The server was puzzled after the customer left the mystery coin instead of paying

A server was left baffled after a customer left a restaurant without paying the bill and left behind a mysterious gold-colored coin.

Reddit user u/Martoshka shared the experience on a subreddit called “slightly annoying,” where it garnered 42,000 upvotes. They explained that they worked at an upscale steakhouse and the bill came to $35.

“A guy left this on the table at the restaurant I work at and left without paying,” they wrote.

Along with the post, they also included a photo of currency left by the restaurant, which is gold with an engraving Bitcoin “B.” The text around the coin reads: “Bitcoin. Digital. Decentralized. Peer-to-peer”.

Jess Kraftsaid assistant curator at the American Numismatic Society Newsweek about the origins of the “bitcoin” mystery.

“This is a “Bitcoin”. I use quotes because the real bitcoin is of course a digital cryptocurrency, while this is something someone created as a trick to make money.

“There is a physical cryptocurrency, which is a metal coin/token, similar to the one in the photo, but it actually has a code to redeem an actual bitcoin – they call it ‘loaded’, and once the bitcoin is redeemed, it’s ” unloaded”. They can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars.”

However, the restaurant did not leave the server with a substantial tip. Instead, the coin turned out to be a replica of a “charged bitcoin”.

“It looks like the token in the photo has an ounce of copper in it, so it has an intrinsic value of about $0.27 and can be purchased on Amazonand other places, in bulk,” Kraft revealed.

According to Investopedia, Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that operates without the oversight of a central authority such as a bank or government. Created in 2009 by an anonymous entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin was designed as an alternative to traditional money, allowing transactions directly between users through a peer-to-peer network.

Reddit reacts

The Reddit the community found the situation engaging, debated the actual value of the coin.

“If he ever comes back, you can serve him a picture of food,” joked one user.

Many users concluded that the coin was copper, although one user disagreed.

“They’re not even copper; it’s just plated steel. You can buy a 12-pack of these on Amazon for $10. But maybe the guy was so stupid that he thinks owning real currency means owning Bitcoin” , commented Kerensky97.

“B is for ‘ban me from here,'” joked Historical-Airport61.

Newsweek reached out to u/Martoshka for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.