Did physical bitcoins exist in the early 2000's?

I guy I know is claiming that bitcoins were "officially" produced in physical form in the early 2000's.

He claims he was gifted one in the early 2000's, that it was a gold-plated coin with only the bitcoin symbol, but no wallet information on it.

Obviously, it could have some value from the gold-plating, or novelty or collector's value, but please let me know if there was ever a physical coin that somehow had a value of one bitcoin, without any wallet information attached to it?

To top this story off, he claims to have lost it a few years ago, and the coin was supposedly the gift from a local millionaire, who was later murdered and was a business partner of Jeffrey Epstein.