Solar powered water desalinization machines sound fantastic! Buy one, use one. Safe drinking water is becoming more scarce than oil in this world.

City water with fluoride, however, does not lower IQ. So you can end your conspiracy theory talk (on this topic at least)!

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/the_kids/2013/02/does_fluoride_lower_your_child_s_iq_dr_joseph_mercola_says_yes_on_the_huffington.html

Maybe not a rise, but surely a drop. Google Zimbabwe currency, you'll find that their currency lost value significantly. Of course, it lost value to the dollar in that rise of denomination so it eventually became worthless and was abandoned.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/zimbabwe-ditches-worthless-currency-dollar-article-1.2256966

Would you believe that 2 of the 5 of these BTC1000 coins have been redeemed?! Craziness. You might need to show up some proof that you have the $250,000 to cover the face value of this one, let alone the premium that one would charge.

Good luck in you hunt, maybe call Southeby's.

Here's some insight on what the prefix 1Ag1 (and others) mean. http://casascius.com/fulllist.txt. Read the text at the top. The 1Ag1 is the first series of all silver coins that were minted.

Congrats on the sales.

The whole world has agreed to implement this? Wow! Where did you read about this? Did this come out of some G8/G7 meeting or something? This is the first I'm hearing about it, I didn't know that the world was having joint discussions about adding chip technology to ID cards.

Which European country are we talking about? It matters a great deal! Who's leading this effort?

The Donald does this every election cycle, and he always drops out mid-way through campaign, once the real candidates start to emerge. He does it as a publicity stunt. It's pretty easy for him to give some half-assed speech in one of his hotels (doesn't cost him much), he can drop a few lines about how successful he is or mention one of his many hotel properties and get free publicity, which will make him relevant for a minute and maybe a bump in his business.

He's like the court jester in these election proceedings. Keeps the late night talk shows with plenty of monologue material. Enjoy the show!

Most ungraded Casascius coins are of the same quality of the graded ones, they just haven't been sent to ANACS to be slabbed and numbered. It's not like these Casascius coins actually get traded or used, passed around among people. They just sit in drawers or display cases.

I'll go up a little bit, but I think my price is quite fair, I think 1.6x face is decent. My offer remains open if you change your mind.

Good luck, get as much as you can for it!

I'm interested in seeing where the market is for these coins as the sale prices fluctuate. Some times they go for BTC2 other times for more. The OP answered that question, which is much appreciated!

Come on Blazed, let's be honest about this:

1) Design 1 and Design 1 with Gold Trim are VERY similar to Caldwell's coins, the obverse side with the BTC is nearly the same. You have added some detail, but the foundation of this coin was first seen on Casascius issues.

2) Both designs are silver, Caldwell's coins (of similar design) are also silver. I never mentioned brass, in fact the first person to do so was you as you tried to misdirect my claim of how much your coins resemble Casascius. To even have a coin that's silver "with gold trim" is a copy from Mike, direct copy. Let's not look past this obvious point.

3) You claim this is a "new kind of physical storage" yet it's been around for nearly 5 years, Caldwell was first to sell them loaded and first to sell them unloaded as rounds. In fact, the only reason you can't sell them loaded is because the US Feds put a stop to Mike doing it!

It's cool if you want to also sell coins like this, I wish you good luck with it. But please don't represent the idea as original when it clearly isn't, to do so is deceptive...especially to newcomers in the forum.

And, for the record I think the price is fair - I'll take back my original complaint about that, it wasn't needed. I totally agree that coins like this sell at a premium above the metal value.

Thanks for hearing out my point of view. I'll try to keep my comments from coming across as snarky. I'm as much an expert about this as you are. I've put a lot of my own research into what people price these coins at and I think my opinions (on other threads), particularly about price valuations are valuable to insight that provide sellers and potential buyers with additional information to accurately gauge the value these coins have.

What's the previous market BTC rate? You bought one for $250 or BTC1? The reason I asked what you paid is so we could determine what the market rate is.

Where have I seen these before? Oh yeah...Mike Caldwell had a thread about these a few years back, he called them Casascius coins.

Why do you claim this is a new kind of physical storage when it's been around since 2011. And to add insult to injury you practically copy Mike's design with your silver and brass version, not cool!

$80 is way too steep for a brass token. I wonder how many of these you're actually selling.

Do you have an opinion on this or are you just copying and pasting a news article to earn your weekly BTC0.0011 per post from Bit-x?

You should share your opinion or ask a question or prompt the community to respond. That's how a post or (more importantly) a thread is productive for us all. Any of us can go find random news on topics that aren't related to bitcoin.

I think this sounds like a great idea, it provides greater incentive for people who are not intrinsically motivated or inclined to go to a 4 year University to find another career path. This may reduce the number of people taking on student loan debt for a degree they don't want. It may help improve wages for these apprentice type jobs.

What's your take on this?

Another thought from me on taxation...

All tax laws have to be voted on and the People own the vote. If you don't want bitcoin to be taxed (or some other specific thing) start a movement to have the vote go your way. People are so jaded, and not without reason, that they refuse to believe that they can still make a difference. Act and you'll see results. Don't just give in, to do so is to agree with the other side's choice.

These pictures don't prove that it's a rat or a mouse. Is there fur or organs or leg bones in there? It just looks like a freaky fried piece, it was probably stuck at the bottom of the fryer to produce that tail-like loop.

Everyone's looking for some fame, I think this falls into that category.

Which government is doing this? This is a global forum.

I agree with your thoughts on the reaction, the "what can you do".

Don't stand for it. Talk to your elected officials, try to get this type of service banned. Then, if that doesn't work, don't use it. However this latter idea only works if a significant number of people refuse to use the card. If it's just a small minority, that small minority will just fined or lose out on standard services.

Start a movement and you will see things move...literally.

To the OP, will you be starting a petition?

Is this a question or a statement? If you want us to help you need to give us more information. Do you think the confirmation time is too long now?

Good for you, welcome to the forum. Freebitco.in is a good faucet. I've used them as well. If you consider the payout in bitcoin terms only, the bitcoin payout per roll will be highest as the price of bitcoin to fiat goes down (lower the price of BTC, higher the faucet payout!)

As for the signature campaigns, it is something you can do but the pay out as a newbie is very low, and it won't pay as frequently as a faucet. I'd suggested spending some time on the forum to see if you even like the conversations going on here and can contribute to them. If you do, and you build up some activity you can consider joining a signature campaign.

There's a lot of good talk going on here. Explore. Be friendly. Follow the rules. Good luck to you.

Ha, any link from "sputnik news" is not worth paying attention to. Give me 3 good reasons why this news source is credible and maybe I'll read the article.

By the way, it's best if you could provide some context around the article. What's the point the journalist is trying to make? What's your take or opinion on the topic? Is there some question you want us to answer? Does this relate to bitcoin in some way? Why should we care what some random news source is claiming?

Wait, it it's gonna be interesting who runs next after Jeb? So you're already interested in seeing who runs in the NEXT election? I don't get this.

Bush or Clinton will not be the next US Presidents. I think that country is not keen to have more "family presidencies" any longer. They need some new blood anyway...keep the democracy fresh and new!

Is the OP a tax agent, posting undercover, trying to understand how we would tax ourselves if forced to do so?

Income is taxed, sales are taxed, using certain things are taxed. I think a government would want to tax income...which for bitcoin comes from earning bitcoin and also appreciation in bitcoin that is then transferred to fiat. It's a very grey area but you have to believe that governments will find a way to tax income if they can (i mean the obviously all need the money, so why wouldn't they?)