10 BTC Casascius up for auction on Stacks Bowers

[iBitcoinHongKong8]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase. 

I couldn't agree more with this sentiment. I've done extensive research on this very topic having discussed it with many people and the more time goes on the more it proves true that the higher value the item the less risk others are willing to take and rightfully so. I truly understand both sides having been on both sides and there's little to zero chance I'd buy or expect to sell anything above 1BTC in a physical item these days. Take that for what it's worth it's just my 2 sats.

iBHK8

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[krogothmanhattan]

  Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

   

[minerjones]

  Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

[elianite]

  Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

Would love to hear more about the specifics of this coin- what type of degradation, etc?

[krogothmanhattan]

 Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

  Thanks for sharing...another thing I forgot to mention about my 100 plus year old stamps....is that these stamps also have a sticky substance on the back we call the gum...SO imagine having this gum that when wet allows the stamps to stick to envelopes on the stamp paper, and even then they are in pristine condition....also stamps that were use thru the postage system on envelopes are still intact as well.

   Under the hologram is like encapsulating your paper away from the elements and the light....even better!

    I also see down the line, the BTC from Cas coins and Bitbills...2011 era will itself be a collectable BITCOIN separating itself from the later Bitcoins mined.

   So please keep on peeling them cas coins ye all...makes mine rarer.
    

[iBitcoinHongKong8]

 Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

  Thanks for sharing...another thing I forgot to mention about my 100 plus year old stamps....is that these stamps also have a sticky substance on the back we call the gum...SO imagine having this gum that when wet allows the stamps to stick to envelopes on the stamp paper, and even then they are in pristine condition....also stamps that were use thru the postage system on envelopes are still intact as well.

   Under the hologram is like encapsulating your paper away from the elements and the light....even better!

    I also see down the line, the BTC from Cas coins and Bitbills...2011 era will itself be a collectable BITCOIN separating itself from the later Bitcoins mined.

   So please keep on peeling them cas coins ye all...makes mine rarer.
    

This is a great point about stamps lasting for so long. I'd like to add the few Cas and BTCC items I peeled not one of them had any issues whatsoever with me redeeming. Everything was beautifully intact and easy to read/redeem. 

iBHK8

[krogothmanhattan]

 Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

  Thanks for sharing...another thing I forgot to mention about my 100 plus year old stamps....is that these stamps also have a sticky substance on the back we call the gum...SO imagine having this gum that when wet allows the stamps to stick to envelopes on the stamp paper, and even then they are in pristine condition....also stamps that were use thru the postage system on envelopes are still intact as well.

   Under the hologram is like encapsulating your paper away from the elements and the light....even better!

    I also see down the line, the BTC from Cas coins and Bitbills...2011 era will itself be a collectable BITCOIN separating itself from the later Bitcoins mined.

   So please keep on peeling them cas coins ye all...makes mine rarer.
    

This is a great point about stamps lasting for so long. I'd like to add the few Cas and BTCC items I peeled not one of them had any issues whatsoever with me redeeming. Everything was beautifully intact and easy to read/redeem. 

iBHK8

   Here is a beautiful 1840 Penny Black stamp postally used in 1840!  Still strong vibrant black ink..I am sure when they made these stamps
183 years ago they didn't think of them lasting this long and used any paper or ink for such cases....but yet even though it went thru the postal system it is still in very good condition. The Penny Black was the very first postage stamp issued ever.

    I am sure todays ink and paper are much better than back then. 

   

https://www.ebay.com/itm/175864831526?hash=item28f25c5e26:g:9lcAAOSwyE5iKfXM&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwLYKpEJC2WbbY9e76kLB7I6sPiTqmwTG9M3xIT%2F2b12RgiAh6MiQnhZFOvQMURci31gIu%2FG2bDdMhjVjx6rXWZ82Knsm9ncdmGK9jI%2BAg5IHpMa5HJvu2pPuQerd0QiR%2F6RvNvH%2BAnYKEi09uXSYss5dDG3pl96%2FY7VGzcHiJ%2Bqf1uRiyOfp79kNrm1XRNjTlV%2BV%2Bn8SwyAyBSsIsVDTfdeCSCt0X1RrzV7uITwX%2F34TGNxkJicgb91%2FdagQyPvY2g%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8iakf3CYg

     

[LoyceV]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase.

From the buyer's perspective, I get it. But from the seller's perspective, it doesn't make sense to sell under face value, unless he knows it's been tampered with. And in that case, it makes no sense at all for the buyer to buy it. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if loaded collectibles can't be sold anymore. There's no reason for the buyer to trust it if the seller accepts less than the loaded value, and there's no reason for a honest owner to accept less than the loaded value.

