~300% appreciation in 1 year.

Not bad for a book   

Hello everyone,

I'm Elias Ahonen, author of the ~300 page Encyclopedia of Physical Bitcoins and Crypto-Currencies. This is a serious, semi-academic book detailing the history, specs, and other information of almost all 'physical bitcoins', that is, metallic tokens that have a theme relating to crypto-currency. The idea is that these are historical relics of the development of crypto-currencies, and worthy of collection.




Now, I want to do something new. Bitcoin has recently dropped below 50% market cap of digital currencies, and 'alt-coins' can no longer be ignored. There are plenty of people analyzing Bitcoin movements and developments, but the 40 billion dollar 'alternative' market is virtually ignored. Though there are bloggers and analysts writing about all kinds of coins, they are often in 'informal' settings like coin-specific forums or Reddit-style message boards. Serious analysis get buried, and it is difficult for unsophisticated investors to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Soon, I believe we will see a great influx of new traders looking for accurate, comprehensive, and unbiased information on this expanding asset class which now consists of over 700 'coins'. The information should thus have an air of professional analysis as opposed to casual commentary.

In my vision, this site could serve a few functions:
- A 'wiki' style info source with nearly exhaustive information on all coins, including history, relevant individuals, press mentions, clear descriptions of technology, and price history/graphing
- A platform for 'analysts' to publish vetted write-ups on various coins, in a way similar to SeekingAlpha
- The ability for users to view articles based on ticker, and also see rankings by 'resident analysts' who might rate coins as 'sell/buy/strong buy' etc. Users might be able to receive email alerts for articles posted concerning their coins of interest.


In practice, this would incorporate many of the functions of CoinMarketCap, though with much more than just numerical information.

I am seeking:
- Analysts: This is your opportunity to make a name and reputation for yourself as an investment analyst in this space
- Researchers: Those with a passion for crypto-coins who can record everything about them into a dedicated wiki
- Web dev: someone with the ability to create a website with some of these functions
- Anyone else who feels they can contribute

Here it is guys!

Sig #1   1PZxTWyyPPodcHHnUi1G5jSrvYKQF9oB8x
Sig #2   1K5dmLwatca5odiiYodKhXDf678qmYBwFH
Sig #3   1H6ysueHiq4P4h1t2mejHputAN5MZhBVXC
Sig #4   1364irCJiNjpgRMCPyq75qe2MjPS8tubGK
Sig #5   1PCdKb6VNBMkpCBTD8pbybJAzYrKBoE635
Sig #6   18M2b4SNybb21ie8vyRCm2Mzraaa4CU1QJ
Sig #7   1E31ZadgBCVyFHyPEKsbJXVYVsrdP6mF8R
Sig #8   17ohuiHcczAZK1mkh2gzQJz8hGBK6h5BqE
Sig #9   13LVWRorfvnm64SECKwwETVXQPFb2u2o5d
Sig #10   1MmzidPGWcNDYyVYxnttbyvcYy6TWYojaq
Sig #11   1LDR5356RSYaMhe5PUiYTV58T5YUvAehbi
Sig #12   1QCsAE5SB5h8RTmkYkt9whLBaWE9hQ5HJq
Sig #13   1FNfGbQEUmEmRoRJVNVV8h5mWp7SWrLus7
Sig #14   1Fuuu4BcpYUnkWzrYETBU6cVSFLKW9bbVM
Sig #15   1Cc8qD9kLY1wCJvij1pPHXJkAKXiAXK76V
Sig #16   1Fcihv74kKVEjAptWuyUXJ1ZM8X13dLq1W
Sig #17   12qWHnowBFyY5bZK92duGUDWtKzNim2x2n
Sig #18   1DtyNW6Y9W1UosBqwrXdXFS3oN3isjTzqD
Sig #19   1HACJRrK5qxB4o1BsUyMq7yNV9eU7MAixD
Sig #20   1Eg2PFCdwQk8rt1pXt9LmZbymcSs7HEYE3
Sig #21   13EYpGqPMWfrwK9DkSzZw9bBLSMmsZVmx5
Sig #22   1cpPEUH5iWGg2gn8nwDmN16TcNFgG1saq
Sig #23   19oYucjbnijhhszY2AVwQJmJi2ffbPKPd2
Sig #24   1PrNMWvw9FrwJNy5FpRTsPSEwB8tMthbfj
Sig #25   1B5LbcBG7R5Bx9vvdH8maGcFkx528HCzhG

I think its time I make a few coins under CoinFirm.

Who is interested in doing a collaboration and creating some unique coins?
I know there are plenty of creative people here, and I want to offer this opportunity openly. I have some ideas myself, and I have no doubt that we can create something spectacular.
I'm looking for a partner who is able to provide the needed capital for the project.

