Not seen for a decade, a one-ounce gold coin with a denomination of 1,000 Bitcoins (BTC) is the world’s most valuable numismatic item. Purchased in December 2011 for $4,905, it is now worth $48 million at the BTC value as of Monday morning, October 4, 2021.
On behalf of its anonymous owner, GreatCollections Coin Auctions of Irvine, California (www.GreatCollections.com) submitted the gold 1,000 Bitcoin physical coin under armed guard for certification to Professional Coin Grading Service. It has been certified PCGS Proof-70 DCAM.
"This is the greatest return on investment for any numismatic item, a staggering 9,786 times the purchase price in just ten years. It may be the world’s greatest investment in that time span," stated Ian Russell, President of GreatCollections.
"Its value eclipses classic coins, such as the 1933 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle recently auctioned by Sotheby’s for $18,872,250 or the Sultan of Muscat 1804 Draped Bust dollar GreatCollections recently purchased at auction for $7,680,000 on behalf of a client," he said.
The gold 1,000 BTC is not for sale, but Russell announced that a gold-plated 25 BTC coin, now certified PCGS MS-67, will be offered without reserve by GreatCollections in an auction that closes on November 14.
"Bidding will start at $1, although I anticipate this 25 BTC will sell for more than $1 million," predicted Russell.
The cryptocurrency community refers to the 1,000 BTC coin as "the Gold Cas." That is a reference to "Casascius", the brand of BTC coins produced from 2011 to 2013.
The company was created by Mike Caldwell to create physical "Casascius coins" in increments of 0.1, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, 25, 100 and 1,000 BTC units. Caldwell also produced some BTC ingots.
PCGS Interim President Stephanie Sabin stated: "PCGS sets the standard for grading and authenticating rare coins, tokens, medals, and paper currency. As such, we have been entrusted with the encapsulation of the majority of auction-topping items year after year. This coin is set apart in its cultural significance in merging the worlds of cryptocurrency and traditional numismatics. Combine this with the staggering value of the Bitcoins it contains and we have a new Goliath."
Only six 1,000 gold BTC Casascius coins were made and four of them have not been redeemed including the one owned by Russell’s client.
The gold coin is dated "2012 CASASCIUS." The legend on the obverse includes "1 TROY OZ .999 FINE GOLD" and the motto, "VIRES IN NUMERIS," Latin for STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. There is a multi-color, tamper-resistant hologram design on the reverse. It was in fact the first produced by Casascius.
Russell said the current owner of this 1,000 gold BTC is not the presumed founder of the digital currency Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. There have been suggestions that the founder of Bitcoin owns iconic Bitcoin items such as the "Gold Cas".
"The Gold Cas owner wanted to have his fortune encapsulated and graded by PCGS. GreatCollections arranged the process from start-to-finish, including an armed guard escort to take it to PCGS headquarters in Santa Ana, California," said Russell.
"It’s the ultimate 21st century collectible, merging gold with crypto-currency; a cultural phenomenon considering the vast numbers of people under 30 who own some cryptocurrency as investments," he stated.
"The $48 million coin now resides in an overseas bank vault, and it’s unlikely to ever be redeemed or spent as Bitcoin, but you may be able to see it in person someday. GreatCollections is in talks with the owner to publicly display it at an upcoming coin convention," Russell explained.
For additional information, contact GreatCollections at 949-679-4180 or visit online at www.GreatCollections.com.
About GreatCollections
GreatCollections is an auction house for certified coins and banknotes, handling transactions from start to finish. Since its founding in 2010, GreatCollections has successfully auctioned over 950,000 certified coins, making it one of the leading certified coin companies in the United States. Ian Russell, owner/president of GreatCollections, is a member of the prestigious Professional Numismatists Guild and member of the National Auctioneers Association. For more information about GreatCollections, visit www.GreatCollections.com or call (800) 442-6467.
OMG Another perfect grade and this time a fake Bitcoin – what will those graders think of next!
So basically the anonymous bought 1,000 btc in 2011 and this token is representation of that. This person must have a btc wallet in addition to this token. Is that correct?
I honestly don’t know – they invent new shit every day to try and impress and fleece us.
My only experience and knowledge with this garbage is : I waited until grayscale launched it’s Bitcoin Trust product representing Bitcoin and I bought in at inception around $4.00. The rest is a mystery to me and I hate Elon Musk so I don’t trade off his babbling BS
Best Regards
Casascius coins have a printed paper wallet with private keys that are underneath the security hologram. The public key is on the face of the hologram in what we call firstbits which is a short version of the public key. So yeah this guy has a loaded coin with 1000 bitcoin on it. There is an entire collectable industry surrounding loaded coins ranging from 0.0001 btc per coin all the way up to 1000 btc! You can join us on https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=217.0 We have digital godl on physical godl.
Awesome! Amazing info! Question. If the privet key is under the hologram, how does he get access to the privet key if need be? The coin is slabbed now.
This also means the owner never accessed the wallet because if he/she did the coin would be damaged and not graded as 70 DCAM.
LMAO that sounds so simple and safe = NOT even the creator of Doge Coin says all Cryptos are a scam. It’s very similar to the Gold & Silver Bag-Holders who tell you that they will give you their valuable precious metals if you will give them your worthless American Dollars. The other thing is try and open one of these wallets – they want all of your personal information so they can sell it to hackers who will steal your Crypto and if that’s not enough Elon Musk (Mr. Paypal Tax Himself) endorses and manipulates Cryptos frequently – all… Read more »
The Government has made clear that so called Tech is only to be used to their advantage not ours and I’ll never complete that circle. Absolutely, no internet= no access to crypto – this whole thing is just a bored population of pathetic degenrate gamblers who invented a new way to get their fix. Half of the US Government is to busy looking at their iphones and 401k’s to stop a massive anti-american counterfeit currency scheme while the other half is invested in it. For example, we call it “Technology” but we can’t vote for a President on our computers… Read more »
What a bunch of P.T. Barnum crap in this press release! Lol. It sat in a desk drawer for 10 years (drawers that are usually opened & closed once in awhile causing friction), yet it grades a “perfect” 70 at PCGS!!?? Lol. There is no numismatic item in the world made by man & machine that is perfect, & therefore under magnification they say 70-graded coins, tokens & medals have not one flaw of any kind!? It is asinine. It only grades 70 in comparison to a 69 is all…please do not get taken in by the real big lie… Read more »
One of my Golden Rules: The action and handling required to send a coin to a grader and get it returned to us causes enough wear to the coin that it loses one whole grade and therefore there can’t be any perfect graded coins.
On the bright-side, since there are so many perfect coins then MS69 and down are now more rare than perfect graded coins.
Speaking of fake coins, will they send that $1T coin to PCGS to be graded?
If I was grading it – I would not even give it an ‘Almost Good’ rating.
I love the Hollywood routine the Politicians and the media are putting on when we all know they are going to keep raising the debt ceiling and keep paying themselves off and funding the fake news media until the end of time or the sheep get smart enough to do something about it.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html?taxpayer
And so it was said by Kaiser Wilhelm………. Yet I am so confused