Why That Tiffany & Co TiffCoin April Fool Was Semi Real, 499 Have Been Minted In 18k Gold

On April 1, April Fool’s Day, Tiffany & Co staged a very of the moment hoax via its social media channels.

“We’re launching our own cryptocurrency called TiffCoin—with exclusive product launches, NFT releases and invite-only events for top TiffCoin holders!” stated a post on Twitter. “Get some gold in your wallet with #TiffCoin.”

However, while subsequent posts revealed that the cryptocurrency aspect was a joke, it would appear that the coins do actually exist IRL. As specified April 2, both on the brand’s social media and its own website, 499 of said coins had indeed been minted in 18k gold and available to buy at tiffany.com for a limited timeframe of 24 hours — at $9,999 each.

This elaborate April Fool hoax cum marketing stunt chimes perfectly with CEO Anthony Ledru’s desire to modernize the 185 year-old jewelry brand.

In fact, a similar play took place last year. Following April Fool posts that Tiffany was changing its entire branding concept from duck egg blue to ‘Big Bird’ yellow, the brand temporarily splashed its Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive store in the vibrant shade and hosted a ‘Yellow Diamond’ café on site.

“We inherited a giant sleeping beauty and I think it’s awakening quickly,” Ledru told WWD in a recent interview.

Following Tiffany’s acquisition by LVMH for $15.8 billion in 2020, Ledru was appointed CEO in January 2021. He hailed from Louis Vuitton where he was Vice President for commercial activities.

Working alongside Ledru is executive Vice President of product and communications, Arnault scion and former CEO of Rimowa, Alexandre Arnault.

It was in fact Arnault who spearheaded Tiffany’s star studded campaigns such as ‘About Love’ featuring Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z and a Tiffany Blue Basquiat painting, a sell-out collaboration with Supreme and the appointment of other celebrity ambassadors including Black Pink’s Rosé.

Arnault himself who has a Cryptopunk NFT as his Instagram PFP was undoubtedly also the driving force behind the ‘TiffCoin’ which dropped on Saturday morning, featuring prominently on Tiffany’e e-commerce homepage with a ‘Buy Now’ button linking to the product.

As detailed in the product copy, the TiffCoin is “an homage to our history of creating ‘Tiffany Money.’”

As stated, the exclusive 18k gold coins are individually engraved, numbered and packaged in custom Tiffany Blue dust bags. Size is 34.8mm diameter, thickness 2.8mm and purchase limited to one per customer.

According to the Tiffany’s website, TiffCoin holders receive access to “Tiffany happenings, bringing high glamour to the Metaverse.” Admittedly this is a somewhat dubious assertion given that said happenings are unspecified but is likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to many similarly unspecified utilities being offered by countless NFTs.

The historical reference to “Tiffany Money” is real enough. The brand began minting silver coins during the 1970s which were redeemable for physical merchandise.

Notably, a disclaimer below the product copy for the TiffCoin read “TiffCoins cannot be spent as actual currency — crypto or otherwise — but why would you want to?”

Earlier this year, a vintage Tiffany’s magazine advertisement from 1974 sold for $16.99 on Ebay. The text reads “Tiffany Money in sterling silver is a brand new idea in wedding presents.”

“The bride can use them to supplement her registered choices of silver, crystal and china… give her one, ten or a hundred, Tiffany Money is the one gift a bride can’t get too many of. And besides, she won’t have so much to lug in to exchange after the wedding trip.” In 1974, each coin was priced at $25 redeemable for $25 worth of merchandise.

The advertisement proves that an irreverent approach to marketing at Tiffany is not without its historical precedent.

Whether Tiffany & Co will begin offering payment in cryptocurrency remains to be seen. Philipp Plein launched the payment method last year and Off-White announced a similar initiative last week.