And an immediately fast answer – yes, it exists. Physical Bitcoin came up by American Mike Caldwell and first introduced them for purchase in 2011. They have the name “Casascius” from the abbreviation “call a spade a spade”. It’s the Casascius coins we see in all these photos with bitcoin.
How does it works?
Casascius works like a cold wallet cast in coin form factor. The eight-character code on the outside of the coin corresponds to the first eight characters of an individual bitcoin address, which is assigned specifically to that coin. Digital bitcoin is, of course, on the Internet, but it is only available to those who have a private key to a physical coin. To get the code you need to peel off the hologram (this also shows which coins have already been used).
In 2013, the US government banned Caldwell from issuing physical bitcoins, but by that time, 27,920 Casascius of various denominations had been created – 1 (brass), 10 (silver), 25, 100 and 1000 (gold) BTC. Now less than 20,000 unredeemed Casascius coins are left, so they are often sold as a relic for amounts several times the face value of the coin.