Bitcoin Forum

I want to give a huge shout out to Polymerbit for making his debut in Stacks Bowers tomorrow with this amazing PMG graded "cold storage document" note. Wow! So amazing man, I am so pumped to see what this ends up going for!

Here is a link to the auction:

https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-134S4P/unfunded-2020-polymerbit-bitcoin-cold-storage-document-firstbits-125gnk7s-serial-no-a000061-series-2a-u-nd-gem-uncirculated-66-pp

Info from link provided about Polymer's note:

LOT DESCRIPTION
Desirable Unfunded Polymerbit Bitcoin "Banknote"

Gem Uncirculated 66 PPQ (PCGS)

Unfunded 2020 Polymerbit Bitcoin Cold Storage Document. Firstbits 125GNK7s. Serial No. A000061. Series 2A-U (ND). Gem Uncirculated 66 PPQ (PCGS).

Unfunded and non-loaded. This specimen represents the very first of the type to be offered by our firm. It functions in a similar way to the popular crypto coins by Casascius, Lealana and others, featuring an associated public address that can be loaded to a custom amount and a private key hidden behind a security seal that can be used to redeem the value. Polymerbit claims that this issue is "the culmination of four years of security design and production improvements. The design efforts on this note alone have exceeded 100 hours.."

Though officially labeled as cold storage "document", the format generally resembles the banknotes printed for circulation in the United Kingdom. This undoubtedly makes them desirable to the passionate community of world paper money collectors as well as crypto enthusiasts. Public Address: 125GNK7sVfHRcvm8Rw8Aw22WCxdsyXCzNE.

PCGS# 1132633.

Click here for certification details from PCGS.

PCGS # 1132633

Awesome to see. I really need to get my polymerbit notes in for grading at PCGS

This is great to see! Congrats polymerbit!

 Yes that is exciting to see for sure....now that Bitbills are also being graded would be nice to see one in this auction house sometime in the future.

  Also looking forward to see what they bring at greatcolelctions.com.

   Slowly but surely we are being exposed to the masses.

Not quite sure whos bidding on these coins but one thing is clear. They have no clue what their bidding on. The Yarr coin sells for $80 but the united crypto states coin sells for $556. This coin is still available  at top world coins for $100, loaded with 28 cents. Dont get me wrong im excited about the new buyers and interest in our hobby. Just wish they would come here first and get educated. There were a lot less coins in this auction then the last so hooefully supply is finding its way into permanent collections

The final sale price of $720 was unexpected. This was not our listing, and we did not profit from this sale.

While I agree that research and knowledge are important; there's a counterargument to be made:

Collectibles in this forum are undervalued.

It boils down to supply and demand, increasing demand (via a new market of wealthy buyers) will inevitably affect the equilibrium price.

Auctions tend to set the price of art and collectibles.

I found it quite funny that the United States crypto coin sold for so much when you can find many on eBay for under $100! Clearly a lot of uneducated buyers getting into the space which I guess is good overall for the market.

Yeah, mixed feelings, if the buyer finds out later on and cares much about money it could lead to negative feelings regarding crypto collectibles. My guess is these are mostly very wealthy bidders and some of them just throw a few (hundret) bucks at the "smaller" items listed while also bidding on some of the big Cas and Lealana coins, so probably no harm done.

Seeing all these rare and partly unknown items on Stacks Bowers always makes me quite happy. Finally some more recognition!

 Followed the auction and was pleasantly surprised how high some Casascius coins went for.

  Especially the silver Gilt, which is one of my most favorite out of all the the coins Mike made.

  Also congrats on the Polymerbit note as well....nice sell price!

Just touching on the recent auction(s), the .01 newer Lealanas and Satoris really bog down these auctions. I felt bored watching these sell as there have been so many submitted in the last few. Name recognition, and I get it, cash in if I held a large amount of them. The initial auctioneer also did a better job of describing and promoting excitement for each piece vs. the latter. Still a lot of fun to watch the amazing pieces sold.

 Mentioning Satori chips....I would love to place an entire roll and see how that would do on this auction site...but then again they would want them to all be graded first...Can't see myself taking apart a roll just for the grading.

  I think the roll in itself is a collectable and would leave it the way it is as its worth more that way than broken apart.

