So today at work I opened a roll of quarters. I edge-searched them as always and was excited to see an edge that was all-silver, though I expected it to be Canadian because it was so shiny.
So it was surely a surprise when I pulled it out and it was a 2008-P Alaska
State Quarter.
Pic of the side of it and another AK
State Quarter I had
http://imgur.com/a/JNfI1 <-- Is a gallery of pics on imgur. I apologize for the grainy-ness, my phone is taking worse pics than usual.
I figure this was either on the wrong planchet, or a counterfeit. The details on either face look exactly the same, I can't see any differences. The difference in color between the two is because the 2008D AK quarter is a bit more worn/miscolored - The 2008P one looks about right for a less circulated quarter.
I might take my "microscope" lens and take some up-close pics of the letters and some various details, but I haven't, yet.
The one thing that concerns me (other than the fact that it's all the same color) is that the ridges are flatter on the weird one than they are on the normal one. I don't know, though.
EDIT: Forgot to add this - The 2008P "weird" quarter weighs in at 5.7g, and the 2008D "normal" one weighs at 5.6g - I'm not sure how accurate my scale is, and obviously it's not precise past a tenth of a gram.
Anybody have any thoughts about this thing and what it might be?
The only thing I can think of besides counterfeit is that maybe it was put onto the wrong planchet? But I'm no expert at this. That's why I'm here!