Today I present a FREAK that fooled me, not that I am expert in the field of Freaks Irregulars, Defects, and Oddities, still I thought I knew a thing or two.� Failure is said to be a great teacher so why not pass along my new found knowledge to you.� I still am confident of his inclusion into my series as he is a FREAK, just not exactly the one I was looking for.� The particular oddity I thought I had so cleverly acquired via worldwide swap meet looked for all intentional purposes to be a die adjustment strike at least so I thought. �So what are the telltale signs of a die adjustment strike, generally it is weak in appearance on both sides, oops my bad coins have three sides but more on that later, as the dies stop just short of bringing up a full strike.� So with this error there is nothing wrong with either the dies nor with the planchet, this is just a case of the spacing between the two dies being too wide to exert enough force to cause the metal of the planchet to flow into all the recesses elements of the dies to impart the obverse and reverse images as intended.� BTW, text speak, this is not to be confused with a die alignment strike, which is a case where the spacing may be correct but hammer die is out of alignment with the anvil die resulting in one side of the coin being off center while the flip side is spot on.� Sorry that is not a leader for the next show as I do not have an example of that type either, so where were we?� So not to long after I received my RAW fiend in the mail I decided he could stand a trip to Florida to get hammered, I mean SLABBED. �

Today I invite you to gaze upon a curiosity I mentioned while describing my last FREAK.� Up until the truncated bust of Washington arrived this member of my cast held the coveted title of being my one and only example of an off center 1968 quarter.� Still I think this ODDITY was more a product of a planchet defect than simply a blank not arriving in the coining chamber as its creator had intended.� It would seem to me if you could wind the clock back before the die came crashing down on the DEFECTIVE planchet I suspect it would have never been able to fall into the coining chamber.� It just seems that the planchet when cut from the edge of strip of coining metal it had enough excess to exceed the diameter of the slot it was intended.� Then again I could be all wrong and its IRREGULATIY is just due to how a straight clip allowed the metal to flow without being confined by the coining collar as designed.� A possible strong point in support of this latter argument is the fact the piece only weighs 4.7 grams in lieu of the 5.67 grams noted in the redbook for a standard, yes I almost wrote normal but now normal has a negative connotation go figure, copper nickel issue of this year.� So doing a quick check on the math based upon the 20% clip noted on its plastic captor the weight should be 4.536 grams, which is not that far off from its actual weight.� So I may be wrong about how my little FIEND was created or maybe I am right.� Maybe someday someone can run a computer simulation or better yet create a time machine so I may one day know for sure how my possession came to be. That said it is the mystery that makes this oddly shaped menagerie of pieces so delightfully interesting.

This year several of my new acts feature the bust of an architect who also holds the honor of being the Third President of our Nation.

Well kind of like me this week with my blog this member of my freakish cast almost did not make the cut.

Today I present another cast member enlisted from that Texas auction house that parades out large groups of Freak and Oddities recently in all exclusive error auctions.