The World's Most Valuable Coin - The Gold Cas - Currently $48 million (value 10 years ago was $4905)

ianrussell

A month ago, I had posted about the world's most valuable coin not being the 1933 $20 (or Judd-1776/1849 $20).

And here it is...The Gold Cas - issued by Casascius in 2011, with one oz. of gold and 1000 Bitcoin and now graded by our host, PCGS. At the time (just 10 years ago), this could have been bought by all of us for under $5,000. In fact, one of our clients paid $4,905 for it on a whim.

Fast forward 10 years later, and it's worth over $48 million. Almost 10,000x return on investment. The numbers are staggering.

The World's Most Valuable Coin - The Gold Cas

• Ian

Mgarmy

Holy hell!!!

kaz

Rampage

@ianrussell Thanks for posting this. It is very intriguing. I see it says 1000 bitcoin, but for those of us who are naïve about digital currency, can you help us understand how this is 1000 Bitcoin and not just an ounce of gold? I am not understanding the relationship if this with digital currency. Please take no offense to this, I am just asking. You are welcome to send me a private message if you prefer.

Smudge

The value of the coin is 1000 bitcoins so more of a Bitcoin investment than regular coin investment. I still wish it was mine.

tradedollarnut

3 of the big ones left unopened, eh?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins

ianrussell

@Rampage said:
@ianrussell Thanks for posting this. It is very intriguing. I see it says 1000 bitcoin, but for those of us who are naïve about digital currency, can you help us understand how this is 1000 Bitcoin and not just an ounce of gold? I am not understanding the relationship if this with digital currency. Please take no offense to this, I am just asking. You are welcome to send me a private message if you prefer.

Definitely no offense taken and it's a very good question.

Apart from the one oz. of gold, there is a public key displayed on the reverse, printed on the tamper proof hologram. Under the hologram, there is a private key. You can see on Bitcoin Casiscius tracking websites that the public key is still valid, but no one has redeemed the 1000 BTC, which is only possible using the private key (with the public key).

• Ian

ianrussell

@tradedollarnut said:
3 of the big ones left unopened, eh?

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Casascius_physical_bitcoins

There's one other one as well, for a total of four that have not been redeemed yet.

• Ian

Rampage

@ianrussell said:

@Rampage said:
@ianrussell Thanks for posting this. It is very intriguing. I see it says 1000 bitcoin, but for those of us who are naïve about digital currency, can you help us understand how this is 1000 Bitcoin and not just an ounce of gold? I am not understanding the relationship if this with digital currency. Please take no offense to this, I am just asking. You are welcome to send me a private message if you prefer.

Definitely no offense taken and it's a very good question.

Apart from the one oz. of gold, there is a public key displayed on the reverse, printed on the tamper proof hologram. Under the hologram, there is a private key. You can see on Bitcoin Casiscius tracking websites that the public key is still valid, but no one has redeemed the 1000 BTC, which is only possible using the private key (with the public key).

• Ian

Ahhh, excellent. Now I understand. Thank you for helping me understand.

ianrussell

If anyone wants to read the original sales thread about the Gold Cas, here is the message board posting from December 2011 offering the coin for approximately $5,000 (it was calculated at gold melt + premium + BTC value):

Now Here: Casascius 1000 BTC Fine Gold Coin

Some of the posts are classic with the benefit of hindsight.

"If we ever hit $30 again"

"Nice coin, did anyone buy these around the time thread was made? Would have doubled their money?"

• Ian

yosclimber

Cool story, but it has to compete with the Australian 1 Tonne (1000 kg) gold coin in terms of "most valuable".
The current gold price per kg is $56,882.90 .
So the Australian 1 Tonne is currently valued $56.88 million, and beats $48 million for this 1000 bitcoin.
https://www.perthmint.com/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx

Weiss

Fascinating. But I disagree that it is the world's most valuable coin.
Scratching the combination to a safe stuffed with gold and jewels onto the surface of the coin doesn't make the coin valuable. It's the contents within the safe.

johnny9434

Does that qualify for the you suck award?

scubafuel

This would scare the heck out of me if I owned it. Someone else (possibly) knows your private key to 1000 Bitcoin!

And yeah, if Bill Gates scratched a $1bn IOU onto an Ike that might win also, but I kinda feel like a coin should have value based on its own merits…

JBK

@Weiss said:
Fascinating. But I disagree that it is the world's most valuable coin.
Scratching the combination to a safe stuffed with gold and jewels onto the surface of the coin doesn't make the coin valuable. It's the contents within the safe.

Perhaps technically the "coin" is worth millions in it's current format, but I tend to agree with the above reasoning.

If you write the bitcoin "key" on a piece of paper and seal that in an envelope, does that envelope become the most valuable philatelic cover/item in existence? If you lock the code in the glove compartment of your car, is your car now worth $48 million?

