Topic: Bitcoin Specie Project sponsored by the makers of New Liberty Dollar - page 19. (Read 88462 times)

So really this is nothing more than a bitcoin themed souvenir that's valued upon the material it is made out of? 

Wow, that museum looks really amazing.  I would be delighted to see these represented there.

This piece does represent a piece of history.  There has never before been specie of any kind that was not only money worldwide, but also translates its value through a QR code link into local currency as well as bitcoin.  That the first piece of this kind bears the distinctive BTC on the obverse is to honor the great gift to humanity that bitcoin represents.  We contemplated other communities into which to introduce this piece, but selected this one for lots of great reasons.  So far you all have proved the wisdom of that through your generous welcoming and enthusiasm.  

There will be an auction posted soon for one of the first strike coins.  Stay tuned for that.

Also congratulations to those that have pre-ordered to lock in the silver price at the current levels.
Looks like you already did well for that as silver is on the rise!

I love to get one of the first strike coins to immortalize in The Bitcoin Museum

French version of Slate picked up the story:
http://www.slate.fr/story/76296/hacking-pas-ordinateurs-cuisine-musique
And some others...
http://www.thebitcoinchannel.com/archives/19662
https://program.ohm2013.org/event/59.html
https://www.kitcomm.com/showthread.php?t=122771
http://bitcoinviews.com/new-silver-liberty-dollar-qr-coin-obtains-live-bitcoin-prices/
http://thebitcoinnews.co.uk/2013/08/07/new-liberty-dollar-silver-qr-coin-obtains-live-bitcoin-prices/
http://freedomwat.ch/2013/08/06/new-silver-liberty-dollar-qr-coin-obtains-live-bitcoin-prices/
http://bitkoins.com/discussion/25059/new-silver-liberty-dollar-qr-coin-obtains-live-bitcoin-prices
http://ewallstreeter.com/new-silver-liberty-dollar-qr-coin-obtains-live-bitcoin-prices-5554/

It undermines nothing of the sort

Liberty Dollar was also free of bank currency.
(As is New Liberty Dollar)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_currency
It was one of the inspirations for Satoshi Nakamoto.

I don't know about this. It undermines totally the idea behind Bitcoin for being a free of bank currency. With physical coins everything comes more to the point it gets regulated like all the old currencies.

I'll have some to be sure.  Selling is a different question.
There are only a few minted at the moment, and most of these are spoken for already.

As it turns out I spent most of today on the mint factory floor today as there is some equipment problems which will delay the volume production for a little while so I surely won't have enough to sell any meaningful amounts.

In case it wasn't clear earlier, if you want to pre-order to lock in the silver price at the current rates.  That can be done at any time.

Any chance you'll have any for to sell at the LA Bitcoin Meetup next week?

Great! It looks like there are at least a few folks that will take part.  Thank you all for that.

At auction will be one of the first strike pieces, suitable for presentation.  
I'll organize the details as soon as we get some of the photography back (so you can at least see more clearly what you will be bidding on).

I appreciate all the fellow collectors here (as I am), but really this piece is made to be worthy of circulation and trade more than as a collectible.  Durable enough to carry in your pocket and still be fully functional after years of wear and use.  It represents a lot of earned expertise in private minting design, and a deep love of the great Bitcoin experiment.  We hope they will be around and in use for many years to come and should hold up well.
Only time will prove that out, but as long as you have at least one current piece that has a good readable QR, your stack should be easily traded at current display value.

They are made to be inexpensive enough that everyone should be able to have one in their pocket and not worry about it too much.  We will not limit the minting of these pieces going forward, they will be produced to meet demand ad infinitum.  In quantity, can get prices that will let you use them at a small profit and they are priced to move.  We know that we are not going to get rich from these and those that distribute them will have a better margin than we the producers will have.

All that said, these are also ground-breaking pieces, the first of their kind and a little bit of history in the making.  There are only 40 of these first strike "hero pieces" made for photographic purposes and they are highly coveted by all of us working to make this project come to fruition so hopefully the auction winner will have something they can treasure.

We are also contemplating some early release volume sales (with some important limitations).  If you are interested in getting some of the brilliant uncirculated general release pieces ahead of our launch, that might be possible.  All we would ask would be that you not offer them for resale until after the formal launch date Oct 1 2013 at The European Bitcoin conference.

