Help I cannot claim my casascius coin!

[Bigchuck]

I decided I wanted to peel and claim a 0.5BTC casascius coin. I am using electrum to try and sweep the wallet but am getting the error "no inputs found". When I import the private it key it gives me a balance of 0 and a receiving address entirely different from what the coin has on it. The analyzer says the coin is still funded. I bought it in 2013. Anyone have any idea what is going on or did I somehow get duped 4 years ago? Really needed the money .

Thanks for any help!

[1715615680]

1715615680

[1715615680]

1715615680

[1715615680]

1715615680

[1715615680]

1715615680

[AdolfinWolf]

I decided I wanted to peel and claim a 0.5BTC casascius coin. I am using electrum to try and sweep the wallet but am getting the error "no inputs found". When I import the private it key it gives me a balance of 0 and a receiving address entirely different from what the coin has on it. The analyzer says the coin is still funded. I bought it in 2013. Anyone have any idea what is going on or did I somehow get duped 4 years ago? Really needed the money .

Thanks for any help!

See what wallet is associated with the private key, and check if it still has the 0.5 balance on it. If not, it's pretty likely that they indeed somehow got stolen.

Try


And see if there's been any outputs, or if the 0.5BTC is still there.

[Bigchuck]

Thank you for the quick reply. Seems this may end up being quite the bummer. https://blockexplorer.com/address/123gqQ7hHmnu8ErfdRqy8qqYTnD1QeFrdr is the public address for the coin I own so it seems to have never been moved. The private key is generating this as the address 18mLn3uPzE8Nm9Y1sGHYmKbDqWCEVejCHp which has a balance of 0.

[DannyHamilton]

I think Casascius coins used uncompressed key addresses.

Perhaps Electrum is computing the compressed key address?  I'm not an expert on Casascius or Electrum, but you might want to find out if there is a way to get Electrum to work with the uncompressed key address, or you might want to try some other method of gaining access to the bitcoins.

Be VERY careful not to reveal that private key to anyone that is trying to help you.  They could be scamming you to gain access to the private key and then could run off with your bitcoins if they can figure out how to access them.

If you are comfortable enough with the process...

I would download the bitaddress.org website to run on an offline computer and enter the private key into the "Wallet Details" page there.

That should give you BOTH the compressed key AND the uncompressed key address, so you can see if that is what your problem is.

[Bigchuck]

I decided I wanted to peel and claim a 0.5BTC casascius coin. I am using electrum to try and sweep the wallet but am getting the error "no inputs found". When I import the private it key it gives me a balance of 0 and a receiving address entirely different from what the coin has on it. The analyzer says the coin is still funded. I bought it in 2013. Anyone have any idea what is going on or did I somehow get duped 4 years ago? Really needed the money .

Thanks for any help!

See what wallet is associated with the private key, and check if it still has the 0.5 balance on it. If not, it's pretty likely that they indeed somehow got stolen.

Try
https://i.imgur.com/ZVkZua7.png

And see if there's been any outputs, or if the 0.5BTC is still there.

NVM man I got it. for some reason needed the WIF. wow this was stressing me out so much. just thank you for being in this thread and your presence.

[Bigchuck]

I think Casascius coins used uncompressed key addresses.

Perhaps Electrum is computing the compressed key address?  I'm not an expert on Casascius or Electrum, but you might want to find out if there is a way to get Electrum to work with the uncompressed key address, or you might want to try some other method of gaining access to the bitcoins.

Be VERY careful not to reveal that private key to anyone that is trying to help you.  They could be scamming you to gain access to the private key and then could run off with your bitcoins if they can figure out how to access them.

If you are comfortable enough with the process...

I would download the bitaddress.org website to run on an offline computer and enter the private key into the "Wallet Details" page there.

That should give you BOTH the compressed key AND the uncompressed key address, so you can see if that is what your problem is.

Just wanted to say thanks to you as well. This is exactly what needed to be done.