  Just my two Sats on that subject  ;)

I have the opposite opinion - I feel that the items here are more accurately priced here on the forums where more knowledgeable people are and out there - the fomo and the hype make people spend 10x what they should and eventually later they will find out they were ripped off - in some of the cases - and then it goes counterproductive to our niche.

that said, it is an auction at least and not just some blanket stupid high price slapped on it.

really puts the importance on "DYOR" before buying.



agreed! do not break open the roll!

I tend to agree more with polymerbit on this. Sure, it's easy to dismiss most of art and collectible markets as overvalued. If you see it that way, then outside forum prices for crypto collectibles are probably overpriced.
But our forum isn't frequented much, many auctions aren't recognized by more than a dozen collectors, so how does this represent a "realistic" price? I guess the "real" value of most collectibles is somewhere in the middle of forum prices and high bids in Stacks auctions.
Long run, when/if Bitcoin becomes mainstream and more and more collectos become aware of this field, current prices will most likely still be peanuts compared to what will be called normal then.



Good point. A full roll would be very interesting - maybe there is a way to get it verified without breaking the seal?

   Is that even possible? I mean has a full roll ever been rated and then sealed? Not sure if that can be done or if possible.

   Perhaps it has and I am not aware of it. It would be nice to see such a thing encapsulated as it would break my heart

    to break a roll and have each chip graded for sure.

NGC does this, but only for Eagles and Pandas.  :(
Looks like they do open the roll to put inside these capsules though.....

https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading/holders/certified-rolls/

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/06/20/HPas9.png

As far as the Satori coins, which do you all think is more valuable , a 25 count roll in the plastic or the rolls that are put into the Guardhouse White boxes that has each coin in its own plastic capsule? ( i have a couple boxes with coin serial#s in the 19k so i was just wondering) thank you  :)

Honestly, the sealed factory roll is more valuable than a full roll opened and put into individual cases. It's kind of counterintuitive but collectors like things in their original state and untampered with as much as possible.

That is incredible, congrats! Even if you didn't personally profit from that sale its an honor receiving the recognition from Stacks Bowers in this niche cryptomatists space (crypto + numismatist- did I just coin a new term? lol). I also couldn't agree with you more on the subject these collectibles are simply undervalued, as more and more people from the newer generations are introduced to Bitcoin and crypto the demand for these types of coins / notes can only go up I would imagine.  In 10 more years we will have a whole new set of adults making disposable income that will be educated on crypto and bitcoin,there is no telling what another generation and 10 more years of advancements and awareness it will bring!

Thanks for sharing and congratulations. I would agree that collectibles on this forum are undervalued as displayed by these auctions. I see that a NastyFans Minted Seat was also sold in this auction at a substantial premium than one could be purchased new from our site right now. Makes you think that there’s an opportunity in being a middleman and selling collectibles like this for USD that can currently only be purchased with BTC.

https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-134S4C/2014-nastyfans-1-seat-silver-medal-firstbits-1nasty7c-ms-68-icg

I thought this was noteworthy myself:

https://stacksbowers.com/sbpressreleases/over-620000-in-bitcoins-and-crypto-sold-in-the-stacks-bowers-june-2023-auction/

Congrats to @Polymerbit as well! :D

I would have to agree with you, the auction itself was a little boring to watch, I wish they would highlight the pieces better instead of just focusing on the bidding, honestly it would give the auction itself more time because they are talking about interesting facts about the coins and also stating the most recent high bidding, I think if they really wanted to bolster the auction prices they would do that to help. More time = more money IMO

Am I crazy, wasn't this the first polymerbit note (https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-116N96/great-britain-polymerbit-ltd-1-bitcoin-2022-p-unlisted-cold-storage-document-pcgs-banknote-superb-gem-uncirculated-67-ppq) they auctioned?


While this is generally true, you do need to be a lot more careful how you store them if they are not in capsules. I have some loose satori's I kept in the original plastic holder and the holograms have degraded. Other coins in the same spot in airtite capsules had no issues.

https://wiki.coin.community/images/f/f5/Satori-damage.jpg

  All my coins inside the rolls are inside a waterproof box with silica gel packets to absorb any humidity.

  I feel this way there as safe as they can be. I would hate to take anything out of the rolls cause in my opinion are more valuable this way than broken apart.

I got this message from James yesterday:

"Please note that we have finalized production on our August auction and are now building our November sale. Any items received between now and September 7 will be scheduled for November. After then, we’ll move on to our March 2024 sale."