Bitcoin Specie Project sponsored by the makers of New Liberty Dollar

[miffman]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

[1713560483]

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[1713560483]

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[1713560483]

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[URSAY]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

Considering this.

I'd be shipping from NYC.

[NewLiberty]

This is a point we are raising with all my international buyers as well, as these would stand to gain the most from international shipping and customs being shared.  Anyone who would be interested in being contacted by others local to them in order to aggregate purchasing for better prices should let us know that.

I would rather have people get these for less, whenever possible.  
It is an easy way to spread the Bitcoin economy at points of sale anywhere.  This is our fundamental goal with this project and so we are keeping our prices as close to costs as possible (and keeping the costs as low as possible while still maintaining highest quality).

SO...If you would like to aggregate purchasing for your region, and you let me know what quantity tier you are at, I can list that on the OP for those close to you to buy through you.

It is looking like formal release will be around 3rd week of September.

[NewLiberty]

The project is fundamentally not about creating collectible items, the Casascious pieces are much better for that sort of thing.  We are working to make lasting, durable, trad-able, 100% fungible specie Bitcoin pieces that hold value in their own right and can help to bring more people into the Bitcoin economy with an easily exchanged pocket-friendly Bitcoin denominated silver and gold piece

That said, it has been our custom to award the FIRST STRIKE pieces to those that contribute to the effort, and there are more people involved than usual on this project.  Of the 40 that are awarded, so far we have had three (3) of our FIRST STRIKE pieces come back to us from those to whom they were allocated who have decided that they would rather support the project instead of receiving the award, and another may yet come up for auction from someone that contributed, but has some pressing financial needs.

So... for those of you who either missed out on the first auction, or were outbid, there is another opportunity to get one of these collectible FIRST STRIKE pieces.  The decision on how to allocate them came down to a few options and the one that was decided by these three was that they should go to the top three purchasers of the Initial order + pre-order.   So the top three buyers will have the opportunity to have one of the first strikes, with the presentation display, and certificate of authenticity, to count as one of the pieces of their order.

So far the top three are 100, 100, and 50 piece orders so unless we get larger orders than these, these will be the folks to receive these three (or unless these folks may decide to increase their purchases ahead of the SEPTEMBER 15th cutoff for initial orders).

[dozerz]

confirming the coin arrived as expected, thanks joseph 

[NewLiberty]

Happy it arrived undamaged, thanks for letting us know.
Would also love to see a picture of it in its new home if you get a chance for that.

[NewLiberty]

I have just learned that I have some competition!    It is flattering to have copiers.  Looks like he tried to hurry it out though.
Generally I relish competition, and this is no exception.  It is even more delightful that the competition is the notorious Rob Gray of the Mulligan Mint who is offering this piece:  

https://factorystore.mulliganmint.com/silver/1-oz/brilliant-uncirculated-quality/bit-coin.html

I have had no personal dealings with Rob Gray.  He has been one of the more prominent private minters, but I was not pleased with the treatment that he gave his mentor, Bernard von NotHaus (Architect of the Liberty Dollar) when Bernard was facing spurious charges from the US Feds for essentially being too successful with his alternate currency to the US dollar.  It was during this time that Mr Gray took the body of work of Bernard von NotHaus and claimed that he had originated it and called it the American Open Currency Standard, and then proceeded to claim that the Liberty Dollar model upon which the AOCS was based was not compliant with the standard.  This betrayal was at a time when Bernard was fighting for his freedom with the Feds (he still is).  AOCS may have done much good, but having been founded on what I saw as a fraudulent misrepresentation, I would not join with his efforts.

As it turns out this was not a bad decision on my part.  Some of those who did quite a bit of business with him are currently in lawsuits attempting to get some millions of dollars worth of precious metals back from him according to these guys:
http://mulliganmintexposed.com/

I have attempted to place an order for some of these on his site, but it seems that it is not currently processing orders.  I would like to evaluate his QR solution as it looks like the boarder is too narrow (it is a part of the QR which is often ignored).  Reputedly this QR links to his store.
It might be shut down because of this:
http://thetgbreport.com/2013/08/01/mulligan-mint-assets-being-seized-today-article-5/

The private minting world is a pretty small community, and I have been fairly open about what we are doing and our intentions with this offering.  It looks like the word is out so... Now I have this challenge, to put more of these pieces into circulation than Rob Gray's pieces. He may have ill gotten wealth to fund marketing programs, but no matter what may come, I have an 8 old promise to fulfill, made in NL, and so I will

Thank you for those of you who have placed orders already, we think you will be very happy with what you will get.   I welcome any questions on this or any other matter.

