WHAT IS FRACTIONAL OWNERSHIP?

How does the system work? What happens if we purchase a virtual slice of the coin only for a wealthy collector to come along and try to buy it? ‘One of the things we were very conscious of was what happens in that scenario,’ Showpiece.com co-founder Graham Shircore told us. ‘Were someone to come to us and say they want to buy the whole thing, that would then be put to the owners for them to vote on.’ A majority of 60% would be needed for the sale to go ahead – the team believe 51% would not be enough and that 75% would leave many people disappointed.’

For those tempted to get involved, the option of selling the portion in the future is also important, and the website will soon include a marketplace allowing owners to buy, sell and exchange pieces of the coin.

‘On day one the “route to exit” would be through someone purchasing the coin as a whole,’ Graham told us. ‘But within the next six months we will launch a marketplace facility to allow people to buy and sell to and from each other. We want people to own this and really enjoy being able to say they’ve got this for a long period of time, but we realise that not everybody’s in that camp, and that people’s circumstances change, so we want to provide that flexibility.’

According to Graham, he and his colleagues are already considering other rarities to add to the platform. ‘We’re going to be very fussy about what goes on there, but we’re also very broad and so could cross a number of categories,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to rush in to putting something else just to say we have it on the platform, but we are very actively looking.’