Running a bit behind schedule, finals, final projects, and preparations for finals are hitting me like a sack of hammers. Who had to make nuclear physics so damn time consuming? This is why I wont do preorders. Anyway, my expected November timeline is starting to look more like a mid December timeline. I've done a bit of metal experimentation in the free time I've had, but haven't really had 8+ hours to dedicate at any one time to get molds fired up.

I'll be sure to post any progress I make if I find a chance to do so before finals end.

Its a security measure that has been an overall net positive. For everyone one decent person out there, there are a handful of those who are not when they have a low likelyhood of being caught. People being scammed with usernames that have minor variations of an escrow agent they were expecting a pm from, or someone they started a deal with wasn't nearly as uncommon as the forum admins/staff would have liked, so the newbie message was implemented. It just says that if you were expecting a message from SaltySpitoon and you are getting one from SaitySpitoon (a newbie member) think twice before sending that payment.

It doesn't imply that newbies are less trustworthy, it just says that its easy to quickly make an account with a username similar to someone else's when you see a post in a thread that says, "I'll buy it, pm incoming"

Seeing a self moderated thread in a marketplace section in the first place should be a warning flag. On top of that, feedback can be left on the trust system to try and warn people, or you can create your own thread to warn people about a self moderated scam topic.

Could you explain what you mean by it would lead to abuse of the trust system? Flagging shady dealers seems like its the perfect use for the trust system.

I'd like to sign up as well. I expect OGNasty to be an excellent campaign manager, so while I have some bias against sig campaigns (I doubt any staff members don't, they are a pain in the ass for us) I have no moral objection to signing up for this one.

I'd like to sign up for the News option if possible, I'd rather not advertise a gambling site while in a moderating position here. News is perfectly acceptable though.

BTC Address:1JXwGd1N8eP4WWMP6mLe6UNAycDhzqvhJo

I just hope I don't have to ban myself for spamming.

I should add that I'd be interested in buying the gold pack now. If they are good, I'll definitely be back to buy more for gifts (and myself) shoot me a pm if you are ready to start accepting orders.

So I've been sick since the weekend. That has certainly slowed things down a bit, for some reason pouring molten metal just doesn't feel right when you are under the weather.

Anyway, I'll probably be over it in the next couple of days, and I'm hoping this weekend will be a productive one.

Definitely not a shot in the dark. One of my first Bitcoin purchases on this forum was chocolate from Switzerland. Its so difficult finding high quality chocolate in the US, with people content with Hersheys and what have you.

I'll certainly be purchasing a bit from you in the near future, keep this offering alive 

So I've neglected my daily updates for a couple of days, but things were happening!

• Vacuum pump/casting table all set up.
• New crucibles arrived, tempering them tonight
• Furnace repairs made, apparently most refractory isn't rated to 4,000+ degrees
• All finishing materials arrived, probably missing some hand tools, but it is what it is, I'll get them when I realize I need them
• Electric Furnace Display still hasn't arrived, but thats but a minor inconvenience at this point

All of that said, theres a nearly 100% chance I'll have something made this weekend. A slight chance I'll have something made today. Assuming I can fire molds over a fire rather than in my electric furnace, I'm all set and ready to start casting. If I do need to fire my molds in the electric kiln, then I'll only be able to cast one of whatever I make, the mold wont be reusuable. Either way, that doesn't change that I'll be able to make at least one of something now.

Cool, I greatly appreciate it! This is something I planned on doing for myself later, but I figure I'll ask. Have you machined graphite before? I need a better CNC Mill before I'm able to make my own graphite molds. If you are able to make a few things, that might actually move my progress along. If not, its not a big deal, I've planned my releases around my own mechanical capabilities, with things requiring additional setup to come in later batches.

So today's update. I'm just waiting on a replacement PID for my firing kiln, the vacuum pump for my casting table, and a couple of crucibles, and I'll be all set. Everything should arrive this week, so by this weekend, I'm hoping to have something made, even if its just some tests to mess about with. I've got a temporary hand stamp, as it will take a while to have my custom one made. I just got something sort of generic to mark what I make until I have the Vulcanalia branded one to my satisfaction.

Looking toward the future, I'm looking at laser engraving or diamond drag systems, custom holograms if I need them (bleh), and I'm starting research into fancy printers that can make little COAs. Plate forming and bending machines, 50 ton hydraulic presses, and all sorts of other goodies will probably be obtained if I can find some local shop space.

