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COINTEST: Whoops


Cheesy pigs

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This cointest is a bit different. It is for a copper with epoxy Boomerang (30 made) that has a flaw - part of the metal on the kangaroo is discoloured, and I have been wondering what to do with it. So I shall give it away to someone who wants a free not-so-perfect coin.

 

The cointest is quite open - tell me about your flaws - are you like me, and need to have perfect coins, or are flaws ok with you? Have you ever, like me, sent coins to the wrong person by mistake? Have you ever, like me, incorrectly addressed coin mail, and had it come back to you? Have you ever, like me, got rid of a flawed coin, then traded for another perfect one? Have you ever, like me, traded for a coin you already had, but had forgotten about? Have you, like me, ever traded for a coin you thought was in your possession, but wasn't?

 

So tell me about your mistakes or flaws :ph34r::ph34r:

 

Cointest will run for a week, then i'm sending out the flawed Boomerang. I may even include something unflawed, just because I find it too hard to send something flawed to someone, even if they want it :D:D

 

**Edited to say, this cointest is dedicated to Toojin, who is the most extraordinarily accepting and understanding geocoiner! :blink:

Edited by Cheesy pigs
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I auctioned a Cache Cow coin, then I sent a second chance offer to another bidder who accepted. I packed up both coins and shipped them out, went to update my 'records' (such as they are :D ) and realised one of the coins had already been activited and I had no idea which coin I had sent to which person. So now I keep a record of every transaction and note the tracking number and write the coin name on the certificate of posting and before listing I check to make sure it has not been activated. I emailed both parties straight away, after a while I got confirmation from one that they had the unactivated coin, the person receiving the activated one was very laid back about it all and incredibly understanding, but for me it was a HUGE embarrassment, one which I hope never to repeat.

Thanks for the cointest. :blink:

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I can't stand seeing a new cache in the area without going after it. It's not about being the FTF (I did like the FTF competition with a fellow cacher). It's just about seeing that cache sitting there taunting me. As soon as I see one pop up I have to download it and start planning on how soon I can get it. I don't want to get all the FTF in the area. Several times, I left immediately to find the new cache but didn't sign the log. Later that day, after someone else got FTF, I'll go back to sign the log. (If I don't open the cache on the first visit, I'm TECHNICALLY not FTF the log).

 

I do the same thing with geocoins that are dropped in the area. I HAVE to run out to see them. I don't always retrieve or discover them but I just have to see and hold them. IS THERE A CURE.

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the first time i made a coin trade i really messed up big time. i traded a limited edition personal coin for a very common micro coin. how stupid is that? i was so eager to make my first trade that i wasnt heeding that sensible voice in your head that warns you of stupidity. there were several good and fair coins for the trade listed but each time i pointed one out i wanted, i was told sorry that ones gone or no not for trade. ithe more this happened the more that voice told me to get out and not trade, but did i listen? no!

i ended up asking for a geojelly that i automatically assumed was a bigbean and when it arrived i thought i am such a stupid moron.

 

anyway needles to say, now i dont allow myself to be herded into a crummy trade like that. its in the past now.

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I do not do a whole lot of trading coins or mailing them out. So I guess no flaws there. But The one mistake I did make envolved my daughter when she was about 3yrs old. I made two mistakes that day. I fell asleep on my bed and left Savannah to have free reign of the house at 3 yrs old. That was mistake number 1. After a little nap she decided that it was time to wake me up. I felt my face getting wet and look up at Savannah shaking a toilet brush over my head. My second mistake was NOT flushing the toilet after I was done using it!!! :D

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We have made a mistake in trading/purchasing a coin we already have. Not that it only happened one either, it is happened a few times actually, specially when you don't know a name of a geocoin and when we get it were like duh, we have this one already, but then we say ooh well use it for trade or for a mission now.

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It's pretty funny, I was just thinking about the mistakes I've made...and I haven't been doing this very long at all.

I was so excited to see a couple auctions for some Deadliest Cache coins I didn't have I paid a crazy amount for them....only to find out that I actually had one of them already!! I felt like a putz, however, I was able to trade it off for something I needed.

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When we first started trading, we were a bit clumsy and made a couple of mistakes. Traded for coins we already had, traded down, etc. Once, I negotiated a trade and unknown to me, Bruce was trading the same coin to someone else! Everyone has been very understanding and generous with us, and we really appreciate that.

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Far too many to list 'em all, but most recently my version of the Manatee coins were made in the wrong glitter color. At first I thought it was a minting error, but soon realized that while viewing the color chart my eyes had wandered to the # for the glitter color directly above the one I really meant to use.

