Stack’s Bowers Auctions Funded 0.5 Bitcoin Casascius Token From America’s 237th Birthday

What’s Being Sold

According to the Stack’s Bowers Galleries announcement shared with Bitcoin.com News, the token is graded MS-66 by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). Only 15 examples beryllium astatine that grade. Just 11 coins person been graded finer, each astatine MS-67. The token remains funded, meaning the 0.5 BTC loaded onto the blockchain astatine instauration is inactive intact and redeemable.

The coin was produced by Mike Caldwell, a Utah-based bundle technologist who began minting the Casascius bid successful 2011. Each carnal coin holds a private key beneath a tamper-evident hologram, with existent bitcoin loaded onchain astatine the clip of minting.

Why Casascius Coins Are Scarce

Caldwell halted accumulation aft regulators flagged the cognition arsenic a imaginable unlicensed wealth transmission concern successful 2013. The abbreviated accumulation model near a finite supply. Attrition has narrowed that proviso further: immoderate owners person “peeled” their coins to assertion the bitcoin, destroying the collectible and erasing its numismatic worth successful the process. Funded examples successful precocious grades are present uncommon by immoderate measure.

The Auction Context

The June 18 sale is not a one-lot showcase. Stack’s Bowers has assembled much than 120 crypto collectibles with a combined intrinsic worth exceeding $500,000. The merchantability includes coins from the Casascius, BTCC, and Lealana series, alongside lower-mintage modern issues from producers including Mybits, Satori, Denarium, Ballet, and Freedom Bitcoin.

Other carnal bitcoin items being auctioned astatine the Stack’s Bowers Galleries alongside the 2013 Casascius carnal bitcoin. Pictured left: Satori carnal bitcoin. Pictured right: Mybits carnal bitcoin.

The auction besides marks the firm’s archetypal offering of crypto trading cards from Topps’ Allen and Ginter series, a crossover expected to gully involvement from sports paper collectors who way that merchandise enactment separately from the crypto space.

Early Bitcoin Magazine issues circular retired the sale, including a transcript of Issue No. 1 and a consecutive tally of Issues 9 done 15.

Who’s Behind the Gavel

Stack’s Bowers Galleries has operated for much than 90 years and is simply a wholly owned subsidiary of A-Mark Precious Metals Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRK), which acquired genitor institution Spectrum Group International successful aboriginal 2025 for $92 million. The steadfast is simply a PCGS Authorized Dealer, a subordinate of the Professional Numismatists Guild, and the authoritative auctioneer for large numismatic events, including ANA World’s Fair of Money conventions.

“American coinage and commerce person ever been a reflector to the nation’s travel toward liberty and success,” James McCartney, Director of Numismatics astatine Stack’s Bowers Galleries, remarked.

The Stack’s Bowers Galleries enforcement added:

“There is nary greater discourse successful which to connection this historical Fourth of July funded 0.5 bitcoin.”

What Buyers Should Know

Bidders should relationship for buyer’s premiums, which typically tally supra 20% astatine premium auction houses. The token’s collectible worth operates separately from its bitcoin spot value, and some factors are applicable to the last price. The auction is unfastened for bidding done the Stack’s Bowers platform.

The steadfast is besides accepting consignments for its Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction, which volition clasp in-person previews astatine the ANA World’s Fair of Money successful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Specialists volition besides beryllium disposable astatine the FUN Show successful Orlando, Florida, moving July 9 done 11.

With America’s 250th day 2 weeks retired and bitcoin trading actively, the timing places a 13-year-old carnal token astatine an intersection that fewer collectibles person occupied before. Whether that intersection holds lasting worth is simply a question the marketplace volition reply connected Thursday.