That little strip of foam in there does a pretty good job of preventing rotation and keeping the coins from too much movement, but are probably better suited for storage than shipping.

Was it the clam or the black end rings that broke?  I've dropped a couple of those long ago and the rings are fragile (but the coins seemingly stay safe).

While those are neat cases, those aren't the ones I actually meant to ship in, and usually don't use them.  Those are actually the shells the original 10BTC coins came to me in from the mint.  Since I never sold 10's by the roll, I had them spare and lying around, improvising when the first batch of gold-plated 1's came back without the containers.  These air-tite 20 clams look sweet but hearing they're prone to breakage, I'll just use the other square ones (and have resumed doing so for a while).

The only way to be certain you got your bitcoin "off" your computer is to send the bitcoin to a new address that's never been on your computer.  Whatever this means to you is up to you - I'm mainly pointing out that you could do a backup and still have your bitcoins be stolen if they're still "on" your computer.

It's difficult, period.

<heresy>
Given that the powers that be are starting to give a nod to bitcoin, it may actually be sensible for some organization to issue notes or coins the old fashioned way, which are nothing but promises to redeem for bitcoin, the same way a dollar was once a promise redeemable in gold.  Especially if that org were willing to provide auditable (preferably crypto-based) controls against fractional reserve and they had other assets and an existing reputation at stake (e.g. Google).  The benefit to them would be advertising.
</heresy>

I will probably stop selling the 2013's when I run out of the materials.  On some, I'm almost out.

The silver 1oz's are almost gone.  Down to the last few hundred.  I expect to run out before year end and then not have any 1oz silvers for a while.  It will probably be my last 1oz 1btc silver coin, favoring 0.1 btc or similar for the next 1oz coin.

On the 2013 brass 1BTC's I will run out of the series2 style holograms first, and that's when I'll stop with those.  Somewhere around 20 more rolls.  Maybe run out by year end, maybe not.  2014 coin will have new hologram.

As for what I plan for 2014, I'm working on something neat, I'll just leave it at that.

Relatively fast lately, consistently faster than the 7-10 day time window I have listed on my web site at least for now.

(For reference, whenever I bring out a new product, that is when I am slowest, as that brings a spike in volume)

Can anyone confirm?  They look sold to me as Buy It Now.  (if I do a Completed LIstings search on "casascius roll", it appears with price in green - usually unsold/ended prices are red - and if I look at details, each says Sold for: US $35,000.00)... it's important to me to be relaying accurate info, and I definitely don't want to rely on this if I'm mistaken

I've seen a pretty big uptick in the last few days on rolls of coins, probably in part due to the observation that someone just successfully sold two full rolls of 50 coins on eBay for $35,000 each (!) (which I calculated to be a $13,500 premium on the roll, or $270 per coin, based on the bitcoin value at the time).  Apparently the offer included a flight to Miami to do the deal in person, which suggested to me three things, 1) whoever did it was smart and eliminated the paypal fees and chargeback risk, 2) probably less risk for the buyer too, making it an appealing way for a sophisticated buyer to 'just get some damn coins", and 3) either the seller has a supply of buddy passes, flyer miles, or cheap airline tickets, or may well have just saved enough in paypal fees to do the deal in person that paying for a flight was an automatic no-brainer.

The two rolls appeared to sell in fairly quick succession (like 2 hours apart), and it seemed as though the 2nd roll was a one-click relisting of the first one, but I can't tell for certain because I couldn't find the exact start time of the two auctions.

I read the BitMint FAQ and wondered how their offering was any different than PayPal with a redeemable "gift certificate" feature (that works like a MtGox USD code).

I have finally obtained a new Adobe PDF signing key (last one was expired), so I have resent a new signed certification to nubbins including signed PDF as well as PGP.

If there were a wide consensus that the distribution of bitcoins were too lopsided for the public good, I feel it would engender public support for an altcoin.  The core principles of Bitcoin would be retained, but the current ledger would be abandoned by market forces in favor of a new one.

Incidentally, I also believe this to be a public democratic control over the 21 million limit.  Right now, consensus favors the limit.  If there ever becomes a consensus that the number of circulating bitcoins (and the associated ability to fractionalize coins) is insufficient to meet the needs of society... the segment of society that favors an increase will solve that problem by accepting an altcoin that is perceived to meet the need.

