Stack’s Bowers to auction funded 0.5 BTC Casascius coin

Stack’s Bowers Galleries will offer a funded Casascius 0.5 bitcoin physical token, minted July 4, 2013, in its June 18, 2026 Showcase Auction. The sale will be conducted on the firm’s online platform as part of a larger Summer Showcase event.

The coin is graded MS-66 by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). PCGS records show 15 examples at MS-66 and 11 coins graded finer at MS-67. The token remains funded, meaning the 0.5 bitcoin loaded onto it at minting is still recorded on the blockchain and can be redeemed if the private key under the hologram is revealed.

The Casascius series was produced by Mike Caldwell beginning in 2011. Each coin held a private key beneath a tamper-evident hologram and real bitcoin was loaded onchain at the time of minting. Production stopped in 2013 after regulators raised questions about whether the operation constituted unlicensed money transmission, leaving a finite number of pieces. Some owners have removed holograms to claim the bitcoin, destroying the collectible surface and altering the coin’s numismatic condition.

Stack’s Bowers assembled more than 120 crypto-related lots for the Showcase Auction. The sale includes physical bitcoin issues from the Casascius, BTCC and Lealana series and modern limited runs from producers such as Mybits, Satori, Denarium, Ballet and Freedom Bitcoin. The offering also contains Topps Allen & Ginter crypto trading cards and several early issues of Bitcoin Magazine, including Issue No. 1 and Issues 9 through 15. The combined intrinsic bitcoin value of the lots exceeds $500,000.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries is a subsidiary of A-Mark Precious Metals Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRK), which acquired the auction house’s parent company in early 2025 for $92 million. The firm is a PCGS Authorized Dealer, a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild, and an official auctioneer for ANA World’s Fair of Money events.

James McCartney, Director of Numismatics at Stack’s Bowers Galleries, remarked: “American coinage and commerce have always been a mirror to the nation’s journey toward liberty and success. There is no greater context in which to offer this historic Fourth of July funded 0.5 bitcoin.”

Bidders should factor in buyer’s premiums, which at premium auction houses commonly exceed 20 percent. The collectible value of the token will be evaluated separately from the market price of the bitcoin it contains. The auction is open for online bidding through Stack’s Bowers, and the firm is accepting consignments for its Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction with in-person previews scheduled at the ANA World’s Fair of Money in Pittsburgh and at the FUN Show in Orlando, Florida, July 9–11.

The sale is scheduled about two weeks before the United States’ 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026.