Perhaps the coin could be compared to a scratch-off lottery ticket, but a winning ticket needs to be surrendered, like a check, to be redeemed. In the case of the coin, it bears a code that is utilized digitally, independent of the coin.

These physical Bitcoins always sort of confused me, since they represent everything that Bitcoin is not supposed to be.

gumby1234

Cryptocurrency assets are unregulated and speculative, and there’s not enough data to make any sort of concrete predictions about how your investment may grow in the future. 
It could end up being just a 1oz gold round someday.

ms71

It takes a great deal of faith to believe that the hidden "private key" is unknown and unknowable to anyone except the holder of the coin; or, indeed, that there is in fact a valid key beneath the hologram.

amwldcoin

@ianrussell So has it been consigned to Great Collections? Be interesting to see how it can be proven the coin hasn't been redeemed. Is that easily accessible to those of us who are totally ignorant and don't have an interest in the Crypto Fiat System?

ThreeCentSilverFL

I remember those. The ultimate cold storage. 4 left, wow.

gumby1234

The hologram protecting the key is tamperproof and when removed leaves a honeycomb pattern.

ricko

Well now... I would say a wise move would be to redeem it now.... The future looks a tad cloudy at this point. Cheers, RickO

Keshequa

Too bad tulip bulbs were never tpg’d.

Zoins

I'm really glad PCGS slabbed this. Bitcoin is an important part of the landscape and they were leaving this area to others before.

It's a nice uses of the Rarities slab too. I wonder if the 1933 DE will get a Rarities slab too?

it's an ounce of gold too. That's a good comment on the relative value of gold vs. bitcoin.

Here's the TrueView, and slab for comparison.

JBK

@gumby1234 said:
The hologram protecting the key is tamperproof and when removed leaves a honeycomb pattern.

For much less than $48 million I would think you could buy the technology to create a new hologram to stick over the key after peeking at it.

tradedollarnut

Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

YQQ

Any takers? with that kind of freewheeling money? like pocket change?
you can not compare it with the Aussie gold coin as that is REAL hard gold.

DollarAfterDollar

Well, if the US ever comes to it's senses and mints a trillion dollar platinum coin it won't be.

CaptHenway

Not a COIN.

ianrussell

@tradedollarnut said:
Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

I'd like to buy one from you at your price. You can send me the $2.4 million now and the coin in the future.

• Ian

tradedollarnut

@ianrussell said:

@tradedollarnut said:
Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

I'd like to buy one from you at your price. You can send me the $2.4 million now and the coin in the future.

• Ian

Actually, the proper format is you give me $50M and I’ll give you my promise of 10000 Bitcoin. When you look at it that way, I kinda doubt you’d take me up on it. I mean I’m probably good for it…only a few instances of Bitcoin custody not working out.

ianrussell

@tradedollarnut said:

@ianrussell said:

@tradedollarnut said:
Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

I'd like to buy one from you at your price. You can send me the $2.4 million now and the coin in the future.

• Ian

Actually, the proper format is you give me $50M and I’ll give you my promise of 10000 Bitcoin. When you look at it that way, I kinda doubt you’d take me up on it…

It can be independently verified that the BTC has not been redeemed.

And if you owned it, you can redeem it and have it stored elsewhere if you wish.

• Ian

coinkat

Not a coin...

tradedollarnut

@ianrussell said:

@tradedollarnut said:

@ianrussell said:

@tradedollarnut said:
Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

I'd like to buy one from you at your price. You can send me the $2.4 million now and the coin in the future.

• Ian

Actually, the proper format is you give me $50M and I’ll give you my promise of 10000 Bitcoin. When you look at it that way, I kinda doubt you’d take me up on it…

It can be independently verified that the BTC has not been redeemed.

And if you owned it, you can redeem it and have it stored elsewhere if you wish.

• Ian

I agree. But can it be independently verified that there wasn’t an error in placing the key inside this coin? It might not be there at all, it might have an error on it, it might have degraded to the point it’s unreadable. Who knows. And we’ve all heard the stories of $100M code lost in the dump and no way to get the money out.

I personally wouldn’t take the risk without a discount. And that’s why I assert the coin actually has negative value

Cool concept at the time, though - and what a purchase!

tincup

Not for long.... if the US government mints a one trillion dollar platinum coin that is now being considered. Not a joke as far as I can tell.

https://axios.com/trillion-dollar-platinum-coin-mint-janet-yellen-223e7722-d7ba-47c9-b5f6-49a841d181de.html

ms71

Imagine yourself a guy of relatively average means, far from rich. You bought on of these at $4900 when that's what they went for. Better keep your eye on the proposal to tax "unrealized gains" (in the Dems' $3.5 trillion spending bill that they want to pass with the reconciliation process). I'm sure there's a record of you having purchased it. Guess you'd have to cash in at least part of it to pay the tax on your unrealized gain of $48 million.

scubafuel

There would be no unrealized gains tax since nobody can prove that you actually own the btc connected to that public key. They're Schrodinger's coins!

