Bitcoin Forum

A “stretch” for the investor to purchase in 2011, the coin
has increased in value a staggering 9,786 times since then
and is now the world’s most valuable numismatic item.

A gold-plated 25 BTC coin will be offered
in upcoming auction by GreatCollections Coin Auctions

(Irvine, California) October 4, 2021 – Not seen for a decade and kept forgotten for several years in a desk drawer, a legendary one-ounce “Gold Cas” coin with a denomination of 1,000 Bitcoins (BTC) purchased in December 2011 for $4,905 has surfaced. It is now worth $48 million at the BTC value as of Monday morning, October 4, 2021.

The owner of the world’s most valuable numismatic item admits it “was definitely a stretch to make the purchase” a decade ago, but he’s not tempted to sell it now even after its astounding increase in value.

https://www.greatcollections.com/images/gc/bitcoin/banner_2.jpg

“This is the greatest return on investment for any numismatic item, a staggering 9,786 times the purchase price in just ten years. It may be the world’s greatest investment in that time span,” stated Ian Russell, President of GreatCollections of Irvine, California (www.GreatCollections.com) whose client owns the gold 1,000 Bitcoin coin.

“It was definitely a stretch to make the purchase in 2011, as I didn't really know what Bitcoin was or how I was going to redeem it one day,” the coin’s anonymous owner said in a written statement. “I remember trying to decide whether to buy this one piece for $4,905 or whether to buy two gold bars -- about $4,000 at the time -- but thankfully decided on the ‘Gold Cas.’”

Russell said the current owner of this 1,000 gold BTC is not the presumed founder of the digital currency Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.  There have been suggestions that the founder of Bitcoin owns iconic Bitcoin items such as the “Gold Cas.”

   The 1,000 BTC coin now resides in an overseas bank vault and is not for sale because the owner is optimistic about the long-term prospects for Bitcoin. However, Russell announced that a gold-plated 25 BTC coin will be offered without reserve by GreatCollections in an auction (www.GreatCollections.com) that closes on November 14.

https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/1053185/2011-25-BTC-Casascius-Bitcoin-Gold-Plated-Coin-PCGS-MS-67

“Bidding will start at $1, although I anticipate this 25 BTC will sell for more than $1 million,” predicted Russell.

Russell submitted the 1,000 and 25 BTC coins under armed guard for certification to Professional Coin Grading Service in Santa Ana, California. The gold 1,000 BTC coin is graded a perfect PCGS Proof 70 (on a numismatic grading scale of 1 to 70) Deep Cameo, and the 25 BTC is certified PCGS Mint State 67.

PCGS Interim President Stephanie Sabin stated: “This coin is set apart in its cultural significance in merging the worlds of cryptocurrency and traditional numismatics. Combine this with the staggering value of the Bitcoins it contains and we have a new Goliath."

“Gold Cas” is a reference to “Casascius,” the brand of BTC coins produced from 2011 to 2013. The company was created by Mike Caldwell to create physical “Casascius coins” in increments of 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 25, 100 and 1,000 BTC units. Caldwell also produced some BTC ingots.

Only six 1,000 gold BTC Casascius coins were made and four of them have not been redeemed including the one owned by Russell’s client.

“I was looking to buy gold and at the time in 2011 it hit a record high and was being reported almost daily in the newspapers, alongside stories about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency,” recalled the coin’s owner.   “Most of the stories were negative about Bitcoin back then, but since the newspapers were giving it space, I thought there might be more to it.  The ‘Gold Cas’ got my attention since it had gold and Bitcoin combined.”

He added: “When I bought the coin for $4,905, I really had no idea what the potential was, otherwise, I would have bought more than one!  After the purchase, I forgot about it, leaving it in a desk drawer.  That changed in late 2013 when I saw a headline about Bitcoin being worth $1,000, and it hit me that the coin I purchased for $4,905 was suddenly worth $1 million.  It prompted me to work out what Bitcoin was all about, and since that time I've been watching it closely.  Since the value of the coin increased to $1 million, there were other milestones I remember, such as when it hit the $10 million mark and then again at $25 million.” 

“The value of the ‘Gold Cas” eclipses classic rare coins, such as the gold 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle recently auctioned by Sotheby's for $18,872,250 and owned by another GreatCollections client, or the Sultan of Muscat 1804 Draped Bust silver dollar we recently purchased at auction for $7,680,000 on behalf of a client,” Russell said.

"It's the ultimate 21st century collectible, merging gold with cryptocurrency; a cultural phenomenon considering the vast numbers of people under 30 who own some cryptocurrency as investments,” he stated.

Russell said the current owner of this 1,000 gold BTC is not the presumed founder of the digital currency Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.  There have been suggestions that the founder of Bitcoin owns iconic Bitcoin items such as the “Gold Cas.”