PM me, and we will talk.

i like this idea. I might do one myself someday

To clarify, the book itself is still available as the original paperback. What the edition refers to is that it is one of the 1st 100 printed books, and is thus numbered and signed. Most of these 100 were sold, but minerjones holds a few extras. The autograph set is worth more than the book. I wouldn't say its worth an 'untold' amount, but it should be noted that the autographs alone would have cost about $500 when they were for sale.. so around $650 would have been the 'original purchase price' of these back when they were acquired.

lets not get ahead of ourselves.. 

Both of you can be right (though I doubt if this coin is the first.. there are many coins created for a dozens of alt-coins).
One can think that this coin has some type of collectible value while also believing that 'jetcoin' had no value whatsoever.

I think that the forum can forgive you for the 100btc buy-it-now request; after all, it is not the asker who is crazy, but the payer (old finnish proverb).

Yes, that coin would absolutely, most certainly belong into the encyclopedia. The purpose of the book is to record and categorize coins; and through them, preserve and curate the history of crypto-currency. Any coin that has any significance, story (negative or positive), or originality belongs there. The only coins that were not previously included are those for which not enough info exists to make a half-complete entry.

Most people agree that Onecoin/Paycoin was a scam. If a coin was produced to support the scam, I would very much consider it worthy of study and collection.

The book also has many pages dedicated to Coinographic, which turned out to be somewhat of a scam. that story is recorded. Should it instead be erased and forgotten?

I'll leave this here, it is one of my favorite entries in the book. I encourage everyone to read it.

Worldcoin may be what some call a 'shitcoin', but that does not mean that its 'relic' might not have collector value. i'm not making a claim about monetary value here, but academic/historical/cultural value.

Its clear that different collectors value different things, but we should not be dismissive of coins like this.



Cool update: someone has agreed to send minerjones one of their jetcoins for photography and proper cataloging, so that this coin will be properly recorded as part of 'crypto-heritage'.

Nah, ill start at 0.05BTC

I suggest you start this off in a 1-week auction.
The market will tell you exactly what this is worth.

I never said that buying for 2BTC would be a good idea, only that I could understand some serious collector offering that amount if they really wanted the coin. That said, Im sure there would be a buyer very quickly at say 0.5BTC at today's prices. In any case, 5+ btc for this is pure madness to even ask.

I think that train has gone 
I'm sure not selling mine for 0.01BTC

You are correct; I think when i said 'many' i was more saying '1-3' tens of thousands. Still a huge stretch, but I speak of a scenario where all 'money' gets replaced with cryptocurrency of some form, leading to a huge influx of collectors. If we imagine that a scenario where a few hundred million dollars gets poured into collecting crypto-coins, then its going to be a fact that anything made in 2013/14/15 is going to have notable value, and more so if the coin is well documented with a small mintage and such. There are a relatively small number of pre-2015 coins made, so imagine if alot of money starts fighting over them.
Crypto-currencies are now at almost 55bn market cap. Lets say that eventually increases to a 1 trillion cap, or much more. 100m in the collectible market would not be out of the question. How many coins exist now? I guess you could add it up from my book, but even among 100,000 coins that's $1,000 average per minted coin in collector value.

Thankyou for the info.

Regarding comparisons to Casascius.. you are looking at it wrong. You need to compare to other similar coins, coins that were used promotionally and are related to some non-btc cryptocurrency. There exist such coins for Monero, Peercoin, and numerous others. I can tell you, that while these coins are usually made in batches of 100 (which we can safely assume is the minimum mintage of this coin), there is virtually market for them now. On a good day one such coin might go for $100-$200. Considering this, my suggestion of several thousands is massive. I could totally see a rare coin like this going for many tens of thousands if bitcoin went 'mainstream', but not more, so it would be unreasonable to spend hundreds of thousands now.



Good to know; I can't say anyone has ever suggested that I should pay to use their photos.. if they did I would have a big laugh   
That said, please do feel free to PM higher quality photos to myself and minerjones, along with you name if you would like us to attribute it.
Also, I offer you a 10% discount on either of my books 

courtesy bump from the author  

I'm guessing you never read the book since it's in original packaging.
Thats a shame. PM me, and I'll send you an unsigned copy if you pay a small amount for S&H. You won the raffle; you deserve to read it!

Hahaha, I sold you those two chunks of silver years ago via BCT auction. Never thought I'd see them here!
 
Cheers

PM me, Ill find you a website. actually, i may start offering those from coinfirm soon.

I generally disagree with this assessment. i think the coin is interesting in that it was used as a promotional item by a company, and the story behind that company may be interesting. In this way it becomes a 'physical manifestation' of crypto-history, which can in itself be valuable. Similarly, I dont think the fact that it is associated with a 'shitcoin' is in any way relevant to its value as a historically significant collectible that is a testament to the crazy times of 100's of currencies. Indeed, if this is associated with zerocoin, it may be the only 'relic' of its existence. I think it is an interesting coin and might even get a page or half-page in my book, meaning it will be 'known' for a long time. I don't think it would be completely insane (but maybe a little nutty) to pay sub-5000 for this coin, which is a little over 2.5BTC now.

that said.. 100BTC