Funding for the coins in this group buy just went out!

The easiest way to get your earliest taste of flying for the first time is to call your local flight school and ask to take a "discovery flight".  Companies in this business are often called "FBO's".

You will have an opportunity to do as little or as much of the flying you wish. The plane will have two full sets of controls so your instructor will handle the critical stuff and you take the reins when it's safe.

The cost is like a couple hundred bucks and is a no brainer if you can afford it and have an interest in flying.

Just about all flight schools offer this, as it is an easy way to get people hooked on their flight training programs.

I've been eyeballing this one too, it's just, somebody around town has got one for rent that has always been available anytime I've wanted it, and I don't have enough places to go to warrant 100% ownership (and the associated management burden) of an aircraft.  The one around here is a bit newer, has AC, but no turbo.  And due to my family size, if I were buying to own, I too would want the newer Cirrus the owner says they'd like to upgrade to.  Nevertheless I still follow this "2011 turbo SR22 index" going on in my mind, much like the popular Bitcoin pizza index.

That said...living in Santa Monica should be no prerequisite...if you're interested in the plane, find somebody else's to train in (or train in a smaller rented craft your local flight school has available...even the skill set of flying the ubiquitous Cessna 172 has major overlap with flying this thing, as long as you're flying the same Garmin 1000-like panel)

BTCravo Tango Charlie, cleared to flight level 600 at your own discretion.  Expect contact NASA Mission Control for remainder of your flight plan to the moon.

It looks as though my post has helped prompt others to request authentication from me.  Bring 'em on.

When you request authentication, please let me know what you want it to say.  Some people want minimal info, others want more.  Here is a template of what I might write for you - in fact, if you modify it and send me what you'd like it to say, that makes my job easy and gets you closest to what you're after.  Please identify your order (by order number, or email address).  Also if you have one handy, please include the 8-character prefix of any of the coins in the order (helps me search in case I have trouble finding it).

---template language below

November 9, 2013

To whom it may concern,

According to my records, I sold the following coins to John Doe on or about January 111, 2013,
and shipped them to an address in Anytown, MA 01234.

1aaaaaaaaa: 1
1bbbbbbbbb: 1
(don't worry about providing the addresses - chances are pretty good I can do this on my own if I can find your order)

(any other details you consider relevant, please add them... examples include: any additional info about your
identity, address, pgp key, forum handle, and any unusual or custom details regarding your order that you would
like memorialized).  I will likely reword the details so as to clarify I'm not claiming them as first-hand knowledge.

Sincerely,

Mike Caldwell

---

it's normal for me to take a couple of days to turn these around, as I have plenty of things going on.

This is an address I recognize, it is the brainwallet address when "correct horse battery staple" is used as the passphrase.

Anything sent to it is guaranteed to be swept away in short order.

Thanks for sharing your feelings on this.

If you contact me by email and make an individual request for a specific order, then I turn that around in a reasonable timeframe.  That has continued to stand since I made that offer.  If you have done so and I have failed to act on it, I apologize, and request that you contact me privately once more, particularly containing what information you'd like the signed acknowledgment to contain (since it varies by your need).  In general, I don't know which forum names correspond to which real-world identities, so unless you explicitly identify your order, I don't know which order to acknowledge by reference to a forum posting alone.

The item that I have "out there" with a non-specific delivery time is to go through my order history and send out, in a very large batch, something acknowledging all the prior orders.  The main issue is that the methodology I have for knowing which coins I've sent to customers has varied throughout the time I've done it, and I don't consistently have a record as to who got what coins.  In many cases, I do have a record, but it's not available to me on an automated basis (e.g. it's not in my database, but it's in my sent mail in the case where I acknowledged the order and listed the specific coins sent).  Therefore, what I'm taking "forever" to do, is to send off an automated batch of this info.

I would bet they want the bitcoin and already have private buyers lined up eager to get legit coins from a reputable vendor in bulk.

It's been more than 3 confirmations and no link or key (though realistically, even though it's been a day, not yet at the point where I'd be fretting).

Here is a bitcoin address of mine.  I wonder if I will receive, in lieu of my ISO link and key, an unexpected 0.15 donation?
19bCTSgwvVyT8MASLaUYT66nb1hEte9Br7