Assuming the private key is behind the hologram, someone put it there. So somebody besides the current coin's owner can plausibly also access those coins at any time.

CaptHenway

@yosclimber said:

Cool story, but it has to compete with the Australian 1 Tonne (1000 kg) gold coin in terms of "most valuable".
The current gold price per kg is $56,882.90 .
So the Australian 1 Tonne is currently valued $56.88 million, and beats $48 million for this 1000 bitcoin.
https://www.perthmint.com/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx

Don’t confuse them with the facts……

jmlanzaf

@tradedollarnut said:
Personally, it’s actually the world’s LEAST valuable coin. Why? Because it’s got just that much of doubt if the Bitcoin code is there - there’s simply no way to determine if it truly is. So of that $48M Bitcoin worth, I’d assign a -5% risk premium to the coin.

So it’s actually worth negative $2.4M

It can't be the LEAST valuable. There's still an ounce of gold there.

WAYNEAS

Disregarding the pros and cons here,
That is one "purrdey" coin in the holder. LOL
Wayne

gumby1234

Ever lost a password? Or ever lost a coin?

oreville

It should be called a token or a fantasy token.

A bittoken?

cameonut2011

I’d sell it now before the capital gains tax rate increases given all of the tax talk in DC and retire early.

oreville

One of my clients who has one of these 2012 1000 BTC could not convince me to buy one of them at $5000 each. I bought a 1 BTC token instead for $50 more out of curiosity.

I bought a few of Daniel Carr's 2012 1000 Amero 1 oz gold fantasy tokens in addition.

cameonut2011

Is this going to be a future GC offering?

Gazes

A common theme I've seen over the last few decades----"i wish I could go back in time when there was the ability to make huge fortunes. Those opportunities arent around anymore." Here is a coin that did exactly that. Yes, it required outside the box thinking and risk. And I gurantee there are opportunities out there now.

LanceNewmanOCC

i'd love to have been a fly on the wall at pcgs when discussing whether to take the risk to certitfy an item with such a potentially high value like this.

seems like a niche all it's own, not like comics, cards, numismatic item etc or anything else that is en masse being certified by a reputable firm.

since there were only a few made, perhaps that helps matters. counterfeiting one and selling it would not be easy (not impossible) but then again how many multi-million dollar forged/counterfeited works of art, sculpture etc are out there that are unique, as in only one ever made?

numismatics has plenty of private and public manufacturers in its ranks of items. i guess technically, this would not be exempt. digital and partially digital assets are here and here to stay. i've been digging more into nfts and the corresponding accounts necessary to create, buy, trade, sell etc and it is BIG both in scale and assigned (perceived) value.

will be quite interesting to see how this plays out as this much juice changes an awfully lot.

thanks for sharing it @ianrussell .

LanceNewmanOCC

@cameonut2011 said:
Is this going to be a future GC offering?

from the publicity page of GC:

"The owner of the world's most valuable numismatic item admits it "was definitely a stretch to make the purchase" a decade ago, but he's not tempted to sell it now even after its astounding increase in value."

BStrauss3

@ms71 said:
It takes a great deal of faith to believe that the hidden "private key" is unknown and unknowable to anyone except the holder of the coin; or, indeed, that there is in fact a valid key beneath the hologram.

There were two independent websites that track these based on the public blockchain. One site is down and one is still live: https://casascius.uberbills.com/.

https://casascius.uberbills.com/?address=1Au1uZnK87eUMoJKRL9S3wroM29AiUQtL5

The public address can be verified on any of the blockchain explorers (e.g. https://www.blockchain.com/search?search=1Au1uZnK87eUMoJKRL9S3wroM29AiUQtL5), which does give you confidence the value is still there.

The coin is actually worth a little more than Ian indicated because it was created before the BTC/BCH split, so the address is valid for 1000 Bitcoin AND 1000 Bitcoin Cash (present value about $603 per or another $603,000).

ianrussell

@yosclimber said:

Cool story, but it has to compete with the Australian 1 Tonne (1000 kg) gold coin in terms of "most valuable".
The current gold price per kg is $56,882.90 .
So the Australian 1 Tonne is currently valued $56.88 million, and beats $48 million for this 1000 bitcoin.
https://www.perthmint.com/1-tonne-gold-coin.aspx

Thanks for this information, I did not know about the Australian coin.

Thankfully, the Gold Cas has increased enough in the past week to surpass the Australian 1 Tonne coin. The Gold Cas is currently worth over $57 million for the 1000 BTC and the BCH split as @BStrauss3 correctly points out, and of course, the 1 oz. of gold.

In the past week, the Gold Cas has increased by $8 million.

• Ian

ianrussell

@cameonut2011 said:
Is this going to be a future GC offering?

The owner is not planning on selling the Gold Cas, but of course, we're always open to auctioning $50 million items.

We have auctioned 1 BTC Casascius coins previously, and have a 25 BTC at the moment.

• Ian

oreville

What does Casascius stand for?