[dozerz]

Happy it arrived undamaged, thanks for letting us know.
Would also love to see a picture of it in its new home if you get a chance for that.

pride of place at dozerz manor

[phoenix1]

I just received my first mint commemoration coin, awarded only for an innocent quip about 'thinking ouside the box', that now appears on the reverse side of the coins thanks to your's truly! At the time Joseph said it had earnt me a 'first press' piece, and true to his word, I received it today, and it really is a work of art, a really beautiful piece. I strongly recommend anyone to purchase at least one, if only for the design itself, but hopefully they will make their way into much larger circulation.
I can't top the photo posted above, but I can give a big thankyou to you, Joseph, and wish you all the best for the future
 

[NewLiberty]

<blushing>

Thanks for that.  Most all of the design elements were coalesced from the words and ideas of this community, so we owe a debt of gratitude to you all for your contributions in words, ideas and feedback.

We also owe kudos to the folks attending the Bitcoin Foundation's convention in San Jose where we were "asked" to make these.  (Actually it was more like "why the fuk haven't you done a Bitcoin piece yet, you slacker?")  We took it to heart and let the ideas percolate and mix, but there are a lot of you who contributed in ways that are less easy to identify than Pheonix1 who just happened to say just the right thing at just the right time as we were looking to finalize the motto.  It cinched it.

"Think outside the box"... Outside the QR code, outside the computer, outside all the boxes, that is the domain of Bitcoin and also especially the Bitcoin specie pieces we are producing, which are not made to be boxed, but pocketed and exchanged.

And in Latin, rather than English, as both Bitcoin and precious metals are international and timeless.  A lot of heart went in to these, and not just ours but many of yours as well.  There is a lot more meaning in the design than can be easily explained.  It is sort of a treasure map of our collective experience with it.

Thanks again for your contribution.

[BitPappa]

I have just learned that I have some competition!    It is flattering to have copiers.  Looks like he tried to hurry it out though.
Generally I relish competition, and this is no exception.  It is even more delightful that the competition is the notorious Rob Gray of the Mulligan Mint who is offering this piece:  

https://factorystore.mulliganmint.com/silver/1-oz/brilliant-uncirculated-quality/bit-coin.html

From a visual or reputation perspective, I don't see much competition.

[DrahogErusiel]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

i would be interested as long as the scan code works correctly. I hate faulty technology   

[NewLiberty]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

i would be interested as long as the scan code works correctly. I hate faulty technology   

We've been testing scanning the QR with different phones, so far there have been two phones that were problematic, an old blackberry and an iphone in a white case which seemed to interfere in the reflection of the mirror-like back.  So black phones (or phone cases) will likely work better.  We will have more test results ahead of the 2014 issue so we will build on this, and a 1 ozt gold piece coming as well.

We very much wanted to get this in hands in 2013.  We will have a collectible hand stamp issue coming for the Oct 31, 5th anniversary of the Satoshi Whitepaper from '08 for those that are interested in collector pieces.

We also expect to continually invest in the destination site for the QR.  Consequently this is not likely to be a profitable enterprise for years to come, but we are in it for the long haul with more produced to stay ahead of demand each year going forward.

I have just learned that I have some competition!     It is flattering to have copiers.  Looks like he tried to hurry it out though.
Generally I relish competition, and this is no exception.  It is even more delightful that the competition is the notorious Rob Gray of the Mulligan Mint who is offering this piece: 

https://factorystore.mulliganmint.com/silver/1-oz/brilliant-uncirculated-quality/bit-coin.html

From a visual or reputation perspective, I don't see much competition.

We thought so as well, but then again we are biased.  Their design seems strikingly USA focused, and in English only.  The piece is priced in dollars rather than in Bitcoin, and the QR points to their general store rather than to a conversion tool.

Bitcoin is the global currency, it sees no borders so we used a borderless globe as the background and a gracefully curved BTC and a nominal value dated for 2013 to show future generations what a bitcoin was worth in 2013 as well as what it is worth at that future time.  The conjunction of these should show a stark mind-opening awareness for what inflation-proof currency can mean to those that use it.

[NewLiberty]

As we are waiting on the different elements of this to all come together (thank you for your patience), a friend pointed out this to me:
https://recalescencecoins.com/coins/

At 1.65BTC each, they are about 7x as expensive.

It occurs to me that there may be enough collectors to support collectible editions, and I have a lot of ideas about that.  We are already offering a few things for that.  The First Strike pieces, but those are earned rather than sold.

We are also likely to offer some special items to our high-volume purchasers for the pre-order. 

And a third offering, a hand-stamped edition for the 5th anniversary of the Satoshi White Paper.

These pieces will have a hand stamped mark, in celebration of our wise founder's publication on Oct 31 2008.  The end of next month will be the fifth anniversary and in celebration of that, we will mark a few with a stamp to commemorate this.



The first opportunity to get one of these will be at the formal release announcement at the Bitcoin Europe conference in Amsterdam in 2 weeks.  Details will be made available as decisions are made

 

[monbux]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

Would probably be in on that, Hopefully there will be...

[NewLiberty]

Production minting started today.  First ordered pieces should start shipping after the weekend!
Thank you for your patience.  Giving birth to these has been a wonderful adventure so far and I am grateful for your sharing it with me.

