THE FIRST FIFTY

The book will exist after this auction.

These copies will not.

The first fifty copies of the definitive hardcover edition of The Creature From Jekyll Island: Pepe Edition are going through Scarce City before I keep even one for myself.

They are hardcover proof copies, marked NOT FOR RESALE (but you certainly can).

I will sign them. I will hand-number them according to the final leaderboard. And i will draw SOMETHING inside just for you.

#1 gets Book #1.

#7 gets Book #7.

#50 gets Book #50.

Your position in this auction becomes part of the provenance of the book, and I am not pulling mine out first. The first copy of my own hardcover will belong to somebody else.

THIS IS NOT THE SAME BOOK

The paperback already exists... some of you own it.

While building the hardcover, I went back into the manuscript and effectively refused to stop. The finished book is now roughly 60% larger than the second edition.

Not 60% more blank paper.

60% more book.

More Crowne history. More of the Federal Reserve doing what it does best... spinning the money printer. More real history. More Bitcoin history. More connective tissue between the things that happened and the people who lived through them.

John McAfee, Samourai Wallet, COLDCARD, Quantum threats, Regulatory wars, John Villar, New Crowne material, New mythology, Twenty-five new pieces of artwork, More augmented-reality material... and more

Things that had been paragraphs became scenes. Things that had been mentioned became sub-plots and extra stories. Then the entire book was rebuilt as a larger 7 × 10, almost 500 page, full-color hardcover masterpiece.

This is the version I can finally say I am finished.

WHAT IS THE CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND: PEPE EDITION?

It is a five-generation American family saga hiding inside the history of money. The Crownes keep finding themselves in the same argument, century after century:

Who gets to decide what something is worth?

Miners? Bankers? Panics? Wars?

And threaded through all of it, a family carrying an inheritance they do not completely understand and confronting something that may be considerably older than the institutions it inhabits.

In this book, the Federal Reserve is not a building.

It is a MONSTER.

The first time you read this book, it is a story.

The second time through, you start Googling names, companies, laws, dates... and discovering how much of this ridiculous shit actually happened.

The predictions became part of the fun around the previous edition.

Something would happen in the news, and someone would ask me about it... eventually the answer became: “It’s in the book.”

THE LAST TIME THIS BOOK CAME THROUGH SCARCE

The earlier book came through Scarce while the project was still becoming what it is now. The first edition had a typo on the cover, and the kind of mistakes you get from a guy who never made a book before. At the time, the auction description called it "a possible new beginning in Bitcoin literature."

Since then the book grew. PEPECREATURE grew. The audiobook happened. The mythology around the predictions grew, and the community found its way deeper into the story.

Scarce City itself somehow wound up inside Chapter 21...

If you own a first edition, this is the book you put next to it.

Now you have the first draft and the finished product.

SCARCITY VERSUS RARITY

Anybody can create scarcity. Print fifty things. Number them, and stop printing. Congratulations... that's scarcity.

Rarity needs a reason.

These books are rare because their provenance cannot be reproduced later. There will be normal hardcovers. There can be more signed books.

But there cannot be another first fifty copies of this hardcover distributed ONLY through this auction.

Years from now, long after I am gone, a #37 test press, signed by the author will still be the only one of its kind. A proven artifact whose number recorded exactly where its original owner finished when the first fifty left my hands.

THE LEADERBOARD

And because apparently fifty signed proof copies were not sufficiently unreasonable, the object changes as you climb.

TOP 50 Bidders - One of the first fifty hardcover proofs. Signed by the author, and hand-numbered to your final leaderboard position.

And... James P. Foxworthy III⁴ has gifted you a squeaky rubber duck.

Readers will understand.

If you ever need to put pressure on the Attorney General in his own office... you will be glad to have it. Please take a picture of it next to the book. For me.

TOP 25 - Everything above... plus PEPECREATURE.

PEPECREATURE is not a token created to commemorate this auction. PEPECREATURE is the book. It is a Fake Rare on Counterparty, and the BOOK and the AUDIOBOOK lives within the asset.

When the first edition was all there was.... the token had it. When the 2nd edition came out, the token was updated, when the audiobook was released, PEPECREATURE holders had access to it months before the conventional audiobook release. The secret hidden chapter... still theirs to enjoy.

This hardcover can sit on a shelf... or displayed on a coffee table next to The Bitcoin Standard.

The token carries the work somewhere a shelf cannot.

TOP 10 - Everything above... plus a physical metal Sovereign Coin from the story.

For generations inside the novel, these coins pass through the hands of the Crowne family. Now they pass to you. This is your induction into the Crowne family. Save it, display it, wear it around your neck in a brocade knot. But be clear, this is not plasic... its an ACTUAL METAL COIN... that you can hold in your hand.

I intend to make roughly twenty. Ten are going to collectors.

NOTHING LIKE THIS EXISTS

#1 TOP BIDDER - For the first place bid, you get everything above... Book #1. PEPECREATURE. A Sovereign Coin. And the Pond Guy handcuffs.

One pair of actual federal handcuffs (don't ask), finished in green and engraved with symbols and language from the book. Just to be super clear, these are WORKING, HEAVY, METAL, FEDERAL handcuffs with 2 keys. One object. One winner.

No second-place version.

This project has apparently predicted its own future, Scarce City appears inside the story auctioning the same handcuffs that we are now giving to the winner.

CAN I JUST BUY THE BOOK LATER?

Absolutely. Unsigned retail hardcovers will come later (about a week or so) after the auction closes.

They will be $250. If all you want is to read the finished book, and don't need it signed or to have a duck, that is the sensible option. Enjoy it.

This auction is for something else.

The retail copy will not be one of these first fifty proofs. It will not be numbered according to this leaderboard. It will not come with PEPECREATURE. It will not come with an actual metal commemorative coin. And unless something has gone terribly wrong, Amazon will not mail you federal handcuffs.

This Lot Includes:

THIS AUCTION LOT - (TLDR)

Auction: Bitcoin only, Scarce City

Format: Hardcover

Trim: 7 × 10 inches

Length: 482 pages

Interior: Full color

Edition: 3rd Edition Hardcover (Author Proofs)

Numbering: Final auction position determines copy number

Signature: Signed by Kane Mayfield with a little something extra written inside

Top 50 - Signed and numbered hardcover proof + James P. Foxworthy III⁴ squeaky duck

Top 25 - Everything above + PEPECREATURE Fake Rare

Top 10 - Everything above + physical Sovereign Coin

#1 TOP BIDDER - Everything above + Pond Guy handcuffs

And the next time somebody asks what you can buy with Bitcoin, you can hold this up and say HISTORY

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