Before there were CryptoPunks, there were Curio Cards. The first historical art collection on Ethereum (second only to Etheria digital real estate project) has seen resurgence after NFT collectors turned their attention to historical on-chain art. They are a collection of 30 collectible cards with variable supply, which have different meanings and of course a rich history. 

Website: https://curio.cards/

OpenSea: https://opensea.io/collection/curiocardswrapper

Twitter - https://twitter.com/MyCurioCards

Discord Chat - https://discord.curio.cards

Contract: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x6facba5a58dc0541c7e97d9271640b1a7b4bdaced26fd80ffa8edfea6745e42d

Curio Cards contract was deployed on May 9th, 2017 on the Ethereum blockchain. This means that it predates CryptoPunks by 45 days or 1.5 months - which were released on 23rd June 2017. It was created by Thomas Hunt, Travis Uhrig, and Rhett Creighton. The cards are better understood as heavily modified ERC-20 tokens, since NFT grade ERC-721 wasn’t available at that time. 

That’s why they need wrappers to be compatible with the OpenSea interface. There have been multiple artists who contributed to the Curio Cards projects. These include Phneep (Cards 1 - 10, 14, 15, 16, 20), Cryptograffiti (Cards 11, 12 ,13), Cryptopop (Cards 17, 18, 19), Robek World (Cards 21, 22, 23), Daniel Friedman (Cards 24, 25, 26), Marisol Vengas (Cards 27, 28, 29) and Thoros of Myr (Card 30).

There are a total of 27,997 Curio Cards, after discounting ~1000 burned cards. You can check the supply information in this spreadsheet by Ezrawithacamera.eth. Some of the supply is locked in a faulty wrapper, which doesn’t allow unwrapping them back, these cards are without value for now. As always, there’s a part of supply which hasn’t moved in years and thus it’s out of circulation also. Education (Card#26) is the rarest card with only 106 supply, followed by Yellow (Card# 29) and Passion (Card# 25).

This part is being reproduced here from Start With NFTs with the explicit permission from the author to share his research. All credits to Jonathan Torrey (Twitter @jon_torrey).

1. Apples: Hunt had an English Literature background and has said the Apple is meant to represent the fall from grace in the story of Adam and Eve, plus Apple computer and it started with an A, making it fitting that it was the first card released in the set. 

2. Nuts & 3. Berries: The Nuts and Berries are grouped together intentionally, as they represent sustenance, and reference lyrics from a Talking Head song.

4. Clay: Clay starts the new series of cards that represent the building blocks of art. It’s also the first card on the list with a lower supply. 

5. Paint: Paint continues the trend of representing the building blocks of art and offers an even smaller supply of 438.

6. Ink: Ink is part of the same theme as the two cards that precede it?—?the building blocks of art. What’s fun is that the following cards then represent art that can be made using these building blocks.

7. Sculpture: Sculpture is the first art in the series that represents what can be made with art bulding blocks (clay).

8. Painting: The painting, depicting Mona Lisa, ties to card card 5 (paint) and represents the art you can create with paint. There have been discussions about whether or not this is the first Mona Lisa on the blockchain (logically, this argument makes sense), but there isn’t a definitive source to confirm. Thomas Hunt shared that he told artist Phneep they needed a painting for the collection, and he came back with the Mona Lisa.

9. Book: The book art card matches to card 6, ink. It represents what can be created with ink. 183 copies of the art were locked, leaving a supply of 1,817.

10. Future: Card 10 represents the future and going down the road of the artist's journey. The first 10 cards set the stage for sustenance, tools to create art, the creations themselves, and now we are able to head down the road toward the future of art in the collection.

11. BTC Keys: This is the first card in the collection created by a new artist, Cryptograffiti, who’s also been called one of the most “prolific” Bitcoin artists. This card kicks off the “Bitcoin Propaganda” seen across these 10 cards, starting with Bitcoin Keys.

12. Mine Bitcoin: The second card in this set created by Cryptograffiti, depicts a rendition of the Master Card logo. 2,000 copies were issued by 163 were locked, leaving a supply of 1,837. The next few cards in this set take on the theme of using famous and recognizable logo designs with the insertion of bitcoin and cryptocurrency references.

13. BTC : “I used to put these logos on neighborhood ATMs. Repurposing banking materials has remained a theme in my work. I like the idea of using soon-to-be-extinct items to help spread the new cryptocurrency movement.”?—?Cryptograffiti. This art is based on the Citi logo and it’s no secret this collection of financial-inspired logos is meant to send a message about the artist’s take on the future of cryptocurrency. 

14. CryptoCurrency: This art inserts Cryptocurrency into a globally recognized Coca-Cola logo. Thomas Hunt said that Phneep created a lot of Bitcoin movie posters, which can be found here.