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I am sorry...I just cannot do it...there are just too many...I would overload the geocoin forums with all of the mistakes that I've made. :blink:

 

LOL me too!! :D

 

Where to begin...where to begin. One funny thing that I have was send the same coin to the same person twice. I did that once with our personal geocoin...thought I forgot to send them my end of the trade and ended up sending them the same coin twice. DOH! And I just did that recently with a pathtag too. Double DOH!!

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:D understanding comes because I have made so many embarassing mistakes myself

and yep way too many trading blunders to write about :blink::ph34r::ph34r::D:D

 

How about driving an hour and a half to find a cache, only to discover that I had forgotten the GPS and didn't have a cache page with me and there was no cell phone coverage within an hour of the cache.... It was a beautiful area though and I did enjoy the trip...

 

edit to add that this isn't a cointest entry...

Edited by Toojin
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I mailed out my very first coin (the first Geobone) in regular envelopes for trading.

 

I am sure that I did some serious damage to some automated postal sorting machines! Ouch! These coins are HEAVY - so having them move through rollers obviously caused jams, overflows, and line shut downs. I basically was a one-man disruption to the postal system!

 

Most made it but: Some arrived in smashed envelopes, some came back, some are on Post Office sorting center floors.

 

The best one was the one that was separated from the envelope and must have hit the floor. Someone at the post office found it, looked up the geocaching.com website (it's on the coin), sent it to Groundspeak! Awhile later, I got a message from Groundspeak saying they received it and asked if they could have it for their display case! In a funny twist - I'd already set one aside for them as a gift - so it saved me having to mail one out.

 

Otherwise, I have no flaws at all. :D

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For some reason I can never seem to get enough postage on the envelope (ones I send right from the house that dont go outside the US). They always come back.

Flawed coins are very cool to me. It is character. Dont think I have any flawed coins, would have to look, but it wouldnt matter to me.

Another flaw of mine is when a new cache comes up, I dont bother to download the cords, I hand enter them then run out and try to get the cache. Bad part is, 3 caches I have done like that I have entered the wrong cords (usually off by 1). A couple of time I have called back to the house and made my wife double check for me.

I have picked up TBs and gotten home to find that they are still in the hands of the last person to have it. I have grabbed it from them and gotten some nasty emails about it. I get impatient about it and think that they did not drop it yet.

I have thanked the wrong person for sending me something. Usually get the "huh?" email.

I have dropped the wrong coin or tb in the wrong cache when I got home.

As for buying coins I already have, I have done it and just keep those extras for trades now.

 

I have many more flaws, but then I would be here all night.

Thanks for the cointest, would love to have that flawed coin :D

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I too have made a few mistakes . Set wrong coin in a trade once. Asked Joefrog for a trade of his Great coin Twice he told me he had none left and then i saw it again like 6 months later and thought i would love one of those and emailed again. Sorry Joe I just Forgot. And Dont get Me started on the math trades I got some really nice coins out of them But messed up every time . Last one i was in i ended up with 3 crappy cache coins. And Probably missed out on something else nice because i Whooped.

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My big mistake was quite early on.....

 

I activated a geocoin and set it free.

Only I activated it as a "F" in the code instead of an "E".

No one could log it....

 

I had to get it mailed back to me.

Get Groundspeak to delete it.

Activate it all over again.

 

This was in the days when coins could have a blanket activation code.

Actually - some still do.....

Watch out, I'm bound to do it again. :D:blink::ph34r::ph34r:

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WOW!!! That's an error coin! I would love to have an error geocoin!

 

I believe that even if something is not perfect in our eyes, it is still unique and beautiful!

 

Especially in living creatures....the real beauty is inside, in its heart, in its feelings, in its head!

 

I like error or misprinted coins! Sometimes these errors or mistakes makes a coin even more beautiful and unique for sure!

in this coin history.... all the perfect coins of the series has the same story, right? BUT!!! the coin with the mistake, has its own!!! It will have its own destiny, its own history....

I know that I sound romantic, but it's just me!!! ;)

 

About mistakes I have done... Oh!!! there are so many...

I do not have stories for geocoins, just becasue my collection is small, but I have many stories about mistakes, in my coin and banknote collecting!!! Not only me... my sister did something once!!!!! Oh boy!!!! I do not want even to think about it!!! :)

 

coins that were ecpensive were given by me as a trade for worthless coins.... I bought coins in high prices and later I found the same coin in such a low price that I was about to hit my head on a wall....

