CASASCIUS PHYSICAL BITCOIN - In Stock Now! (pic)

[casascius]

Importing 100 Brass Tokens with Hologram to Germany

So my 100 1-BTC casascius coins had been held at the customs office in Hamburg because the German Post wasn't able to declare them (reason given: no invoice attached to outside of package).

That's excellent feedback.  I always ask whenever anyone has customs issues just so I know what ends up going through without problems and what gets stuck.

By and large, the product that gets the most attention from customs and causes the most taxes is the silver coin when shipped with Express shipping.  This is because of the size and the easily determined market value, and also, the risk of customs asking about it when it comes shipped Express is 50x as great!  The silver coin is far better shipped via regular letter mail, separate from its presentation box.  (In this case, it gets shipped in a square DVD mailer, I use inner envelopes and staples and a capsule to ensure it is firmly in the center of the package, so it doesn't feel heavy or off balance... it really feels like a boring envelope.)

All of the other coins get through customs in my experience with no more than a charge based on my "blanks" price, if any charge at all.  I include a colorful business card in each package saying "ZERO VALUE REMINDER" and an explanation that the "tokens" were shipped with no "credit" and that you need to contact me to "add Bitcoin credit" (I am deliberately using language that I expect would be understood by a customs officer, not jargon we use here on the Bitcoin forums about block chains and addresses and stuff).  This won't be the first time I was told that someone successfully used my "blanks" price as an effective argument in avoiding paying taxes on the face BTC value of the coins, and at least it's arguably fair since I'm not selling BTC.

The term "proforma", I guess I should look that up.  I buy things from China all the time, and they frequently send me a "proforma invoice", and I've always thought this meant it's a non-binding quotation unless I sign and accept it, but perhaps it's worth understanding.

By the way everyone, I am a little slow on orders at the moment due to my last week's attendance of CES in Las Vegas, and also because I unexpectedly managed to sell out of my prepared stock of 1BTC coins and need to have another coin party so I can have more ready for shipment.

[Jakers]

How'd these blow up so fast? They're even on wiki, has to be something more behind this. I'd like to buy a couple for Souvenir's, I'll PM you in a little bit for details.

[molecular]

The term "proforma", I guess I should look that up.  I buy things from China all the time, and they frequently send me a "proforma invoice", and I've always thought this meant it's a non-binding quotation unless I sign and accept it, but perhaps it's worth understanding.

I looked it up in german wikipedia. Seems "proforma Rechnung" is a fixed term. It means it's an bill that doesn't include the requirement to the recipient to make a payment.

It seems to have been the biggest problem that there was no payment receipt or payment transaction documentation. I guess that's why she had to go to lengths determining the value of these things. She wasn't inclined at all to just use the value from the customs declaration ($25) or the "proforma" invoice. (I'm not clear on the difference of "invoice" and "bill", btw).

Boy am I glad she didn't notice my coins had holograms and the blanks you offer don't.

A "correct" albeit cumbersome and probably slightly expensive solution to this problem would be to make 2 payments: One payment for the brass coins and shipping via paypal (resulting in a payment receipt I could use at customs) + one payment for the bitcoins to be loaded onto the coins.

[molecular]

By the way everyone, I am a little slow on orders at the moment due to my last week's attendance of CES in Las Vegas, and also because I unexpectedly managed to sell out of my prepared stock of 1BTC coins and need to have another coin party so I can have more ready for shipment.

I lowered my price to BTC 1.38 per coin. So in the meantime, if people want to buy 1-3 coins, they can buy from me using this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131758.msg1411208#msg1411208

[becoin]

Slab-a-dab-dab:

Absolutely beautiful. I would love to get one of the gold BTC 10 BTC coins once I have the money for it.

It is not enough to put a notice that it is a .999 silver or .9999 gold. You have to attach a certificate from the refinery and assayer's signature to every coin!

[casascius]

A plausible defense to the hologram observation is that the gold sticker is of high enough appeal and value to be comparable to the hologram, and that the real value is in the unique private key.  The hologram is arguably only there to vouch for the integrity of the funds contained therein, which of course don't apply to your order.  And that hologram stickers are available on eBay for as little as 0.10 USD.

