I love Casascius holograms.

Simple and stunning!

Love them all!

I think these are pretty cool as well...

Members/companies have been the ones that have created what we call Physical Bitcoins but the definitions are quite literal and have been established for a long time.

Taken from Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Physical:
a) having material existence : perceptible especially through the senses and subject to the laws of nature
b) of or relating to material things

ie. Something you can hold in your hand.

Bitcoin:
a) a digital currency created for use in peer-to-peer online transactions

Coin:
a) a usually flat piece of metal issued by governmental authority as money
b) metal money
c) something used as if it were money

Round:
Very general -- if anyone finds a more narrowed down definition pertaining to metal rounds let me know.
a) having every part of the surface or circumference equidistant from the center
b) a rounded or curved part



We aren't reinventing the wheel here, these definitions are the worldwide standard and are usually interpreted similarly no matter where you are in the world. Remember that just because your idea/example/opinion makes sense in your region it could possibly be taken as something different in a different part of the world. This is why we need to use the official terminology/definitions as they are.

From the above, a Physical Bitcoin is anything that you can hold in your hand consisting of any sort of material that also has a form of Bitcoin on it, mainly either a public/private key that relate to the Bitcoin blockchain.

A Physical Bitcoin Coin would then be something with metallic properties that is exchangeable/has value to other people. The only part that may be debatable here is whether or not you could compare/swap a coin creator/company in place of a governmental authority issuing the coins. Bitcoin continues to push the boundaries of the financial/technology world and governments are dragging their feet hoping it just goes away rather than adopt. The argument can be made that because bitcoin is worldwide and not government bound that we could overlook that part of the definition as in the future it could possibly change.

An interesting quote when searching for What is the difference between a coin and a round?:

"Coins are legal tender. They're authorized by governments and have a face value.
Rounds are simply coined pieces of metal minted by private manufacturers. They do not have any face value and are not legal tender."

Therefore the only debate we should be having is whether or not we can claim physical bitcoins such as Casascius/Denarium/BTCC/Lealana/etc can be talked about as coins or if we need to start referring to them as rounds.


Lastly we add other words to explain whether or not a physical bitcoin has actual bitcoin on it or not.
Loaded, Funded, Buyer Funded*, Unpeeled, Intact, Newly Minted all indicate that the coin/round has some sort of private key that has been included usually underneath a tamper proof hologram and is currently still intact and the bitcoin available.

Unloaded, Empty, Unfunded, Buyer Funded*, Peeled, Swept, Breached all indicate that the coin/round used to have bitcoin on it but that the private key/hologram have been exposed by the current/previous owner. In the case of a breach it means that the private key had been kept by the coin creator and effectively stolen/compromised.

*Buyer Funded coins have been shown to be on both sides of the chart as it is up to the owner/previous owners whether they decide to use the public/private key combo that was secured underneath the tamper proof hologram by the coin creator.


Edit to add definition of
Token:
a) a piece resembling a coin issued as money by some person or body other than a de jure government

I would say that all our physical bitcoins could be classified as tokens. We use "coin" and "round" to explain shape as it is more common in our everyday lives to say something round and metal is a coin. Definition wise I think token is what should actually be being used but I don't personally think it sounds as professional/desired as the word coin.