Anyway that's life! Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose! When you lose someone elses turn came to win! :rolleyes:

 

As a banknote collector too, I was always dreaming to find an error banknote, a misprinted one...

 

My sister had one and she didn't know it! The note was a greek 100 drachma one, had extra paper in one corner and it was really not easy to find a greek error banknote!

She had it as part of her pocket money, in her job, so she could buy something to eat! She went to buy a cheese pie, but the girl who was there didn't want to take the note because it was strange in shape with this extra paper!

 

So... my sister went back, took a seasors and just cut the extra paper!!!!

She went to the shop again and gave the same note and it was accepted this time!!!

 

when she came back, she said the whole story and....I just wanted to die!!! I was searching for years to find an error note (I am still trying), my sister found one, I was going to have i in the nominal value only, and...she just destroyed it to buy a small cheese pie!!!!

 

I couldn't talk a lot and I just said to her..."today you ate the most expensive cheese pie in your life"!!! :D She couldn't understand what I was talking about.... :laughing: Now she knows, but it is too late!!! ;)

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im enjoying reading this cointest thread. it reminds me of the arabic woven rugs. the weavers put alot of time and effort into making each rug so beautiful but there is always a deliberate mistake somewhere in the intricate pattern as the arabs consider it to be an insult to their god to make something as perfect as him.

i just like that, to include a small fault in something deliberately. im not one to go chasing after an error coin as i cant afford to do so, but i love the idea of owning a mistake that no one else has or that is not very common. i have always like uniqueness.

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Wow...great idea for a cointest. As I am still pretty new to caching and very new to coining (to "coin" a phrase) I don't have any great coin-related stories. However, I have been an avid collector of hockey autographs. I find addresses for retired players, and then send them cards that I collected when I was a kid. I have had more than one "whoops" in this endeavor. I have mailed the cards in my SASE, and tucked inside was the envelope addressed to the player! I have made cards to send to people to be signed, and noticed errors on them. Once, a player even responded, "That's not me on that card." Funny...

Edited by SgtMikal
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Well, I suppose this could also be deemed a Newbie Whoops....but since I'm a fairly knowledgeable eBay'r I won't cut myself that slack. I overpaid dearly on my first geocoin purchase....as after all my research on the seller's track record, the coin mfgr, finding a coin I liked enough to purchase, etc....once received, realized that I'd bought (and even won in a bidding war with what must've been another newbie like myself) an untrackable geocoin. I immediately went to the eBay page and sure enough, had the big DOH!!! moment. I've now committed the geo-sin of drilling my first (untrackable) geocoin and attaching it to a TB tag to send it off into the world. Lesson learned!!

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Wow, I'd take up too much bandwidth with my long list of coin flaws :)

 

(Not really entering the cointest, just yapping in here for fun)

 

My biggest coin-flaw was not being organized from the get-go. Now I have a few thousand coins lying around everywhere. I can't tell which ones are activated, which ones are flawed (hence can't use some for trading), can't find some period, have no idea what I have left, unopened coinvelopes (yes, sad), coins I find months later that got pushed under some piece of furniture and the list goes on. It's really quite disturbing and I want to part with a bunch and can't bring myself to do it.... ugh!

 

PS: I do have 3 binders started with some coins so there is small progress :)

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Ask my wife just how perfect I am! ha ha ha

 

I sent out a number of coins in a small envelope to go overseas. It appeared that it went through a number of post offices before reaching one to ship it across the border where it decided the envelope was too thick to be considered a letter and so had insufficient postage and was shipped back to me. Would have been nice if the first PO I dropped it off at would have told me, but live and learn!

 

Last year when I made handmade coins filled with epoxy I made a good dozen of them (a full 2 weeks work) laid them out and filled them with improperly mixed epoxy. Got just hard enough I couldn't remove it, but was waaay to sticky to ship out. Boy was that fun to explain.

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I do not know if I am allowed to post again, but here are some mistakes I did in the foroum....to cry, laugh or... both!!! :)

 

In my first cointest about nominating someone to get a coin, I made a huge mistake and wrote dominate instead of nominate! I do not remember who I was nominating, but I strongly believe the geocacher was a woman!!! Can you imagine???? I wrote that I wouls like to dominate .... her!!!!! I didn't even knoe what dominate was! My English are not perfect so...

