Gauge of Interest - New physical coins Chinese Lunar Coins

[gravitate]

So I am Gauging interest for now as this is going to be a massive project. I want to make a set of Chinese lunar coins. 10 of each year to start (maybe more). Like these:


Because of the low number these will be pretty pricey. Around 100-150 Euros each (if 1 troy Oz and will half if they are 1/2 troy Oz) plus the Bitcoin value. They  will come in a case and look 100% AMAZING.

But before I start may I ask:

Would you buy one?
How many would you buy?
What bitcoin value should they be?
1 Oz or 1/2 Troy Oz silver


I am hoping these will sell to normal (non bitcoin) people too on ebay by combining 2 popular concepts.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

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[gravitate]

Good idea.
Reminds me of the Coinographic animal coins that were made a couple years back.
10 of each seems very low mintage and that your price could be even higher.  Maybe 25 or 50 of each. They would sell for sure.
Maybe do a 1/2oz as a lower BTC value and 1oz as a higher value. Like the Lealana coins.

Maybe do 25 per coin. And then the first 10 are gilted, numbered, or distinguished in some way.
This was done on the Genesis coins offered by wheelz1200.

Maybe even offer 3 styles per animal. You could do 0.01, 0.1, and 1 BTC. And bump up quality per denomination.
(0.01 just silver, 0.1 silver + gilt, 1 ???gold)

Just my 2 satoshis. Good luck and looking forward to this awesome project.

Yes you might be right. I might make 25 of each and stagger production into 2 sets so that I am only out of pocket the production of 50 at a time.
Mind you saying that this is if they are popular!

Also which ones to make first? I am currently working on the design of Year of the Snake as this is my daughters year of birth.

The problem of making 3 versions means 3 different Die costs. This is a major dent in the production costs so will try stick to one for each year and stick to the popular weight that comes from this thread.

[bithalo]

I would be interested.  I'm assuming the reverse has the microsoul or some other hologram over the private key.

[gravitate]

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

[snarlpill]

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

Design competition for a new specific MicroSoul hologram sounds cool, I would try my hand at it just for fun. I think it would be neat to incorporate Chinese symbols into it, maybe a rough Chinese translation of MicroSoul if it's only for the MicroSoul Lunar Series coins.

As far as what design to make first- I would try to stick to the current year's Lunar animals. Like for 2015 I believe is the Year of the Goat for the Perth Mint and other's silver bullion coins (I could be wrong, I follow coins and silver but not the various Lunar coins). I think you'd have better luck with your goal of them selling to "non-Bitcoin" people if the year and animal matched up with the current year's Lunar animals on other Silver coins. I would really try to play on the low mintage aspect then as well. I will post it to reddit.com/r/Silverbugs for you when you know a production date or something. Big US/worldwide silver and coin community there.

[gravitate]

Yes I suppose you are right! A competition for a sticker I was thinking but its quite a lot of work you see so there would have to be runner up prizes which would take the top prize down. But I will consider and I could send the people who are designing artwork from my last stickers to compare the design to the sticker.

As for the goat yes you are probably right and I might have to change this its just a goat isn't the most exciting animal. But yes probably thats the best way forward. The Goat and Monkey first. 

[monkeynuts]

shit ... lunar coins and crypto coins. My weaknesses.

Looks like I will be broke just in time for xmas 

[Lesbian Cow]

I just came to post mostly what Snarlpill said.

Start with the 2016 Year of the Monkey and continue each year going forward.  This gives a good opportunity for early collectors of the series to see profits as new collectors each year drive up the premiums on previous years as they try to collect a full set.  This is also seen with Chinese Pandas.

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

Design competition for a new specific MicroSoul hologram sounds cool, I would try my hand at it just for fun. I think it would be neat to incorporate Chinese symbols into it, maybe a rough Chinese translation of MicroSoul if it's only for the MicroSoul Lunar Series coins.