But hey... gotta hand it to them... it shows they are hard working people to go to that much trouble all for €6.

When I get the 2013 coins in, I'll offer rolls of 50 coins for an even lower price, without private keys or stickers.  This is possible because of my release of the print-your-own private key generator.  This should help any argument that blank coins are like the 50 coin rolls with keys.

Also, invoice = bill = Rechnung = all the same thing.

[casascius]

It is not enough to put a notice that it is a .999 silver or .9999 gold. You have to attach a certificate from the refinery and assayer's signature to every coin!

I would indeed have to if the majority of the buyers demanded that feature and, more importantly, were willing to pay extra for it.

Given that this is a limited custom run, the additional cost I'd incur in sourcing certificates for each coin and ensuring their authenticity would add more to the final price I'd have to ask to offer the coin.  The extra cost would be far more of a burden than the loss of metal value if it turned out to not be the full .999.  The real value in the coin is in the bitcoins, and arguably that it's the first real silver bitcoin, more so than the precision of the metal content, which I have no reason to doubt because it was sourced from a reputable mint in the business of making custom silver coins on a daily basis.

[becoin]

it was sourced from a reputable mint in the business of making custom silver coins on a daily basis.

If coins are sourced from reputable mint doing business on a daily basis, the extra cost incurred must be more than modest? The certificate as a printout can be part of the package. I agree that real value is the bitcoin but once you use precious metal purity measurement there must  be a proof of origin. Somebody with a solid reputation standing behind such a claim.

[bowen151]

Given that this is a limited custom run

I see that you are now sold out of the non gold plated version of the 10BTC. Did you mint many of these?

Also how many of the gold plated version are out in the wild? Im finally on that list, its my first ounce of any precious metal, ever!  

[Astro]

When can we expect the 2013 silver rounds to arrive?

[casascius]

When can we expect the 2013 silver rounds to arrive?

I don't know for sure yet.  2-4 weeks.

I have had a rush to wipe me out of the originals.  There were a total of 500 made, I don't remember the exact breakdown between gold and non-gold but it was somewhere close to half and half.

Also, I am still behind on order processing at the moment.  Just so everyone is aware!

[molecular]

Mike, you could probably add a remark to the international shipping options stating the assumption that the "first class mail" option is much more likely to pass through customs than the "express" option. That might spare some people the hassle I had to go through.

In my case both where about the same cost and I chose "express" merely because I thought it might be faster (which is not the case, it was probably even slower in the end).

[molecular]

The high exchange rate enables me to make an amazing offer:



[Newbie Special]: Casascius 1 BTC Coin: 1.50 BTC incl. shipping, buy 1 or 2

This is the same price casascius offers himself (for small volume up to 10 coins) but it includes tracked shipping!

[DobZombie]

Hey Mike,

Are you planning on doing a 2013 run of silver coins?

He better be!

Bring on the 2013 run of coins! 

[JustJake]

I just got my order in.  Very prompt.  I was impressed by the economical and efficient way it was packed to ensure the coins were never damaged.  Thanks for the service you provide the community.

I also got a copy of bitcoin magazine thrown in with my order so thanks for that.  Surprisingly deep articles.  I was not expecting to learn anything about bitcoin from it and assumed it would just be fluff pieces.

[01BTC10]

Hey Mike,

Are you planning on doing a 2013 run of silver coins?

He better be!

Bring on the 2013 run of coins!  

I want one too! Maybe with encrypted private key I would supply myself?

[Tachikoma]

I am still very happy with my coins and I would love to add a silver one to my collection. Please let us know if you considering making more, else I might go hunting a 2nd hand one

[EricTyle]

Casascius, can you re-update the picture of "what these look like when they're broken open"?

[SgtSpike]

Slab-a-dab-dab:

Did you make this yourself, or was this actually graded by a 3rd party company?

[LoweryCBS]

Slabbed that myself with a holder from here: http://bcwsupplies.com

The label is a Photoshop .psd file which I'll give to anyone that wants it.

Slab-a-dab-dab:

Did you make this yourself, or was this actually graded by a 3rd party company?