CASASCIUS PHYSICAL BITCOIN - In Stock Now! (pic)

[BurtW]

I use firstbits.com for that.  Perhaps a link to firstbits.com?

[1713989772]

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[1713989772]

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[1713989772]

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[1713989772]

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[Boussac]

Suggestion: type in directly the 8 caracters of the coin address and block explorer will do (BE works starting from 6 caracters if the address has been exposed to the network, for instance when loading the coin).
Chances of a collision on 7 caracters (1 is given): 1/58⁷ , not very high 

[Stephen Gornick]

I'll be adding a private key import function to strongcoin that will allow you to import the private key in the mini format.

You'll then be able to spend the BTC.

StrongCoin eWallet now does indeed let me import the minikey from my Casascius bitcoin and spend it.   Importing itself does not create a transaction, so until you spend using that newly created account, the funds remain stored to the Casascius coin's address.  

StrongCoin's service is unique -- accounts have passphrase protection per-account and, if I understand it correctly, only the encrypted key is sent to StrongCoin.  So keep that in mind, that if you lose or forget your passphrase, not even StrongCoin can recover those funds for you.

There is an issue on the fees with StrongCoin and discussion on that is occurring here:
  - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=36169.msg554538#msg554538

[casascius]

Way to go StrongCoin!

[Jrock]

Got about 5 of these a week ago. Very cool looking. I gave them all away to random people at work. Will buy more in the future.

[Stephen Gornick]

Got about 5 of these a week ago. Very cool looking. I gave them all away to random people at work. Will buy more in the future.

Same here -- assumed I had ordered many more than I would use anytime soon and just a few weeks later I'm putting in an order to restock.  I wanted to keep the earlier coins myself as if I am going to hold some long-term, I want to keep the earlier ones as they potentially would have numismatic value and if that happens the earlier ones (based on the date n the blockchain for the coin's address) will have a higher value than the later ones.

These things are really hard to hold onto though and since shipping is a flat-rate the shipping charge becomes barely a factor when you buy a larger quantity.   I could sell the ones I have at a profit well below the price others would pay when buying only a few.   I've had many offers to trade my physical coins for cash but they can buy in quantity themselves from Casascius so that's where I've directed them.  Now I need to restock soon as I don't want to find them sold out or on backorder by the time I'm thinking of gifts for Christmas.

I've used these for paying my portion of a dinner tab, as a gift to a friend and for purchase from a restaurant owner who hears about bitcoin from me every time I visit :-).

More significantly I've shown the coin to probably more than fifty people now and the response from most everyone I show it to is significantly more favorable than the response I would get when attempting to describe bitcoin using only words.

These things are worth every bitcent they might cost.

Incidentally, I had been wear-testing one that I carried around in my pocket with other change and keys.  I had to learn to be careful as without paying close attention I almost lost it many times -- including one time to a parking meter (the coin is about the size of a quarter and it definitely would have fit into the meter's coin slot) and another time when tossing some loose change into a tip jar.

After more than three weeks of getting lots of attention the address printed on the back of the coin started to wear away, though I could still make it out to verify the balance.  The brass face of the coin wears quickly with scuff marks, etc. but of course, these aren't meant to be as durable for this type of use so that wear is hardly a problem.  The hologram sticker stayed intact with no indication it would start to peel away or falsely show tampering.  It came off only after a 5 year old with fingernails heard it was a sticker and not two minutes later the underside was exposed and the code revealed.

[BurtW]

+1 on this issue with the word "sticker" and my 5 year old.  After she opened one for me I explained to her that the coin was now "spent" and she felt bad.  I put the sticker back on and gave it to her.  She loves it because it is so pretty in the light - she likes it a lot better than the other boring coins without stickers on them that I have given her.

[Stephen Gornick]

Just to make sure this news isn't missed in this thread:

MtGox adds redeemer for private keys including Casascius Physical Bitcoins
 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=46908.9

When you redeem a code, MtGox keeps the private key and will auto-sweep any future funds sent to that key into your MtGox account.

[Littleshop]

Got mine today and I am very happy with them.  They look and feel great in person.  Good work! 

[molecular]

I ordered 50 (+1 broken) to keep shipping cost down (germany). This cost me BTC 67.70 incl. shipping, therefore one coin cost me BTC 1.354

I'm offering to send them on to germany or europe countries if someone wants to buy a small number of coins. (1 coin directly from casascius.com will cost you BTC 2.50 incl. shipping)

Google says 1.2 ounces are 34.01 grams. This means I can send 1 coin in a 50g letter for €0.90 to germany. > 1 coin in a 500g letter for €1.45. For most other european countries I'll have to pay € 1.45 for 50g letter (1 coin), € 3.45 (up to half a kilo of coins (up to 14 coins)). I will also need some €-cents for an envelope.

