Maybe some of us don't know some important things that happen in the long run of Bitcoin, People are full of questions and I wonder if there is a physical Bitcoin and through researching, I found a man named Casascius.
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Mike Caldwell also known as
Casascius, Mike Caldwell is a software Engineer at his home in Sandy, Utah. An early bitcoin adopter and Bitcoin enthusiast that has many contributions in Bitcoin, Caldwell wanted to help popularize the cryptocurrency, but he, too, doesn't like the idea of Bitcoin's intangibility. The physical Bitcoin creator.
-It all starts with an idea to make physical Bitcoins
Making a real tangible bitcoin that actually conveys BTC because why not? I think it's a practical idea to promote bitcoin and cryptocurrency more and during those days only a few people know what is the Internet and have a computer.
-In this post, we can see Mike Caldwell enthusiasm towards bitcoin and what he does to make it successful.
Why a physical bitcoin?"
I just want bitcoin to succeed"
-Mike Caldwell
-On 6 September 2011, Mike Caldwell began minting physical Bitcoins, naming the coins Casascius Coins. And put it up to market on September 7, 2011
CASASCIUS PHYSICAL BITCOIN - In Stock Now! (pic)Coming Very Soon, a real Bitcoin you can hold! (and is worth 1 BTC), Casascius coins are available in the denomination of 1, 10, 25, 100, and 1000 BTC increments.
Physical Bitcoin by Cascasius website:https://www.casascius.com/Casascius Bitcointalk profile:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2676Mike Caldwell Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/casascius/
ITEM DESCRIPTIONS
Original series 1 BTC coinThe original minted series was 1 BTC made of solid Brass.
Year printed on coins: 2011
A spelling error can be found in the small lettering of the hologram: “CASACIUS” instead of “CASASCIUS”
Casascius has stated that no more than 11,000 may be produced
Second series 1 BTC coin
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FFDP3zYX.jpg&t=665&c=dfBU_TGISPbZzg)
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FNLdTU6k.jpg&t=665&c=ojQrkVoXONChbg)
Second series 1 BTC Casascius coin was also made of solid brass
Private key: 30 character string inside the coin, the 256-private key is SHA256(string)
First appeared in November 2011
10 BTC silver roundThere are only 40 of these
5-bitcoin version of the Casascius 1-Bitcoin coin.
Casascius 25BTCWeight: About 34 grams, or 1.2 ounces.
Size: About 45 mm, or 1.75 inches.
Thickness: About 3mm
Each coin comes individually wrapped in a clear plastic pouch.
Zeroes and ones on the back encode the message “Bitcoin: an idea too big to fail”
100 BTC gold plated barPrinted year: 2011
First appeared in October 2011
4cm x 8cm, 6mm thick, and weigh about 138g.
1000 BTC gold plated barWeight: 4.2oz
Dimensions: 8cm x 4cm x 0.6cm
https://blockexplorer.com/address/1AVLk3NSP7djqjPdRNff3CzVMqobk4imup
1000 BTC 1 troy ounce gold coinDimensions: 8cm x 4cm x 0.6cm
This item is presently listed for sale only through MemoryDealers.com
How does it work?- According to the website "Each Coin has its own Bitcoin address and a redeemable “private key” which is covered by a hologram. To read the private key inside the coin the person need to peel the hologram, once peeled and redeemed the coin will no longer have any Bitcoin value. These coins are designed for face-to-face transactions."
- According to Casascius, there will never be more than 11,000 of the original series coins, probably much fewer than this. This coin can be identified by a misspelling of "CASASCIUS" in the small background print (the middle S is missing). As of December 2011 I have made about 3500, and the final count will be further limited by other factors: the percentage of the uniquely numbered holograms that get ruined from the start, many of the sold coins have been opened and redeemed, some of the holograms have gone into the 25 BTC coins, and am not sure if I will keep doing them by hand myself if I can manage series 2 better.
- So in September 2011, he began making physical coins as vessels. Inside of each, he embedded a piece of paper that contained a bitcoin private key, which he protected with a tamper-resistant hologram sticker. As for the word casascius, it was half acronym (derived from the phrase “call a spade a spade”), half Latin-sounding suffix (“cius”).
Counterfeit Casascius Coins-There have been multiple reports of fake Casascius coins being circulated in the market. The counterfeit and unauthorized coins even appear to mimic the spelling error from the Series 1 coins.
Why does it stop?- The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch of the Treasury Department, informed Casascius that minting physical coin and transmitting money requires state license and federal level registration. And thus from Nov 27, 2013, onwards, the sale is suspended for items that contain digital bitcoins, the current items in the sale does not contain bitcoins.
- On November 23, Mike Caldwell suspended sales of items that contain digital bitcoins. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch of the Treasury Department, informed him before, that minting physical bitcoins qualifies him as a money transmitter business, which means he needs to register at the federal level and probably get state licenses too.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGtCSG3i.png%3F1&t=665&c=EOndWeCJmCJNqA)
Source
https://www.biznews.com/briefs/2014/10/29/whats-bitcoin-look-like-story-behind-popular-photograph
https://en.bitcoinwiki.org/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins
https://bitcoinsaints.blogspot.com/2018/03/mike-caldwell.html
https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/bitcoin-and-crypto-guide/what-is-the-casascius-physical-bitcoin-exploring-an-important-part-of-bitcoins-history/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51379.msg612307#msg612307
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51790.msg617766#msg617766
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47717.msg567203#msg567203
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=53203.msg633876#msg633876
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47060.msg560486#msg560486
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=53492.msg637515#msg637515
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=58669.msg691038#msg691038
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=54845.msg652819#msg652819
https://casascius.uberbills.com/