I will wait for gold or gold-plated.

Sounds interesting to me!

id be in if an auction was afoot

I'd be interested.

We have had some requests for purchasing some of the first strike pieces made for the marketing phase. Typically we have reserved these to be awarded to those that are assisting in the project development.  Some few have already been committed for this, and there will be more needed for that.

We recognize that we have done precious few sales through the BitCoinTalk forum, and have not engaged in any auctions through this site.  So if you are interested in getting one of these early released pieces, and would be willing to help us test this process out by doing so through an auction here, let us know and we will work to arrange an auction swiftly.

YES.  THANK YOU.  This deserves repeating.  This is not bitcoin, it may be considered a type of bitcoin specie.  For that, it may provide a new hard money backing for bitcoin (to the extent that bitcoin may be redeemed/exchanged for it).  It is silver only (and soon gold as well).  The value of bitcoin and these COLD HARD CASH pieces are however not bound to each other except for those that may voluntarily trade one for the other, and for this trade the QR displays the recommended trade value based on the current exchange pricing.  There is also .025 BTC emblazoned on the obverse as a recommended trade value (and to commemorate the value of Silver/BTC in 2013).

Chainsaw:
Days to weeks.  I'll announce a first day of issue date which might be a week or ten days out from the announcement and take pre-orders up to that date.  There will likely be some specials available for quantity purchases on or before first day of issue that will not be available later. The OP will be updated with order instructions when the time comes for that.
Progress is continuing:
Initial marketing pieces are being minted, final touches are being put on the QR landing page.  
Other website development is needed as well, but can proceed once these basics are solid and tested out.  I am as eager as you are to progress!

Dwdoc:
Some folks like the tarnish (more properly called "toning") on silver pieces, others not.  They can be put in Airtites, or lacquered for preservation if you don't like tarnish, but they should do just fine with normal wear and use as pocket pieces too.  OR you can wait for the gold pieces.  Gold does not tarnish at all.

Great concept!!! Any idea if we are, roughly speaking, days vs. weeks vs. months from release?  I'm eager to buy before silver gets too crazy 

A coin that will stay shiny and not tarnish significantly with regular use (exposed to air) would be an advantage.

Just to clarify - these coins do not have any actual BTC value in them at all - they are silver rounds only, deriving their value from being made of silver.  I like the QR code concept on the coin, but everyone should know if you buy these, you're not investing in BTC, you're investing in silver.

In the recent judicial opinion memorandum on the Pirateat40 case...

There are some elements suggested against bitcoin being money:
https://www.courthousenews.com/2013/08/06/Bitcoin.pdf
One being that it is not regulated by a central bank, and the other being that there is no specie or precious metal.

I'm not interested at all in the first, central banking, but the second, absence of specie, is close to my heart.
For this opinion, the memo relies upon http://illinoisjltp.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Dion.pdf which in turn relies upon an unpublished version of the Satoshi white paper that states: 'the Bitcoin system does not require any backing or “trust”'.
The authoritative version available at http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf does not include this statement.

Notwithstanding this argument by Pirate that bitcoin is not money, there does exist some examples of specie, such as the Casascius physical bitcoins, many of which are also precious metal. https://www.casascius.com/

The step proposed in this project (which incidentally is almost completed and ready for sale which is why it is here in "goods" rather than in "projects") is for a pure specie offering.  As these pieces become more widely available, they can form a type of decentralized backing for bitcoin (even though bitcoin needs no backing).  Because we will accept bitcoin as payment in purchase for the specie (as well as anyone else might do the same, we are not patenting anything), this creates a type of ad-hoc backing of bitcoin with precious metal.

Further, in order to most widely spread this, we are setting prices as close as possible to actual costs, while leaving a little margin for those that volunteer to purchase at wholesale and aggregate sales for a locality.  Bitcoin users, coin dealers, miners, and anyone with a local bitcoin community can play this role simply by purchasing in enough quantity to get the lowest premiums.  This will allow the high volume purchaser to get "Bitcoin Cold Hard Cash" (We are adopting this nomenclature to distinguish from the "Physical Bitcoin" term used for Casascius, but please feel free and welcome to call them whatever you think appropriate.)