’s long term capital gains. It would be different if you purchased them and then sold within 12 months.

I actually think that your sets did very well at the auction.
On top of that, SB takes care of almost everything for you... makes it even more yummy.

James, who handled everything start to finish for the sale of my coins has agreed to have his contact information shared here. He handles a lot of the cataloguing and the consignors and is open to feedback on ways to improve the presentation for the future sale of crypto coins. If you have any coins you’d like to sell through Stacks Bowers he can help you out with that as well.

James McCartney
Director of Consignments and Numismatics
Stack's Bowers Galleries
470 Park Ave
New York, NY 10022
646-443-5455
JMcCartney@StacksBowers.com

Please be respectful with this information. He’s a good guy and is very helpful and excited about a new space being forged in the traditional numismatist community.

Pump our bags James

He did mention that a lot of the buyers last night were more in the realm of traditional coins and wouldn’t look at crypto as an investment in collectibles. He sees the premiums going up from here with new interest, acceptance, and familiarity with physical crypto.

Hey, sorry. I didn't realize your reply was directed at me. What photos would u like to see?