All personal vs personal comments have been removed. Please keep conversation to topics related to the OP. I didn't touch anything that referenced CI, their product, or their decisions. Nor did I touch anything that responded to those replies either. Personal attacks aren't really necessary. If you have opinions on someone else's opinion about something thread related, thats fine.

Its unfair to clutter CI's thread with personal stuff. Fight it out via PM or in a thread you own if you would like.

thenewanon's post is wayyyyy too appropriate to delete. Its a little spammy, but it poses no risk of dragging the topic offtopic, so I'm leaving it.

I dont think that my post was all that negative, short of saying that it probably wasn't a wise business decision, mainly because I don't care. I'm just curious as to how you are getting dollar figures for custom dies since you have both made a point of correcting my figure to further your point. Its about $300 to have a single steel die made. If they were having more made, the price would go down, not up. I've only been in contact with a handful of die makers, probably five or so, and my approximation was just that. (note that all of my figures had ~)

My point was that it is expensive to have limited batches of coins done, the premium is absurd (in my opinion), but thats for the customers to decide. Obviously, if they are priced "too high" people won't buy them, the fact that 9 of 10 of them have sold seems to mean that people are willing to pay $450 for the CI 2 Oz Anniversary coin.

I was just mildly interested in seeing how people would react to CI's decision, but it just looks like personal stuff going on now. Thats pretty lame, leave the thread for people who actually want to comment in one way or another.



*edit* In the time I spent writing this post, more fights between members has broken out. If you don't want your spam deleted, I'd recommend deleting it yourself. I'll happily clean this thread up for CI in a few minutes, but I figured I'd give you guys a chance to fix it yourself.

Something to consider is that since only 10 coins were made, the cost of having the dies made and design fees are only split between 10 coins rather than that of a larger batch.

20 Oz of silver + Minting charge ~ $450
Dies ~ $500
Paying whoever designed the coin ~ ?$
Shipping
Premium added

Total cost/10 makes them expensive to begin with. The market being exactly what it is, its not a huge deal that you were willing to find someone uhh... gullible enough to pay $450. But the stealth sale to premium customers, as you have seen from others comments was probably not the greatest move. Perhaps next time, if you want to give premium customers a perk without getting the masses up in arms with their pitch forks, maybe tell them about the coins before they come out or maybe offer them priority pick of which they want, but saying "Hey look at what I made, you can't have any" is kind of meh.

Not that I don't understand, if I had to take a guess, I'd say this limited batch of premium coins was your way of covering the expenses of having the new holograms made. I just got quoted $5k for the ones I'm trying to design.

The designs for the first Bitcoin related productions are not complete, no. However, since all design related things are done in house, and not outsourced at any point, the timescale for design to completed project is nowhere near as long. I could conceivably come up with a design for something and start casting it in metal the same day. The first three things I'm making are the necklace/keychains for Mushroomized, the Pizza coin, and the blockchain statue. I still need a bit more machinery in the form of laser engravers and such before I can physically put Bitcoin addresses on things. That is pretty much my only limiting factor at the moment.

The red one pictured is the first I produced, and it is horribly unfinished. Finished ones will be acetone vapor finished to smooth out any printing lines, and imperfections will be sanded out.

That was just the test to make sure all of the pieces fit together.

That can very easily be arranged. Everything I make will be in multiple sizes/metals, so those who want something large to toss around like a frisby can, and those who want to spend as little as possible and still have a piece can partake as well.

I can do fractional stuff, or I can do 10Kg stuff. No need to order multiple sets of dies or other complicated things, just scale and create molds.

Its looking like I'll be producing my first pieces within the next week, so look forward to some previews.

There will be plenty of hand poured pieces to go around! Thats actually the simplest to do, so those will be incredibly affordable.

Ah, interesting. I don't have a huge background in processing my own copper, so I had never seen it before. Just using water, probably ~60 degrees or whatever temperature it was outside. It only occurred on that one piece though.

Well the only mistake aspect of it, was that I poured the liquid copper too fast and it formed a large piece that isn't super useful for casting. Thats not a huge deal since I can just remelt large pieces. I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the iridescence, its really neat looking. Apparently its called flame coloring, though I have no idea how it occurred.

And heres the furnace in action 

      



One piece I poured too fast, and it turned out really really strangely though I have no idea why. I might finish it up and see if there is a market for fancy paperweights.