[minerjones]

  Has there ever been a Casascius with an unreadable private key? I know the earlier private keys are alphanumeric format...so those would not worry me too much compared to a qr code.

   Also with the private key being under the hologram, the paper and ink are protected from any exposure to humidity and light....especially light since that would fade away ink over time. I have stamps that are over a 100 years old and still in great shape. Especially of stored in an environment with low humidity and no light.

Speaking from personal experience, I have had hundreds of Casascius coins pass through and every redeemed one/DEMO coin have never shown any degradation in terms of the private key
Adding to that, I have only ever seen one instance of a Casascius hologram having some sort of degradation... but I imagine this is due to the extensive transfer of it via shipping and storage at different humidity and temperature levels

Would love to hear more about the specifics of this coin- what type of degradation, etc?

The coin is a first-day second-batch funded 2011 coin with an S1 hologram

There are a few spots on the upper rim of the inner circle and a small spot below the address, can see in the 2nd picture

[minerjones]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase.

From the buyer's perspective, I get it. But from the seller's perspective, it doesn't make sense to sell under face value, unless he knows it's been tampered with. And in that case, it makes no sense at all for the buyer to buy it. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if loaded collectibles can't be sold anymore. There's no reason for the buyer to trust it if the seller accepts less than the loaded value, and there's no reason for a honest owner to accept less than the loaded value.

I imagine most of these will just get peeled by the owners... no one wants to take a loss be it fiat or crypto

[stillherehodling]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase.

From the buyer's perspective, I get it. But from the seller's perspective, it doesn't make sense to sell under face value, unless he knows it's been tampered with. And in that case, it makes no sense at all for the buyer to buy it. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if loaded collectibles can't be sold anymore. There's no reason for the buyer to trust it if the seller accepts less than the loaded value, and there's no reason for a honest owner to accept less than the loaded value.

I imagine most of these will just get peeled by the owners... no one wants to take a loss be it fiat or crypto

Well, someone recently done just that with x6 series 2 Cas 25s....in the same block!
https://casasciustracker.com/?sort=10&flt0_balance_equals=0&flt1_type_equals=S2-COIN-25&page_size=100&desc=1

[OgNasty]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase.

From the buyer's perspective, I get it. But from the seller's perspective, it doesn't make sense to sell under face value, unless he knows it's been tampered with. And in that case, it makes no sense at all for the buyer to buy it. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if loaded collectibles can't be sold anymore. There's no reason for the buyer to trust it if the seller accepts less than the loaded value, and there's no reason for a honest owner to accept less than the loaded value.

I imagine most of these will just get peeled by the owners... no one wants to take a loss be it fiat or crypto

Well, someone recently done just that with x6 series 2 Cas 25s....in the same block!
https://casasciustracker.com/?sort=10&flt0_balance_equals=0&flt1_type_equals=S2-COIN-25&page_size=100&desc=1

Now seems like an odd time to peel those coins. Maybe someone passed away or there was a robbery. It makes little sense to hold for so long and then peel after a massive price drop. I doubt the owner was scared of BTC dropping further. What would get me to peel mine would be a massive bubble where I was afraid the price would drop before I could find a buyer.

[stillherehodling]

Disappointing to see the 10 BTC go for the loaded value. Probably not the best timing given the sentiment around BTC and the broader financial markets.

A long held, but controversial, opinion of mine is that we will see the high load value coins (like the Cas 25 or even 10) trade at less than face value at some point.  There are risks such as a private key being illegible over time, the hologram has been tampered with, etc which will be priced in as the USD value of the coins increase.

From the buyer's perspective, I get it. But from the seller's perspective, it doesn't make sense to sell under face value, unless he knows it's been tampered with. And in that case, it makes no sense at all for the buyer to buy it. Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if loaded collectibles can't be sold anymore. There's no reason for the buyer to trust it if the seller accepts less than the loaded value, and there's no reason for a honest owner to accept less than the loaded value.

I imagine most of these will just get peeled by the owners... no one wants to take a loss be it fiat or crypto

Well, someone recently done just that with x6 series 2 Cas 25s....in the same block!
https://casasciustracker.com/?sort=10&flt0_balance_equals=0&flt1_type_equals=S2-COIN-25&page_size=100&desc=1

Now seems like an odd time to peel those coins. Maybe someone passed away or there was a robbery. It makes little sense to hold for so long and then peel after a massive price drop. I doubt the owner was scared of BTC dropping further. What would get me to peel mine would be a massive bubble where I was afraid the price would drop before I could find a buyer.