For additional information, contact GreatCollections at 949-679-4180 or visit online at www.GreatCollections.com.

About GreatCollections
GreatCollections is an auction house for certified coins and banknotes, handling transactions from start to finish. Since its founding in 2010, GreatCollections has successfully auctioned over 950,000 certified coins, making it one of the leading certified coin companies in the United States. Ian Russell, owner/president of GreatCollections, is a member of the prestigious Professional Numismatists Guild and member of the National Auctioneers Association. For more information about GreatCollections, visit www.GreatCollections.com or call (800) 442-6467.

Nice to see you guys here.

Also a heads-up that 25BTC coin you have for auction was loaded almost 10 years ago, based on the casascius tracker https://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1Pwt5dgzyMECvoykN4rbMEVE4YNSaeXyaD (https://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1Pwt5dgzyMECvoykN4rbMEVE4YNSaeXyaD)

very nice! Though with 1000 BTC even if at face value. one could live a very comfortable life and if not an idiot make something that would provide for his family for many many generations. Will be watching to see how the 25 BTC coin goes as well!

Update the title....its now worth $50,000,000 PLUS collectors value of the Casascius Godl coin PLUS all the forked coins that go a long with it!

  At the current value of Bcash of $567...thats an additional $567,000!

Raffle?

I didn't know www.greatcollections.com but appreciate their services already: auctions in FIAT and the trust-factor for clients is outsourced => important for people with newby-status

Or even worse: I got my 0/0/-1 some weeks ago after doing 2 successful transactions worth >0,5BTC for asking if we could push each others trust because I intend doing more business here on the board myself. Additionally I found the board VERY INFORMATIVE & RELIABLE since getting re-active solely for a KIALARA auction some month ago. For showing my real-world reliability obviously trust-points are essential...
=> but where's the point of having a trust-system when the guy you've done successful businesses with "rewards" you negative... whose solely reason to entrust him that amount of BTC in the first place was his trust-level on this very board? Yeah, no-yeah [/sarcasm].

@GreatCollections: What about international clients? Do you have an office in Europe which organizes grading/shipping/etc. which would make the whole process a lot easier for the emerging market Europe?

All I found was "Duties may be assessed by your country's customs office and are the sole responsibility of the Buyer." in your terms & services but there arise several questions of taxes. Especially if you think about unopened or fabric new coins which are not graded to this date... redeemed/unredeemed/owner loaded but with open accessible proof e.g.: on https://uberbills.com/ or https://status.denarium.com/coin/

@all: Is there an online auction service in Europe worth mentioning (and besides ebay)? Preferable one that does grading, too. All I found was an auction-site that autocorrects "Bitcoin" to "bitkin" (Turkish currency) which is a nice try but feels like a non-establishe market...

What a crazy story, 50Mill

Great Collections and all:

This was picked up by Yahoo Finance and run there as well:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kept-drawer-2-years-4-181200905.html (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kept-drawer-2-years-4-181200905.html)

Steeley

What a coin ! incredible one !  :o

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

https://i.imgur.com/AF44m3H.jpg

This coin is a very historic item, I would love to get it on a poster...

Fed says hold my beer.

https://www.axios.com/trillion-dollar-platinum-coin-mint-janet-yellen-223e7722-d7ba-47c9-b5f6-49a841d181de.html

Reads like an Onion article

b - plz and thank you.

In before someone comments that the buyer would have been better off holding their Bitcoin and not purchasing this coin in the first place...
Be careful OP, I've gotten negative trust feedback for mentioning a coin's value in USD.  :D
Sorry for the obvious troll.  I just love the double standards of this place sometimes.  

This is no doubt a great coin.  I really enjoy looking at mine (although it has been a few years since I've seen it, lol).  The idea that a few lines of test on the blockchain is the only thing keeping mine from being the most valuable coin in the world is pretty cool, although I guess everyone could say that same thing about their Bitcoin wallets.   :)



Don't stress it.  I've done business with nearly everyone on this board and many don't leave me trust because they are salty about some truth I told at some point or that I exposed wrongdoing by one of their buddies.  Some of them have trusted me to handle tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in trades and would do so again...  I even get people leaving me negative trust out of jealousy (see above mentioned example).  You just have to realize who the bad actors are and leave them a ~ in your trust settings so you can ignore their judgement.  The default trust network is a mess right now, so you sort of have to take it into your own hands.

the only way that it would have been worth more if they bought/held btc is if the same amount spent on the coin would have been used to buy btc and only then if that btc would today be worth more than that coin. If so, then it would have been better to buy/hodl the btc. If not, then the coin is a better deal. Probably helps that the coin is super rare and made of gold that so that increases the value, quite a bit imo.

that is not the same as the guys who spent btc to buy your seats, while your seats are (for some) worth more USD now than maybe they spent ie paid 100 bucks and seat is worth 110 bucks (made up numbers, I have no idea what anyone paid or what their seats are worth and that would vary for each person) so yes they are up 10% but had they bought 100 bucks in btc and held it, they would be up considerably more.

