Topic: [Pre ANN] Vulcanalia Mint Physical BTC and more - page 2. (Read 12276 times)

So today's update. I'm just waiting on a replacement PID for my firing kiln, the vacuum pump for my casting table, and a couple of crucibles, and I'll be all set. Everything should arrive this week, so by this weekend, I'm hoping to have something made, even if its just some tests to mess about with. I've got a temporary hand stamp, as it will take a while to have my custom one made. I just got something sort of generic to mark what I make until I have the Vulcanalia branded one to my satisfaction.

Looking toward the future, I'm looking at laser engraving or diamond drag systems, custom holograms if I need them (bleh), and I'm starting research into fancy printers that can make little COAs. Plate forming and bending machines, 50 ton hydraulic presses, and all sorts of other goodies will probably be obtained if I can find some local shop space.

The designs for the first Bitcoin related productions are not complete, no. However, since all design related things are done in house, and not outsourced at any point, the timescale for design to completed project is nowhere near as long. I could conceivably come up with a design for something and start casting it in metal the same day. The first three things I'm making are the necklace/keychains for Mushroomized, the Pizza coin, and the blockchain statue. I still need a bit more machinery in the form of laser engravers and such before I can physically put Bitcoin addresses on things. That is pretty much my only limiting factor at the moment.

I am glad to see that everything is going right for you,also  glad to see that you had your first mistake happend with copper which is considered to a cheap metal.


Poured coins are really special and I would also like to have some .

Did you already make the designs or are you going to use some ready designs for your first productions?

Very cool, thanks for the info and looking forward to your finishing techniques!

That can very easily be arranged. Everything I make will be in multiple sizes/metals, so those who want something large to toss around like a frisby can, and those who want to spend as little as possible and still have a piece can partake as well.

I can do fractional stuff, or I can do 10Kg stuff. No need to order multiple sets of dies or other complicated things, just scale and create molds.

Its looking like I'll be producing my first pieces within the next week, so look forward to some previews.

Excellent... I would be interested in some silver goodies then. I prefer larger sized pours so 5oz+

There will be plenty of hand poured pieces to go around! Thats actually the simplest to do, so those will be incredibly affordable.

I would be interested in some hand poured coins like this:

Ah, interesting. I don't have a huge background in processing my own copper, so I had never seen it before. Just using water, probably ~60 degrees or whatever temperature it was outside. It only occurred on that one piece though.

In my experience anodizing,  I've seen that patina on flamed and melted copper before.  What liquid/temperature are you using for quenching?

Well the only mistake aspect of it, was that I poured the liquid copper too fast and it formed a large piece that isn't super useful for casting. Thats not a huge deal since I can just remelt large pieces. I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the iridescence, its really neat looking. Apparently its called flame coloring, though I have no idea how it occurred.

That's fine man, mistakes are a learning experience

And heres the furnace in action 

      



One piece I poured too fast, and it turned out really really strangely though I have no idea why. I might finish it up and see if there is a market for fancy paperweights.

So for today's update, I've sort of been slacking, but I finally got my larger furnace finished



This one should hold ~5-10 KG comfortably, if I should ever need something that large. My little electric furnace holds about 1 KG depending on crucible dimensions, which is what I intend to use most of the time, but here it is.

My casting supplies are arriving early next week, and at that point I should be able to start making things. I will probably realize I need more finishing tools as I progress, but taking it one step at a time seems to be working.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what metals to make them out of, but thats not a big deal. All I know is that I probably wont do platinum/paladium/gold for the 2016 edition. I'm sure I'll offer them in a variety of metals depending on whatever seems suitable. As far as being limited edition, we may decide to set a hard cap on how many are produced, or just stick with the one week thing. If we have 100 orders in that week, 100 will be made, and after that week is over, no more. If we have 3 orders that week, only 3 would be made, and no more. Each piece will be hand numbered, and I'll be able to tell the mintage at the end of the week.

Sounds like a great idea.

I think that everybody here would like to own a slice of the bitcoin history. Sterling silver will be great for such a coin.

Is it going to be a limited edition coin?
Keep us updated, really interesting, also a coin of a block reward can be cool too, but only after everything goes well with the first idea of course:).

I forgot to comment on this part. I didn't know if we wanted to let people know about the idea yet, but whatever. Design hasn't begun for this coin, however we have been figuring out a lot of the mechanics around physically building it and our process for selling them. It is planned to be one of our earlier productions.

We will pre-announce when we plan to produce the Pizza coin, at least a week ahead of actual minting. For one week we will mint and sell them. After that, you will have to wait for next year's edition. On day 1 of the week, we will take the weighted Bitcoin average and decide that year's funding amount. As Mush said, it will be $41 converted into Bitcoins to commemorate the sale of the 10,000 BTC pizza. The idea behind it is that as the years go on, the funding amount will decrease little by little. The 2016 Pizza Coin from Vulcanalia would be funded with roughly 0.0651 BTC if minted today. Maybe in 2017 if BTC is $1000/coin during the week of minting, they would be funded with 0.041 BTC, etc etc. Of course the designs will change, and each piece will be stamped with the year, the # it was produced, and the BTC value of $41 that year.

No idea about what materials will be used or the size of the coin at the moment. Probably Copper, Silver, some various neat alloys, etc. Gold probably wont be on the todo list for this year, but the 2017 Bitcoin pizza could end up cast in gold. I'd like to make the coin relatively large so we can get a lot more detail.

Well, it was a joke somewhat. Every so often I forget that when read as text, jokes don't translate well  

Either way, Mush is on the team, specializing in design. Thanks for your support, I'm reading into how it all works now. I'm trying to figure out if data posted gets saved into a blockchain, and if that data can be viewed straight from the blockchain. That would be pretty useful for saving photos and information about things I make as a secondary means of verification that something is authentic.

That said, I'm not hugely worried about counterfeiters. First, most counterfeits are really bad. Second, counterfeiting factories have presses like what you would see from a traditional mint. It would be a massive hassle for someone to replicate my setup, replicate my designs, and casting methods. And finally, due to craftsmanship inconsistencies, weight should be a huge verifying factor. If I have a mold that is 5 troy ounces of silver, by the time I'm done finishing, sanding, polishing, etc the particular piece, it might be a couple of grams off of the molded weight. So each piece will have a bit of variance to it. As long as I document the ending weight, counterfeiters would need to get that one particular weight in order to fool anyone. Its possible, but again, a huge hassle.

*edit* Steemit requires personal info like your phone number and such. As much as I'd love to have personal info on a database of known cryptoholders, I think I'll pass an go the traditional route. I'll keep logging progress here and on Vulcanaliamint.com when I have it setup.

That's pretty messed up

But cool! If I can help in any way, hit me up! I'm also on Steemit as @emerge!
I can endorse you or whatever in any way to help a fellow entrepreneur and artisan
start up the ladder!

Confirming that Mush is indeed working with me. Both of our mothers were on TLC's show wife swap, but they canceled the show and didn't tell us, so we switched moms for a couple of years. Now we are pretty much brothers.

I quoted Mush's post and put it into my reserved first post.