Thanks everyone for the information. I've drafted this response as a form of encouragement for your collecting efforts and also explain my view (from a family of coin collectors).  My primary goal is not to [revised] alter, or deny, the present day market value [\revised May 10, 2:25PM].

Here is my take on the Casascius coins:

The crypto coin community is not taking numismatic value seriously. Face value of collectable coins are often <1% the value of face value for traditional currency. Even for highly collectable gold, the spot price of the gold <1% the collectable value.

The rarity of this coin can be compared to the rarest of traditional coins. If cryptocurrency survives, the collectors value of these coins will not be realized by the BTC community, but rather traditional collectors. Casascius coins will be auctioned and not traded on cyrpto forums that are primarily concerned with the BTC value. It may take 5-10 years to before serious collectors jump on board.

This also is true for redeemed coins. The collectors value will remain high in the distant future—there are only 800 in the world! Many collectables are rare when print runs are <100,000. For comparison there are ~20,000 Black Lotus collector cards printed in the world and they currently auction for $10k-$150k per piece of cardboard!

Anything less than 6.43 BTC would be a loss for anyone that purchased the 5BTC from Mike Caldwell. If these coins are undervalued at this point in time, I'm more interested in the novelty and educational opportunity to redeem this coin for others to watch—I'd appreciate your support of the video.

There may only be a dozen 5 BTC coins with this level of documentation. I believe collectors value will skyrocket for Casascius coins in the future. It is the original physical Cryptocoin and a historical / philosophical link between tangible and intangible currency.

I encourage collectors to continue their hunt while the price is low. My advice: don't overlook the opened / redeemed coins, they are still extremely rare. Get as much documentation you can at purchase, as history is important for rare collectables.

Regards,
Robert

I'm asking a premium around 10BTC. I will consider all offers received before Thursday. Collectors should appreciate the original purchase price for the 5BTC was 6.43 BTC. In this sense, it is worth 1.43BTC for the coin alone. I believe an unloaded coin has collectable value >2x, but the numismatic value is just being realized by collectors—we will see.

Here is a timestamped twitter post I made for historical confidence: https://twitter.com/hovden/status/405861216276324354?s=20

There are few coins this well documented.

Why open: If what I feel is a fair value is not realized, I want to develop educational content. For the mainstream, it will be an opportunity to talk about intrinsic and extrinsic value placed on objects and currency, and a brief discussion of new monetary technology offered by cryptocurrency. For the crypto community, it will be the only high-denomination and high-quality video content of a Casascius coin being redeemed (to date). I'm open to hear your ideas.

If sold I will roll resources into some other offbeat educational effort, possibly hire summer students to produce interesting videos. The COVID situation has shifted part of my focus toward experience in digital educational content.

Regards.

Hey bitcoin talk, I'm selling an original 5BTC Casascius coin. I purchased it direct from Casascius as a graduate student. It is a rarer coin, and I have the original emails and documentation of purchase—including the manila envelope Mike packaged it in.

The unredeemed 5BTC Casascius coin is available for direct sale until Thursday, after which I will crack it for educational YouTube content. It was purchased in 2013 for 6.43 BTC.

I'm planning to crack my 5BTC on YouTube next week: https://youtu.be/R2EyXERPQMM

More information is here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/184285557253

Other questions:

(1) What would you like to see in a YouTube video cracking a coin? I'm an educator and want to provide a chance to include useful information.
(2) Any advice? I haven't mined / used crypto in 7 years (Lost all but this 5BTC coin to Mt Gox).