Ok, time to fess up.

A month or so ago a Ukrainian banknote went up for auction but not just any note a P 125! A note I've been pining over for the last few years and a note whose acquisition has been proving most difficult, so much so that I will have another journal entry about in the near future. A NOTE THAT......OH WAIT A mechanical error. A mislabeled note, the seller had it described as such, interesting.  Now, being the narcissistic panophobic conspiracy theorist that I am, my first thoughts go to "What if someone were to purchase this note and use it in a registry set (against me if I'm being honest here) unknowingly or worse yet on purpose.  I better pick this note up!". It's a 5 day auction on Ebay and as the days tick by a token bid rolls in then silence, with one day to go I see that the auction is scheduled to end a 11AM EST. Perfect! That's a wonderful time, for me,  to jump in and snipe bid this note. As the clock tics down I place my bid with four seconds to go and I WIN, out bidding two others with snipe bids. The price paid was what I would have expected to pay if the note was labeled correctly so I don't think anyone was placing a premium on this note other than me.

The "mechanical error" note

Now, I have no intention of placing this note in any of my sets, although the thought had crossed my mind for a fleeting second, mainly as a curiosity of whether or not the system would accept it, never intending to leave it there for more than a minute. However I do have a feeling that there are a few more of these out there, the PMG population report shows 11 graded and I'm severely skeptical of that number. For one I seem to remember a significant jump in notes graded for that Pick # about a month prior to the auction, although that was before I started tracking such numbers,  and with only a 1,000 printed I doubt that many notes were submitted from overseas persons. As graded collectables is more of a U.S. thing, although certification does seem to be growing in popularity overseas. At any rate the highest grade for Pick 125 is 68, which this note is, so I guess the only other question is if there are more "mechanical errors" out there and if someone participating in the registry purchased one, stuck it in there registry set and it was the one note that moved their set past mine would I use the "mechanical error" note and/or would I try to boo-hoo to PMG? Well I say no to both but feel free to let me have it if I welch, now that I've rejected the thought of this.  Not that it is a very likely scenario, I'd say that there is a less than 1% chance of that happening but you never know and I like contemplating such things. So now with my mind at ease and the mislabeled note safely tucked away awaiting the day that I might return it to PMG for a correction there is really only one question left to be asked. Am I a bad guy?

The actual P 125, only 1,000 printed.