 

Anyway, I got a private message that explained me my mistake and I felt ashamed!!!! I do not even know how many SORRY I wrote after that!!! :)

 

An other time, in an cointest that frozen buns had, and was asking to guess what she had done that day....I thought that she was a man geocacher so.... :rolleyes:

Once again I learned the truth and..... I still feel bad about it!!! Sorry!!!!! :rolleyes:

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i am flawed in many ways,but probably my biggest screw up was in the grand canyon ,before i knew what a mystery coin was.me and my dad were caching, and we found a coin that wasn't logged. we left it there and drove on to las vegas.not two days later, back in atlanta, did i find out what a mystery coin was. :unsure:

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Where to start..lol

 

When I first came here,,my first day,,, on my first posting,, ..

 

I create my log in and password,,in caps...then go and post in caps........ahh..geez was that a mistake!!! with in an hour I had 3 mails including the mods in pms telling me to not write in caps...ok ok..

 

I still do it sometimes....hahaa Infact Im very lazy when it comes to typing,,making many mistakes!!

 

and how about something weve all done......your first geocoin you find and dont trade fairly,,,then find out later and you feel bad,,so you drop 2 for the one to make up for it!!

 

and the one Im famous for(but im learning)

 

load up the gps,,take off early morning with all your goodies and trackables,,cache all day,, come home swag broke,,full of trackables,,and forget what coins and tbs you traded for!!! then as you sit and try sooooooo hard to remember what you put where,,and you feel so guilty because you forgot and you have to guess.

I now write all transactions down:)

 

were still pretty new,,so havent had alot transactions for coin mail..hope my mistakes make you all smile and say

""I remember when I did that!!"" :P:)

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I just wanted to add.. as I was sitiing here I thought about it and it made me chuckkle

 

But ill load up my gps for my area,,and when im out I can just go,sometimes I wont check them for a month ,so ,for some reason I allways find the ones that have been lost or disabled,,someone will report its missing,,or damaged,,and I wont know,,and I go find it and sign the log like nothings wrong,,and then i get to my computer and whoops,,sorry I dident know it was disabled--but it there and in good shape...lol

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My biggest mistake on geocoins was bidding on ebay for one that I had already ordered and was waiting to come in. My SO pointed it out and I said "No wonder I liked it so much!". I have never traded so I don't have mistakes regarding that.

 

My biggest geocaching mistake was a doozy. Jordy and I got off the bus at this park and I turn on my GPS and see how far away it was, It should have been within 500m, but nope, 7km away. I wrote down the wrong coordinates!!

 

But never fear, we'd just skip that one and do the other ones I had planned, so we begin to walk up the road looking to turn to go to another part of the park. I didn't bring a map because I didn't have one of the area, but I remember a road that was on a diagonal to where we were going, but we needed to go on it to get to the other side of park.

 

So we're walking, and walking, I see the cache arrow go behind me, but I don't think anything of it, we keep walking and walking. Soon, we're 1.5 km away and I tell him that I think we're lost, but we should keep going. Then we get to the highway and I had no idea where we were, he does, and so he takes the GPS from my hand and - this is how you know it's true love - doesn't get mad or angry, he just laughs about it and we make our way home.

 

0 caches for the day : ( but we did get some exercise.)

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I'm not into trading, so no trading whoopses yet, but it's reassuring to know that when I finally do mess up, someone else will already have made the same mistake.

But I once paid too much for a coin on Ebay, after getting caught up in a bidding war, and then found out the coin was still for sale from the manufacturer, for quite a bit less. And this past weekend I completely forgot I was bidding on a coin I really wanted, and the coin went for $10 to the second bidder. It should have gone much higher, and it should have gone to me!

But my biggest whoops was when we first found an unactivated coin in a cache. I assumed coins were gifts, not trade items, so we didn't trade up or even, just took the coin. I've since seen that coin on Ebay for over $20. I still feel guilty.

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I do not do a whole lot of trading coins or mailing them out. So I guess no flaws there. But The one mistake I did make envolved my daughter when she was about 3yrs old. I made two mistakes that day. I fell asleep on my bed and left Savannah to have free reign of the house at 3 yrs old. That was mistake number 1. After a little nap she decided that it was time to wake me up. I felt my face getting wet and look up at Savannah shaking a toilet brush over my head. My second mistake was NOT flushing the toilet after I was done using it!!! :D

oh that is so funny i am bumping it!

mrs cp reckon's i am pickier than her fairself.

 

My pet hate is the copper coin. ( edit: no that came out all wrong! :D I looove the copper coins and am thinking "copper boomerang?must trade!" but i have had issues looking after the things ! People who seal them up straight away in those numismatic pouches have the right approach) I have just traded for a copper coin the geocaching movie one; and it was FINE until i unwrapped the

plastic - left it until i got back from trip to transfer to a coin box and of course it has tarnished but in an uck sort of way as it is a smooth design. I should have learnt not to do that by now and box copper things up straight away.