As far as what design to make first- I would try to stick to the current year's Lunar animals. Like for 2015 I believe is the Year of the Goat for the Perth Mint and other's silver bullion coins (I could be wrong, I follow coins and silver but not the various Lunar coins). I think you'd have better luck with your goal of them selling to "non-Bitcoin" people if the year and animal matched up with the current year's Lunar animals on other Silver coins. I would really try to play on the low mintage aspect then as well. I will post it to reddit.com/r/Silverbugs for you when you know a production date or something. Big US/worldwide silver and coin community there.

[gravitate]

I just came to post mostly what Snarlpill said.

Start with the 2016 Year of the Monkey and continue each year going forward.  This gives a good opportunity for early collectors of the series to see profits as new collectors each year drive up the premiums on previous years as they try to collect a full set.  This is also seen with Chinese Pandas.

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

Design competition for a new specific MicroSoul hologram sounds cool, I would try my hand at it just for fun. I think it would be neat to incorporate Chinese symbols into it, maybe a rough Chinese translation of MicroSoul if it's only for the MicroSoul Lunar Series coins.

As far as what design to make first- I would try to stick to the current year's Lunar animals. Like for 2015 I believe is the Year of the Goat for the Perth Mint and other's silver bullion coins (I could be wrong, I follow coins and silver but not the various Lunar coins). I think you'd have better luck with your goal of them selling to "non-Bitcoin" people if the year and animal matched up with the current year's Lunar animals on other Silver coins. I would really try to play on the low mintage aspect then as well. I will post it to reddit.com/r/Silverbugs for you when you know a production date or something. Big US/worldwide silver and coin community there.

Thanks. 1 Coin per year is a little slow for me though but I get your point. I was not going to put the actual year on you see. Ie not put 2016 so it can be more generalised and I can make the full set in 2 years.. I don't know if that's a good idea or not? What do you think?

I suppose I could also do special edition ones which will have the year on and limit these to very small numbers.

From a collectors point of view would you prefer a year? Would having a more general coin with no year work?

Thanks for your comments I appreciate it.

[monkeynuts]

I just came to post mostly what Snarlpill said.

Start with the 2016 Year of the Monkey and continue each year going forward.  This gives a good opportunity for early collectors of the series to see profits as new collectors each year drive up the premiums on previous years as they try to collect a full set.  This is also seen with Chinese Pandas.

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

Design competition for a new specific MicroSoul hologram sounds cool, I would try my hand at it just for fun. I think it would be neat to incorporate Chinese symbols into it, maybe a rough Chinese translation of MicroSoul if it's only for the MicroSoul Lunar Series coins.

As far as what design to make first- I would try to stick to the current year's Lunar animals. Like for 2015 I believe is the Year of the Goat for the Perth Mint and other's silver bullion coins (I could be wrong, I follow coins and silver but not the various Lunar coins). I think you'd have better luck with your goal of them selling to "non-Bitcoin" people if the year and animal matched up with the current year's Lunar animals on other Silver coins. I would really try to play on the low mintage aspect then as well. I will post it to reddit.com/r/Silverbugs for you when you know a production date or something. Big US/worldwide silver and coin community there.

Thanks. 1 Coin per year is a little slow for me though but I get your point. I was not going to put the actual year on you see. Ie not put 2016 so it can be more generalised and I can make the full set in 2 years.. I don't know if that's a good idea or not? What do you think?

I suppose I could also do special edition ones which will have the year on and limit these to very small numbers.

From a collectors point of view would you prefer a year? Would having a more general coin with no year work?

Thanks for your comments I appreciate it.

The perth mint lunar series that you showed .... you showed series 1, and they are now a good way through series 2 .... although they did have a cross over of the series with both series being done for the 2008 mouse / rat coin ... and I assume upto the end of 2010. Each series has an overall feel, and each series's comparable animal to the other series is different.