I am also still busy at this time shoring up the web part of these.  A lot has changed since I was cobbling HTML using vi on Sun Micros in the dungeons of Disney in the early 90's (apologies to you EMACS lovers).  I am more than a little rusty, and the CSS bits are giving me headaches because of juggling a lot of things and trying to remember to sneak in some rest when the brain stops working the way it is supposed to.  I am starting to think that all-nighters are for the younger folks.

...but, it is all starting to come together, and some dear friends are offering to help and that is making a huge difference.  (Thanks Mike, doing this is WAY better than shoveling code into the Citibank machine ever was, isn't it?)

[NewLiberty]

Getting ever closer...



Still working on the landing page for the QR, this is a mockup of what we are working toward now.  Many of the more common currencies are integrated now and more will be added soon.  The first pre-ordered pieces will ship out in the morning (shipping out as they come off the press).
Thank you all for your support and encouragement.

Official release remains at the http://theconference.eu at end of Sept.

Bitcoin will soon be the only global currency with asset backing specie pieces.  Bitcoin will then be redeemable for these bullion pieces on demand.  As this project rolls forward, bitcoin price should not again fall below the value of 4 troy ounces of silver (as we and our supporters will continue to be redeeming it, at that value, if it declines to that).

Also, the QR on the specie pieces will also display to the bearer the current value of Bitcoin Specie in all the fiat currencies.  Since these pieces may be bought at LESS than a quarter bitcoin (but a bitcoin should always be able to buy at least 4), this project should put a price floor on bitcoin going forward.

Future years we expect we may have to revalue at ever higher rates of bitcoin to silver ratio, so while there will always be a redemption value for bitcoin in silver (and soon also gold), the amount of silver and gold you can get for your bitcoin may improve over time.

The usefulness of the bitcoin specie pieces in commerce, especially at point of sale, can also resolve the wait-time for confirmations for in-person high-transaction environments.

[NewLiberty]

is someone planning a group buy for this so we can get coins for a bit cheaper?

Would probably be in on that, Hopefully there will be...

On our list of "to do" items for the coldhardca.sh site, is the ability to find folks local to you who buy in quantity and can make these available to you locally worldwide.

We may also have them available at some of our favorite Bitcoin-accepting online bullion retailers.

[Stephen Gornick]

the ability to find folks local to you who buy in quantity and can make these available to you locally worldwide.

What I'ld like to see is these traded at the local Bitcoin meetups and Satoshi Square-type trading events.

One problem, though, is that the party willing to sell these may not be the same person willing to speculate on the exchange rate for silver bullion -- so that person might not be willing to invest in any significant inventory of the pieces.

After seeing the Ripple DYM issue (in which the issuer holds a silver dime for each 1.0 DYM voucher unit out there) I'm thinking there is a solution to this.  Essentially this lets this trader acquire a larger inventory of the pieces by selling the vouchers to buyers on Ripple.  But then as each piece is sold that seller buys back one of the voucher units issued through Ripple.

I guess it is no different from a consignment store concept.

The advantage to doing it through Ripple is that the person who bought the voucher unit issue on Ripple is that that voucher can be sold, so the funds aren't locked in until the trader (issuer) holding the physical piece backing the voucher sells it.

Open Transactions could be used for this as well, but this has already been done through Ripple (in DYM).

[NewLiberty]

YES.  YES.  YES.

I am working on getting Ripple involved as well.
I submitted my application to join them at Money2020 in Vegas to see if we can play well together.  Waiting to hear back yet.  Put in a good word for me will you?  

But... as of now, Bitcoin is the only global currency actually backed with a circulating specie.  The only others I've seen have been collector pieces, and bitcoin deliver pieces, both of which are awesome... but they aren't made to circulate so I saw a need to get the "Liberty Dollar Philosophy" involved.

Further, I expect to reach out to all the local meet-up groups to see if they want to organize any group deals.  These are designed to be as affordable as possible, and get more so with quantity.

Also..

I agree that some may be reluctant to "speculate" on the value of silver and gold.  They have been money for a few millennium but everything changes.  That is why we found it necessary to include the real-time pricing mechanism into the specie pieces with the QR code.

The idea is that you shouldn't have to hold vast quantities of silver and gold (unless you want to).  It is meant as pocket change for bitcoin, and one that is more easily acceptable globally than any national fiat.  It also provides a valuable means of introducing folks to what it means to have a backed currency for a change.

When working out a trade using bitcoin with someone new to it, I often get asked "What is it backed by?"  Now I have a ready answer for that.

When working out a trade using bullion pieces, I often get asked "What is it worth?".  This provides the answer for both of these.

Thirdly, all the pre-paid pre-orders are now shipped out.  So those of you adventurous folks who risked some precious bitcoins helping to get this new phase of sound money off the ground, look in your PM soon for details (as well as an exclusive offer!).