Edited by forthferalz
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mrs cp reckon's i am pickier than her fairself.

 

My pet hate is the copper coin. ( edit: no that came out all wrong! :D I looove the copper coins and am thinking "copper boomerang?must trade!" but i have had issues looking after the things ! People who seal them up straight away in those numismatic pouches have the right approach) I have just traded for a copper coin the geocaching movie one; and it was FINE until i unwrapped the

plastic - left it until i got back from trip to transfer to a coin box and of course it has tarnished but in an uck sort of way as it is a smooth design. I should have learnt not to do that by now and box copper things up straight away.

You are way more picky than me about coins!!! :):D You only bring out your coins in a sterile, HEPA filtered room, then you get out your white cotton gloves and jewellery loupe and inspect down to the microscopic level. Then you drag out the subatomic spectrometer to make sure all the neutrons are aligned :D:D We shall ignore the fact that I have just ordered myself a pair of gloves..... :wub:

 

But yes, I know what you mean about copper - it tarnishes way too easily!! That's why I covered my Boomerangs in thick epoxy. You'd be wanting one then? ;)

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Lol, what a funny thread! I have done most of these things with coins, cards, caches-, all kinds of things. My most important way around most of these types of errors is to have a good list..and keep it up to date.

 

But for my entry into the flaws and mistakes cointest, we must return to this past summer:

My wife (Spooky 2) and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, and for it we dropped the kids off at grandma's and headed up to the Northeastern US for a 2 week road trip. I had plotted plenty of promising caches along our route, and made sure to cover every state we were driving through. All went quite well until the day we went through Boston. We decided to hit Salem at the last minute and ended up about 6 hours behind schedule. Now instead of passing through Rhode Island and Connecticut in the late afternoon and evening it was nearing midnight! I had 3 caches loaded for Rhode Island, but we only had time for one and I wanted to make it the Cache Across America --Rhode Island cache. I selected it on my GPSr and hit the goto button. Ok...???...where did it go? OH NO I HIT DELETE INSTEAD! AAAGH!!!!

 

No use crying over spilled milk, so I selected the only other nearby cache I had loaded on my GPSr. No Problem. It was in a large forested area and we circled for about half an hour trying to get close enough to get it. We couldn't get any closer than half a mile. I decided to go for it. Spooky 2 chose to stay in the van with the windows up and the doors locked.

 

I entered the woods, and got about .2 miles into it when the trail I was following disappeared. As did the trail behind me. Ok, Slight Problem Now, but I know how to bushwhack, and I was almost halfway there, so I plunged on into the vines and underbrush. Another 10th of a mile and the Big Problem reared its ugly head and began sniffing around for me: My flashlight began to flicker.

 

OK, it's midnight, I'm 1500 miles from home, a quarter mile from my transportation, in a sea of grapevines in the middle of dense woods, no trail, no batteries and I was supposed to be in New York three hours ago. (Did I mention it had started to rain?)

 

I decided this had become a Discretion vs Valor situation and beat as hasty a retreat as I could back to the van. I made it with about 5 minutes to spare.

 

The remaining RI cache was on the other side of the state. We had to press on to Connecticut.

 

And that is why the map on my profile page is missing Rhode Island.

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hmmmm, let me think of something i have done that would qualify for this cointest. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,

 

oh, i know, mouthing off to mods. yep, that's it. that is my fatal flaw, being mouthy to mods. y'all know the story, no use repeating it here!

 

can i mention it invovled cache angel coins? from coins and pins? huh, can i please have permission?

 

m2m

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Okay this was a potentially huge whoopsi about a geocoin my partner and I purchased from ebay. I was watching a coin but had to leave at the last minute so I forgot about it, unbeknownst to me my partner bid for me. A coin that should have had the bid $3.25 had the bid $325. Thankfully we won the coin for $3.25. Needles to say the other Dragling was a bit panicked <_<

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OK this cointest is done! Thanks so much for all your stories, it sure makes me feel better about myself <_<

 

But there can only be one winner, and for this cointest it is:

 

GATOULIS!

 

Congratulations, you now have yourself an error coin :blink: Gotta love errors :anibad: You'll need to email me with your address.

 

This in particular really touched me:

 

I believe that even if something is not perfect in our eyes, it is still unique and beautiful!

 

Especially in living creatures....the real beauty is inside, in its heart, in its feelings, in its head!

 

Thanks again to everyone who entered! :mad:

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