They release a set a year. Various denominations from 1/2, 1, 2 5 and 10oz, upto kilos, and above in silver, and also a variety of gold sizes (each years coins have a similar design). They have mirrored finish proof rounds and non mirrored BU rounds in greater numbers. They also issue a few sets of proof coins. Plus they do colourised coins and gilded coins, sometimes a variety of colourised coins in 1 year (certainly did for the more recent snakes and dragons)

It has collectors queueing each year at release time. Older series 1, plus rarer lower mintage varieties, fetch a good premium. But their mint runs are far far greater. There are only a few runs of less than 5000 coins, for the lower / mid denom silvers. Some collect a particular round type. Some just fill their boots on a particular year (like when their kids were born). There are other lunar series, but this is the daddy of them all.

Difficult to translate that into yours. But, by having a year, and by having multiple series, they are having perpetual business.

My 2 satoshis ... I would say ignore whatever years / animals have gone before, and start a new series, 1 issue per year. But that is a big undertaking. Without a year, they are just animal coins, and have no link to the lunar calendar (calendar as in date ...).

If you want to push them all out in one go ... perhaps issue the coins with the various years on for that lunar animal - e.g for the rabbits have a design with the dates 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023 etc. Try and do a 'catch all'. Go back as far as you dare.

Good luck with it :-)

[Pistachio]

I just came to post mostly what Snarlpill said.

Start with the 2016 Year of the Monkey and continue each year going forward.  This gives a good opportunity for early collectors of the series to see profits as new collectors each year drive up the premiums on previous years as they try to collect a full set.  This is also seen with Chinese Pandas.

Hi yeah a new specific hologram and some kind of design like the silver casascius coins but instead of the 1's and 0's the little devil heads.. anyway I will finalise that nearer the time I guess. I might hold a design competition for the back surrounding the hologram.

Design competition for a new specific MicroSoul hologram sounds cool, I would try my hand at it just for fun. I think it would be neat to incorporate Chinese symbols into it, maybe a rough Chinese translation of MicroSoul if it's only for the MicroSoul Lunar Series coins.

As far as what design to make first- I would try to stick to the current year's Lunar animals. Like for 2015 I believe is the Year of the Goat for the Perth Mint and other's silver bullion coins (I could be wrong, I follow coins and silver but not the various Lunar coins). I think you'd have better luck with your goal of them selling to "non-Bitcoin" people if the year and animal matched up with the current year's Lunar animals on other Silver coins. I would really try to play on the low mintage aspect then as well. I will post it to reddit.com/r/Silverbugs for you when you know a production date or something. Big US/worldwide silver and coin community there.

Thanks. 1 Coin per year is a little slow for me though but I get your point. I was not going to put the actual year on you see. Ie not put 2016 so it can be more generalised and I can make the full set in 2 years.. I don't know if that's a good idea or not? What do you think?

I suppose I could also do special edition ones which will have the year on and limit these to very small numbers.

From a collectors point of view would you prefer a year? Would having a more general coin with no year work?

Thanks for your comments I appreciate it.

The perth mint lunar series that you showed .... you showed series 1, and they are now a good way through series 2 .... although they did have a cross over of the series with both series being done for the 2008 mouse / rat coin ... and I assume upto the end of 2010. Each series has an overall feel, and each series's comparable animal to the other series is different.

They release a set a year. Various denominations from 1/2, 1, 2 5 and 10oz, upto kilos, and above in silver, and also a variety of gold sizes (each years coins have a similar design). They have mirrored finish proof rounds and non mirrored BU rounds in greater numbers. They also issue a few sets of proof coins. Plus they do colourised coins and gilded coins, sometimes a variety of colourised coins in 1 year (certainly did for the more recent snakes and dragons)

It has collectors queueing each year at release time. Older series 1, plus rarer lower mintage varieties, fetch a good premium. But their mint runs are far far greater. There are only a few runs of less than 5000 coins, for the lower / mid denom silvers. Some collect a particular round type. Some just fill their boots on a particular year (like when their kids were born). There are other lunar series, but this is the daddy of them all.

Difficult to translate that into yours. But, by having a year, and by having multiple series, they are having perpetual business.

My 2 satoshis ... I would say ignore whatever years / animals have gone before, and start a new series, 1 issue per year. But that is a big undertaking. Without a year, they are just animal coins, and have no link to the lunar calendar (calendar as in date ...).