Seized physicals, maybe?? (im thinking the recent young fat asian guy with glasses, whos name i cant remember and video i cant find, whos officially seized physical collection was flashed on screen for a second) ....which begs the question, what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

[LoyceMobile]

what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

I don't think they'll sell them to collectors if that's what you mean. My guess: it stays in a box labeled "evidence" for many years.

[seek3r]

Seized physicals, maybe?? (im thinking the recent young fat asian guy with glasses, whos name i cant remember and video i cant find, whos officially seized physical collection was flashed on screen for a second) ....which begs the question, what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

I guess you are talking about "Loaded" from here. Yeah they fund a few Casascius-Coins at the time he got arrested.

what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

I don't think they'll sell them to collectors if that's what you mean. My guess: it stays in a box labeled "evidence" for many years.

Yeah I agree on that. Most likely no "value" for them. Still breaks the hearts of all crypto collectors. 

[Mbitr]

Seized physicals, maybe?? (im thinking the recent young fat asian guy with glasses, whos name i cant remember and video i cant find, whos officially seized physical collection was flashed on screen for a second) ....which begs the question, what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

Knew I had the photo somewhere - apologies going very off topic now

[rsincognito]

Seized physicals, maybe?? (im thinking the recent young fat asian guy with glasses, whos name i cant remember and video i cant find, whos officially seized physical collection was flashed on screen for a second) ....which begs the question, what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

Knew I had the photo somewhere - apologies going very off topic now

so these pics are from seized items from the authorities ?

[Mbitr]

so these pics are from seized items from the authorities ?

 

Have a look at this article 

https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/50-676-btc-seized-by-u-s-detectives-found-stolen-crypto-in-bottom-of-popcorn-tin

[stillherehodling]

Seized physicals, maybe?? (im thinking the recent young fat asian guy with glasses, whos name i cant remember and video i cant find, whos officially seized physical collection was flashed on screen for a second) ....which begs the question, what would US authorities do with these after they possibly peeled them?

Knew I had the photo somewhere - apologies going very off topic now


https://www.talkimg.com/images/2023/08/23/M3lPT.png

Well, for me, thats the recently peeled x6 25s. Thanks for posting.

That blue tape is Caldwell's handy work, also. 

[thoughtfan]

If I may don my tinfoil hat and join the party at this late stage ...

There's a few fascinating things about the spending of these six Cas 25s last month:

First is that not only were, as pointed out above, they in the same block, they were all inputs in a single transaction of 173 (+ dust) BTC - and here's the thing...
...along with a Cas 5 piece and 18 x assumedly 2012 brass 1s (plus dust UTXOs those same coins). https://mempool.space/tx/6f72bcab8f2f9870cec6223411ce982d18d4bca2a085df7c641051ec500f3d64#vin=29

The BCH from the same coins was also sent as a single tx. https://blockchair.com/bitcoin-cash/address/1GLXybywwsGjV6YrVM16nb3GZWKzLG3uX1 (but not BSV)

That's not some randomer (or burgler) 'sweeping' coins one-at-a-time but someone with sufficient expertise to presumably create a complex online unsigned txs using the coins' addresses and separately inputting the privkeys to an off-line device for signing for both forks - at least I think there's a high probability that's how it was done.


If we follow the 173 BTC, first it is joined by the proceeds (minus fees) of another Cas1 piece (which, was spent a couple of hours earlier (testing?) to the same address, which (also as a test) was split as 0.01 BTC going to the same 3BGbd address as the 174 (multi-sig, or non-native segwit?)

Now here's where my tinfoil-hattedness might be getting off the rails....

Within 20 mins, the funds are on the go again, this time, being joined by a whole bunch of 10BTC UTXOs. This could, of course, be an exchange wallet, as could the 3BGbd address but what are all those 10 BTC native-segwit  UTXOs?!

Tracing them back, they all appear to come from UTXOs of 79.2xxx BTC and one hop further back has them all come from a single UTXO of 8.2k BTC - all of which happened on that same day.

So what to draw from that? First, to be clear, it's all guess work of course and I'm no sleuth and have no access to chain analysis tools or 'known' addresses, just simply someone intrigued clicking through a blockchain explorer... But my guess is that this is evidence that could support the theory that the redeeming and spending of these 26 Cas coins is part of the consolidation (sale?) of Loaded's confiscated hoard.

Just my thoughts - and btw. even though we've departed so far from the original topic of this thread, I've enjoyed how, step-by-step we got here