Always buy these physical Bitcoin coins if you ever see one at a garage sale!

The story goes back till 2013, when a man called Mike Caldwell minted and sold physical Bitcoin coins called ''Casascius coins''. The coins contain an embedded piece of paper with digital Bitcoin value, covered by a tamper-resistant hologram. Casascius coins are available in 1 (brass,1st gen)/silver, 10 (silver), 25 (gold-plated), 100 (gold bar), and 1000 BTC (1 troy ounce gold) increments.

There are still around 20.900 Casascius coins (2020) circulating in the world, meaning thousands of unclaimed Bitcoin are still sitting in their Casascius coin.

​

How the 1-25 Bitcoin coins look like.

1000 Bitcoin coin (1 troy ounce gold coin).

Why Mike stopped minting:

As of Nov 27, 2013, Mike Caldwell suspended sales of items that contain digital bitcoin. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a branch of the Treasury Department, informed him before, that minting physical bitcoins qualifies him as a money transmitter business, which means he needs to register at the federal level and probably get state licenses too.

Edit:

you can find the status of all casascius coins here: https://casasciustracker.com/ or here: https://casascius.uberbills.com/

​

(thanks to u/thelovetoy) There were also Denarium (603BTC total) an BCmint coins:

​

Denarium coin.

​

BCmint physical coin.