In the end, I think it is safe to say, hindsight being 20/20 the best anyone could have done was to buy btc and hodl.

These coins were priced in USD and offered for sale in Bitcoin, exactly the same situation as my offerings...  Just stating the facts.  There is literally nothing you could have purchased back then in the world that would be worth more BTC today than back then.  Even the Coinbase initial ownership offering has failed to keep up with Bitcoin itself.  I feel this is necessary to continue to point out until the community gets it.  This thread is a perfect example...  People are valuing things in USD, not BTC.  All the major news agencies aren't giving the purchase price in BTC for a reason.  It doesn't matter.

Edit: For anyone actually wondering (not that it matters), the purchase price when released for these Casascius coins in Bitcoin was 1,578.125 BTC.  By the logic of some on this forum, that means purchasing one of these coins would have resulted in the loss of over 550 BTC (or more than $27,500,000), so we can all breathe a sigh of release that we didn't purchase one.

Would you rather have a coin locked away in an offshore vault or an extra 550 BTC? (sigh)

This exclusive collectible is delightful ... but I would definitely prefer a coin over an additional 550 bitcoins, at least for the reason that during ten years during the peaks I would have repeatedly been tempted to convert some part of bitcoins into dollars. I suspect that in the end, I (or from someone who would also prefer additional bitcoins) would have had an order of magnitude less dollars left than dollars in the equivalent of a collectible coin.

I'm in the same camp as the owner of this coin, even if I had 1000 bitcoin I would not accept dollars for a single one. why trade the best performing asset for the worst? 😆

As regrettable as it may sound, as long as you and the whole world buy yourself coffee and milk for dollars, Bitcoin will demonstrate similar dynamics to the dynamics of American stock indices. And even with the Fed's shitty monetary policy, we're still stumped because most trade is still done with the dollar.

That is why I said that I would choose a collectible coin, because if I did not do this, then over time I would not have left a single bitcoin out of 1500 (just for the reason that I use crypto every day and everywhere).

This is why I like the coins, they keep me from selling my coins.

My pee brain would have moved my BTC into a shitcoin by now if it was not locked behind the shiny magic sticker.

The only reason this guy even has the 1000 BTC is probably because it was safe in this cold storage format, not on a lost hard drive.

Now TMZ is running the story. It's getting a lot of press.

https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/06/bitcoin-gold-cas-crypto-million/ (https://www.tmz.com/2021/10/06/bitcoin-gold-cas-crypto-million/)

What do you think a peeled 1000 cas is worth now?

Hell with a peeled one...  I hope this brings up the value of the unpeeled and never loaded ones.   ;D

It is amazing how much press this is getting.  I never would have thought TMZ would be carrying a story about Casascius coins...  It looks like the long running drought in Casascius values may be coming to an end?  Probably a bit premature, but it definitely seems like we're approaching the point where more people will want these coins than the supply can accommodate. 

LOL  :D :D

"moved my BTC into a shitcoin"... it took me far too many years to stop relating to that comment  :D

Another outlet https://www.coinnews.net/2021/10/05/greatcollections-submits-48m-gold-1000-bitcoin-physical-coin-to-pcgs/

It's crazy how some dude's side project ( Mike ) can suddenly a few years later spawn off the most valuable coins in the world.

I foresee all physical crypto coins becoming items of total legend in the next 10 years. Demand will far outstrip the load value. They won't be thought of in load value they will instead be thought of as highly sought after collectables.

Any chump can buy a bitcoin on the exchange, but only a few can own one that is loaded on a pretty coin that can be held in their hand.

I find myself spending minimum probably 30 minutes a day staring at the shiny hologram on at-least one of my coins.

Just wait till these get out of the gold and silver bug circles and become status symbols.

maybe a rapper or a celebrity will flash one in a music video, or Elon tweets about one.

I don't think you should be influenced by the whim of a celebrity but most people are.

  I gotta agree with this...and we are a part of that wonderful collectable hobby  ;)

I understand what you mean, but I didn't even think that there could be such dependence on coins, although you probably have an extremely large denomination of the coin, so you admire them for 30 minutes. As for tweets or celebrity videos that could spark hype, I have a plan. What if we ask Charlie as a regular in the collectibles section to help us with this? I know that he had a couple of large denomination coins that he wanted to sell, and he has a lot of followers on Twitter ... he could easily get Elon Musk to buy one of his coins with a provocative tweet.