If you want to push them all out in one go ... perhaps issue the coins with the various years on for that lunar animal - e.g for the rabbits have a design with the dates 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023 etc. Try and do a 'catch all'. Go back as far as you dare.

Good luck with it :-)

If you do this with the years, put me down for one of the year of snake coins.

[gravitate]

OK so this is quite hard to decide then but fun deciding. I think to have an individual coin for the year is good and to have an un-dated coin kind of loses its appeal somehow as MN says its just an animal coin.

What I am thinking is to Start with a 2016 coin year of the Monkey. If successful then work my way out in both directions. Meaning make a 2017 Rooster and a 2014 Sheep. Carry this on until I get a full series. But this could change.. Depending on how well the first sale goes.

Then for the hologram have something like a modified version of this http://uschina.usc.edu/Files/images/2013-01/chinese%20zodiac.jpg so I can fit in a window to show the first 8 digit bitcoin address.

Actually if I could work out how to do it securely it would be good to mine some bitcoin addresses to fit in with the coin such as year or animal name.

[monkeynuts]

Actually if I could work out how to do it securely it would be good to mine some bitcoin addresses to fit in with the coin such as year or animal name.

That would be a nice addition to this great project!!

Great idea. Use Vanitygen (or whatever) and get some animal addresses. That will also help your cross over appeal to the none crypto market on ebay.

Fine when you have a short one like 1Ox, ok upto 1Snake, painstaking when getting upto 1Rabbit .... but just too hard trying to do 1Rooster (try 1 cock !    ). I know, I am trying to do a case sensitive 1(7char) .... Dont try and do Case sensitive address generation, save yourself a lot of time

[gravitate]

Can I ask what you think of this design? Do you think it looks good? I can not decide really it looks just OK to me. Any feedback welcome.

[monkeynuts]

First impressions ... You need to sort the big monkeys mouth out - it looks like a blow up doll !! 

Little monkeys eyes kind of give me the creeps as well

Will it say Lunar year of the monkey on it ?

What does the Chinese symbol mean ?

Will the flip side be all holo ?

[bithalo]

I'm glad monkeynuts went first so I didn't appear out of line.  It's a little creepy with the monkey's pointy ears, open mouth, and looking straight at you.   Yikes.  It's giving me nightmares. 

[TheGr33k]

So I am Gauging interest for now as this is going to be a massive project. I want to make a set of Chinese lunar coins. 10 of each year to start (maybe more). Like these:


Because of the low number these will be pretty pricey. Around 100-150 Euros each (if 1 troy Oz and will half if they are 1/2 troy Oz) plus the Bitcoin value. They  will come in a case and look 100% AMAZING.

But before I start may I ask:

Would you buy one?
How many would you buy?
What bitcoin value should they be?
1 Oz or 1/2 Troy Oz silver


I am hoping these will sell to normal (non bitcoin) people too on ebay by combining 2 popular concepts.

Thanks in advance for your opinions!

I would not buy one simply because I don't have the funds right now and chinese heritage/culture doesn't interest me a whole lot; if I were to buy any however , I would like to buy at least 2 so having a bundle discount would be nice. You should offer a 10% discount for using bitcoin for incentive!

[owlcatz]

Maybe something like this??
https://i.imgur.com/k0W2JJ9.png

I really like that more myself, but maybe a little more detailed, and a bit smaller of course.

[owlcatz]

Maybe something like this??
https://i.imgur.com/k0W2JJ9.png

I really like that more myself, but maybe a little more detailed, and a bit smaller of course.

Looks like he's holding onto a hula-hoop

Haha. True, I hadnt' really looked that hard but it was an improvement over the scary eyes from the last page, and he did ask for opinions?

[Pistachio]

I can't see the monkey's tail. That would make it look more real to me. Maybe a smaller character on the front left or write something in small characters that connects the year of the monkey to Bitcoin. I think it would be neat to incorporate the yin yang to divide up the coin and try to capture both the dark greed driven side of bitcoin and the potential wealth in bitcoin.

Either way, I will probably pick one up as long as I can store some cryptos on it.