15. DigitalCash: This art inserts Cryptocurrency into a globally recognized Wendy’s logo.

16. OriginalCoin: This art inserts Cryptocurrency into a globally recognized Heineken’s logo and completes the set of food and beverage inspired art cards.

17. UASF And USAF "17B": On August 1st, 2017 a proposal to scale bitcoin was deployed, although it caused some controversy along the way. UASF stands for User-activated soft fork. Effectively, a soft fork becomes a method to create backwards compatibility to supplant historical governance. For a more detailed definition, you can check this article out here. 

Luis, the artist, was celebrating UASF, the protocol deployed to help scale bitcoin. Because bitcoin is decentralized, community consensus is required for changes to the blockchain and there was much debate about this new introduction. 

The #17 card was discovered on an alternative contract, which meant that there were actually two number 17 cards. Hunt said that people were able to buy the “error” card and lots of people wanted it to be part of the set.

18. To The Moon: After dipping our toe into Bitcoin, this captures the now very recognizable “to the moon!” phrase. Signaling a change in how people view currency and its future.

19. Dog Training: The final card in the “dogs” card set features dogs sitting at a poker table.

20. MadBitcoins: This card depicts MadBitcoins head on James Bond’s body. Initially, this card was supposed to raise money for MadBitcoins but it didn’t work. Mad Bitcoins had a popular YouTube show and is one of the founders of Curio Cards.

21. The Wizard: This is the first art in this set created by Robek World, who got selected as an artist after creating a gallery for the founders to be a part of the project. When Robek’s cards were released, he couldn’t even buy them. 

22. The Bard: This card is unique because it is the only one in the set with the number on the right side of the card. It represents a song-singing leader.

23. The Barbarian: This card could be the first animated NFT (it can only use two frames because of the technology available at the time). It’s said to be Rhett Creighton’s card because he was the tech muscle behind the project.

24. Complexity: Daniel Friedman shared hand-drawn art on his Flickr account (link below) and was brought on board after the founding team discovered the account. He’s currently a researcher in entomology and it was said that he had a great attitude toward his art and spreading it like a hobby. 

25. Passion: What’s interesting about this set by Daniel Friedman is that the supply was released as follows: 333 copies, 222 copies, 111 copies. Again, Friedman had a positive attitude toward his art and treated it like a hobby. The way the supply was released reflects this playfulness toward the art.

26. Education: After the 333, 222, and 111 supply releases, plus 5 locked copies of this card, it is the rarest in the entire set. There are 106 total copies and currently 47 owners. Its last sale was 17.9 ETH (over $44,000).

27. Blue: The Blue card starts us off on a set created by Marisol Vengas meant to represent fine art. Marisol Vengas is an anonymous artist, adding some mystery to this microset.

28. Pink: This is the second card in the fine art set with a slightly lower supply than the blue card.

29: Yellow: This is the rarest fine art card in the set with a supply of just 200.

30. Eclipse: This is the only card in the set that was released on the day of the Great American Eclipse. Cards were typically released on Tuesdays, but this card finishes the set and was based on that eclipse on August 21st, 2017 (occurred on a Monday).

In the previous article, we looked at the top 5 historical NFT collections on Ethereum. NFTs however precede the Ethereum blockchain. They had been present on the Counterparty side-chain running on top of the Bitcoin blockchain before long. Bitcoin doesn’t support any other token or NFTs besides the native BTC Counterparty. The latter was formed as the earliest way by which Bitcoin could support NFTs. To better understand the history of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), let’s look at the top 5 historical NFT collections on Bitcoin/Counterparty. Special thanks to Twitter user @HarryBTC for compiling data from the past!

Spells Of Genesis was the first blockchain-based trading card game with arcade elements. It launched in May 2015 on the Bitcoin side-chain Counterparty. They tokenized collectible cards as digital assets and paved the way for one of the first NFTs! For this purpose as the game allowed users to collect and combine their cards to combat each other. They are number five on our list of top 5 historical NFT collections on Bitcoin / Counterparty.

NILICoin or art coin was launched on the Counterparty Bitcoin side-chain in Sep 2014. It aimed to create an art work type protocol, where assets could be issued against BTCs and traded. The official description notes "NILIcoins are created to promote a competitive credit-provides ecosystem. A decentralized monetary system based on cryptocurrency will employ production power, trade volume, and social networks. This creates an independent coin market. A market which will then have the power to offer a viable and sustainable alternative for the monopoly of bank credit."