So if anyone wants some (BTC 1.354 per coin plus my packaging and shipping cost), ask me here or pm.

based on an exchange rate of 4.05 USD/BTC and 0.5€ for an envelope, I made this little table to see how much sense this would make:

# of coins	casascius price	my price to germany	my price to europe
1	BTC 2.50	BTC 1.83	BTC 2.02
2	BTC 3.75	BTC 3.37	BTC 4.05
3	BTC 5.00	BTC 4.72	BTC 5.39
4	BTC 6.25	BTC 6.08	BTC 6.75
5	BTC 7.50	BTC 7.43	BTC 8.10

obviously this only makes sense if you want exactly one coin (to europe) or at most 3 coins to germany.

[Vandroiy]

Cool, molecular! I'd like two of them. Shipping overseas is so slow.

Can you PM me your email- and bitcoin-address?

This will be a neat chance to try them. Indeed a totally awesome item to tip people with. And I love brass. Let's see how they look IRL.

[cbeast]

I'm looking for some sort of locket that will hold a casascius coin on a necklace, perhaps a crystal glass one that will protect the hologram, but allow you to see it.

[casascius]

For those considering reselling Casascius coins in local markets, I am able to do quantity discounts on the 25 BTC coin to make resale worthwhile if ordered in quantity 50+.  They'll also be shipped inactive, via express courier, and the BTC value not loaded until you receive them, to mitigate risk of loss and customs problems.  Contact me via PM if interested.

I wish I could say the same for the 1 BTC coin, but the bottleneck is still that I have to produce them myself manually.  It is important to me to be able to personally vouch for the security of the private key and that the address on the outside matches the key on the inside.

When I started the 1 BTC coin project, BTC was $13.25, so it made a lot more sense then than it does now.  I may able to work on quantity discounts for the 1 BTC coin if the BTC value goes up significantly.

I am also working on a new "windowed" hologram design that may help me mass produce 1 BTC coins at a lower cost, because a window to a small portion of the backside of the private key slip would allow a confirmation after-the-fact that the correct key is inside.  (I already print the bitcoin address on the backside of every private key in green, this is how I confirm they match during assembly, you normally don't see the green print unless you give it a really good scratch because it gets stickered over.)

This new hologram design would hopefully mean I could supervise a group of hired people assembling coins, rather than having to assemble them all myself one at a time as I do now.  My supervision would be constant, specifically to ensure that no one had an opportunity to copy any of the private keys and to account for all of the materials.

[molecular]

For those considering reselling Casascius coins in local markets, I am able to do quantity discounts on the 25 BTC coin to make resale worthwhile if ordered in quantity 50+.  They'll also be shipped inactive, via express courier, and the BTC value not loaded until you receive them, to mitigate risk of loss and customs problems.  Contact me via PM if interested.

The inactive shipping is an awesome idea.

Are the 25 BTC coins popular?

I'm not planning to make a resale business, btw. Others might, though, and I would welcome the possibility to buy at cheaper shipping costs.

[molecular]

received my batch. awesome coins, they are way cool!

now waiting for them to be loaded up

[Inaba]

I would like everyone to be aware that this shitbag is a spamming piece of crap.  You should not do business with him.  He has taken the leaked MT Gox email listed and spam blasted everyone on it selling his wares.  Regardless of any other considerations, you should never, ever, ever do business with a piece of shit spammer as it only encourages more spammers.

Everyone should black list this tool and/or rob him blind to pay for his unsolicited spam.

This guy is a fuck stick and deserves absolutely no consideration what so ever.

If you buy from him, YOU are directly responsible for increasing spam.

[casascius]

I would like everyone to be aware that this shitbag is a spamming piece of crap.

A phishing clone of this site has popped up, and the scammer has chosen spam as a marketing tool.  See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49826.  I hate spam too, but spewing potty talk doesn't help much.

For what it's worth, Physical Bitcoins is a hobby project to promote Bitcoin, and constitutes less than 0.5% of my income.  Ordinarily, spamming (and the associated risk of losing my internet connection) isn't something that appeals to me as a marketing method.  It's inconsistent with a product that requires a great deal of trust.  I think it's reasonable to say I don't want to see anybody get burned.

[Inaba]

Well, the site it came from was in Russia and casascius.com is in Utah, so I can buy that explanation.  I withdraw my previous statement then... either you've hit upon a clever way to market or someone is being a total douche in Russia and I'm happy to give you the benefit of the doubt in this instance.

[marks1976]

I have ordered from casascius before and the order came quick and no problems, no spam.  I am getting ready to place another order.  I love the coins myself.

[Wody]

Dear casascius.

Today I found in my email a spam coming from your website and IP-address, advertising for your website casascius.com. Sending such unsollicited email to people in my country is a crime. In addition, because of costs of spam for me, I also charge per spam, feel free to pay the bill by sending 100 bitcoin to: 1DESYhdFBUdQyTWBpLif6BQdr3FRcKBHWL