Hot! Hot! Hot! Bitcoins from NGC-certified Otoh Collection Lighting Up Heritage Sales

The hottest item at several numismatic auctions this winter is made of brass. Casascius Bitcoins that were struck in an innovative effort to help popularize the cryptocurrency and then recently graded by Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) were the top lots in two recent Heritage Auctions sales and are leading a third.

A 2013 Casascius Bitcoin graded NGC MS 68 and pedigreed to The Otoh Collection realized $78,000 to top Heritage Auctions' Wednesday & Thursday World & Ancient Coins Select Auction, held February 28-29, 2024. The price was a Heritage Auctions record for any cryptocurrency lot and nearly doubled the price for this exact piece, which realized $39,600 just a few month earlier, in a Heritage Auctions sale held November 3, 2023.

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That November auction was Heritage's first dedicated to cryptocurrency, and it featured 150 brass coins denominated 1 Bitcoin and 100 brass coins that are denominated as 0.5 Bitcoins. Using its 70-point grading scale, NGC certified 54 of them as NGC MS 68, 122 as NGC MS 67, 53 as NGC MS 66, and 21 in other grades. NGC pedigreed these Casascius Bitcoins to the Otoh Collection, which acquired them directly from currency innovator Mike Caldwell, according to Heritage Auctions.

Bitcoin, the most popular option for cryptocurrency, was created in 2009. Many investors were interested in the digital currency but felt more comfortable owning it in a physical form. Caldwell saw an opportunity and began striking his Casascius Bitcoins, each of which has its own key: a string of numbers and letters on the back hidden behind a tamper-evident hologram.

Other sales of NGC-certified 2013 Casascius Bitcoins from the Otoh Collection through Heritage this year include:

• a 1 Bitcoin graded NGC MS 66 that realized $69,000 to take the top spot in the Wednesday & Thursday World & Ancient Coins Select Auction on February 14-15
• a 0.5 Bitcoin graded NGC MS 66 that realized $36,000 to take the second-highest spot in the Wednesday & Thursday World & Ancient Coins Select Auction on February 14-15
• a 1 Bitcoin graded NGC MS 67 that realized $51,600 in the NYINC Platinum Session of the World & Ancient Coins Signature Auction, held on January 8

Amid the expanding interest in Bitcoin, more NGC-certified examples from the Otoh Collection are being offered through Heritage Auctions, including a 1-Bitcoin example graded NGC MS 68 that is currently leading the Modern World Coins Showcase Auction on March 31. Bidding had already reached $60,000 more than three weeks before the sale.

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Other upcoming offerings of Otoh Collection Bitcoins through Heritage Auctions include:

• a 0.5-Bitcoin graded NGC MS 68 in the Modern World Coins Showcase Auction on March 31
• a 1-Bitcoin graded NGC MS 67 in the Wednesday & Thursday World & Ancient Coins Select Auction on March 13-14
• a 1-Bitcoin graded NGC MS 68 in the Wednesday & Thursday World & Ancient Coins Select Auction on March 20-21

Prices realized include buyer's premium.