Apparently, the creator pledged to sell his artwork only for his own coin - an earlier form of NFT tokenization and reiterated that the NILICoin is backed by the value of his artwork, so buying the NILICoins was actually buying portions of his art pieces in a proportional manner. Around 100,000 NILICoins issued and divided according to the total worth of the art collection. Given their history, they are number four on the list of the top 5 historical NFT collections on Bitcoin / Counterparty. You can find their list on the xchain.io Counterparty block explorer.

OLGA - yet another Counterparty asset issued on 12 Jun 2014. It's a simple data of a man and woman kissing, a definite work of art whose origin couldn't be determined. It's one of the oldest NFTs out there, arguably the first proper image on the blockchain. It ranks third on our top 5 historical NFT collections on Bitcoin / Counterparty list.

A mysterious distinct token with no image attached with it is number two in the top 5 historical NFTs on Bitcoin / Counterparty list. The Thing - a generic reference to an NFT minted on 07 Apr 2014 on Bitcoin side-chain Counterparty. No one knows much about it, except that a Twitter user @wasthatawolf successfully retrieved it from somewhere (a dispenser!?) and the Thing is now secure.

The earliest known instance of NFT - Colored Bitcoins existed sometime around Sep 2012 and offered a way to color "some coins" or distinguish them to use them as representative of some assets/shares/certificates. You can understand it as a sort of distinct assets or token market, much like the ERC-20 standard style tokenization and fractionalization today. Despite being not widely adopted or used, Colored Bitcoins are number one on our list of top 5 historical NFT collections on Bitcoin / Counterparty.

The description notes "By the original design bitcoins are fungible, acting as a neutral medium of exchange. However, by carefully tracking the origin of a given bitcoin, it is possible to “color” a set of coins to distinguish it from the rest. These coins can then have special properties supported by either an issuing agent or a Schelling point and have value independent of the face value of the underlying bitcoins. Such colored bitcoins promote alternative currencies, commodity certificates, smart property, and other financial instruments such as stocks and bonds."

Currently, Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are all the rage in the crypto market. Dozens of art pieces and complete collections come to life through daily minting over the blockchain. The NFT marketplaces are doing record volume and logging great user interest. But, the old NFT collections which started the whole thing remain far more valuable and possess an aura of greatness. Let's look at the top 5 historical NFT collections on Ethereum!

Decentraland, as the blockchain record tells us was deployed on 15 August 2017. This makes it the fifth in the top 5 historical NFT collections list. It is a digital sims-like platform that allows users to create and experience virtual reality. The users can purchase plots of land (non-fungible unique digital assets) that they can build. It includes the record of the location, owner, content description, and access controls. Also, they can develop and monetize assets.

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Moon Cats got their reentry and fame not so long ago, being one of the oldest NFT collections on the Ethereum blockchain. The contract started on 09 August 2017, granting Moon Cats fourth place in the top 5 historical NFT collections ranking. It's website notes the following "This project is an exploration of the ability to release tradable collectibles and record their ownership on the Ethereum blockchain". There are 25,600 name-able Moon Cats procedurally generated (out of 4 billion possible combinations) in total, all of them having being rescued and now available in secondary markets for trading.

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What to say of the iconic and uber-expensive Larva Labs developed CryptoPunks? CryptoPunks is a collection of wildly popular 10,000 unique 24x 24 8-bit images, divided into 5 types. These are Alien, Ape, Zombie, Male, and Female. They were deployed on 22 June 2017 - though they are falsely perceived as the oldest NFT art collection. However, they are number 3 on the list of the top 5 historical NFT collections. Each of them have unique personality and random generated features, some of them are of course more rare than the others and fetch a premium. CryptoPunks are routinely sold for millions with a highest recorded sale of 4,200 ETH or over 7.5 million dollars for #3100.

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Curio Cards are unique "online art show and permanent gallery" deployed on 09 May 2017. It features a set of 30 series of NFT cards from 7 different artists, each series having around 29,296 art featuring cards. It's number second on the list of the top 5 historical NFT collections and the oldest known "art collection" on Ethereum. Along with CryptoPunks, they formed the basis of the ERC-721 standard, which references and codifies several features introduced by Curio Cards.

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Etheria is the oldest Ethereum based NFT project in existence, virtual tiles of land on the blockchain and a primitive version of Decentraland! It holds the top position in our top 5 historical NFT collections list, however it's not exactly an art collection, so that honor still remains with Curio Cards. It was deployed 77 days after the launch of the public Ethereum network on 21 October 2015.

According to the official source, it's described as: "?theria is a virtual world in which players can own tiles, farm them for blocks, and build things. The entire state of the world is held in and all player actions are made through the decentralized, trustless Ethereum blockchain. It's a tiny 3D world, a 33x33 map of hexagonal tiles upon which structures can be built with LEGO-like bricks"

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