Hi BitcoinTalk

I am a bitcoin noob who happens to have an unpeeled Series 1 Casascius coin with the spelling error hologram, and I'm looking to sell it for slightly more BTC than face value (Someone on Reddit told me it may be worth 1.3btc).

I am completely paranoid and more than a little lost in this new scene, so I'm asking for help.


Here's what I know:

• my Casascius was loaded in 2011 and is untouched since
• I need a UK-based escrow for the exchange
• peel value includes some forks like bitcoin cash in addition to btc

And what I'd like to learn here:

• How do I make contact with an Escrow, and who to trust?
• How do I prove my own trustworthiness and coin legitimacy
• How do physical hand-offs work in Corona-time?
• How long should I expect it to take?
• What scams should I look out for as a noob?

Am I jumping the gun thinking about a physical sale with so little bitcoin knowledge/experience?
I find this all so overwhelming that trying to learn about it is anxiety-inducing.
Should I even be considering selling at this stage?


My plan was to sell for whatever premium the relic fetches, and then cash out up to my tax-free allowance to pay off some debts. Obviously, I want to cash out at a high btc-gbp value so I keep as much btc as possible, and maybe buy back if it crashes badly like in '18. If btc is on a 2017/2018 trend-line though, maybe the +0.3 will be wiped out by the time sale is finalised. Am I being silly even considering this?


Sorry if this reads like a mad ramble - I'm in way over my head here.
Thanks for reading :)