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Incredible coin. wow.

Steeley

Please somebody buy this thing, to peel is to sin!

Got antsy and peeled. Unfortunately, the quality of the private key is so bad that multiple letters are faded and I have been unable to unlock the wallet with over 25 potential combinations. Incoming thread/photos if/when I can finally redeem.

let me know if I can assist - I have had some pretty bad ones too.

This is horrible news and should be a bigger topic.

Are Lealana coins known for having bad privatekey prints in general or is this a strange oddity?

In my experience, never had one with any issue in the end - usually it's a font thing like 1 vs l , q vs 9... the font is not super easy to read, I've had a few times it took a number of tries to get it correctly.

I have included the first picture I took of the private key with the most severely blemished sections shown, this picture was taken while the key was still under the foil and attached to coin as I immediately noticed the faded font

https://i.imgur.com/u9hOF1C.png


Furthermore, there are characters like this which are slightly blemished which appears to be Zk? but if its zk or 2k that's another few hundred guesses added to the possibilities

https://i.imgur.com/wNbEMfI.png


And as mentioned by owlcatz, there is also the issue of similar appearance of characters irrespective of ink status, such as this part of the PK which is crystal clear but I still have to try 1 vs l or even in the first picture 0 vs O vs o.  I believe there are well over 2000 potential combinations based on character similarities of which I have already tried ~300 of what I felt were the most likely characters  :-\

https://i.imgur.com/gRu0ADu.png


The PK paper has remained untouched with the PK facing upwards since removal. However, ink has actually further faded to the point where the last 3 characters in the first image above are no longer distinguishable (I would be entirely screwed had I not taken a picture yesterday). For reference: room temperature 68 degrees with humidity at 35%. The slab was cracked at the top and spliced down the side with no pressure on the coin.


If anybody is able to adequately decipher the above characters/share photos of redeemed XMR private keys which allow me to successfully sweep the wallet without entering thousands of combinations, I am more than glad to offer the peeled XMR coin or 5 XMR as a token of my appreciation  :), just shoot me a DM and I can share what I have already tried and a few other characters in question. Will post a separate summary thread to help future peelers as well

Wonder if it's possible to figure out the font used, so you could see how the characters are supposed to look to help provide clues. Very sad thread for lealana/all funded coins

 Damn that's bad. Check your pm

Since smoothie is around right now. Maybe send him a message and ask if hell read the thread. At the very least he'll know the font i would imagine.

@rxalts Font used was COURIER NEW on private keys and addresses printed.

Thanks for the prompt reply, also in your current main sales thread.

Can you answer on the question if the printing technique used for these XMR coins was the same as for your previous releases (incl. BTC funded coins)?

The printing (laser printer and toner) has been the same through out all coin releases. The latest release has additional copy of private key.

What may be different is the paper type for this specific coin type. I believe I had to use a thicker than normal paper for this series due to the depth at which the private key incused area was sunk into the coin.

What has your experience been when redeeming Lealana coins?

I have never seen anything like this, and over the years helped assist people peel at least 2 x 100 XMR coins, & few 25's and 50's, as well as many 5 XMR brasses ... Only issues I've run into are aforementioned troubles with deciphering / eyeing the lettering / fonts. Keys & Paper have always looked just fine otherwise.

I have to wonder how this one may have been stored prior to grading.... /thinkface...

This looks like something different, as I have to assume that Lealana would QC the privkey sticker/prints to ensure they are readable prior to sticking under holos ofc...  :-\

I also know that The Canary Thread by TeeGumes has one of these coins as well - I wonder how that project is going? hmmm..

PS - I have confidence you will eventually get it right - it's a pain because the wallet has to sync and you have to jump hoops etc, I get it, too... :(

Thank you all for responses and to Smoothie for response here and in DM as I had asked this exact question before posting the pictures. I actually used Courier New last night as my comparison text on computer to no avail, however I will now laser print to see if I can match up the text on the physical PK.

@owlcatz: would it be quicker to go base64->hexa->mnemonic and then import to mymonero/cake to see if I get the address printed on digital cert?

https://i.imgur.com/0qqWmk9.png

here is a large version of the Base64 character combinations as well in COURIER NEW font.

Perhaps this might help.


I see a

l70
Swk
awg

or

l70
5wk
awg

or

l70
Swk
swg

I think so, as I've never tried it without using this XMR CLI command then puting in the mnemonic myself.. Sorry! :P


.... I just always did it that way and it works, so it seemed easiest at the time... Syncing it is the pita, but I guess there are other wallets out there that may be easier/faster nowadays... ;)

Having tried to help rxalts for a while last night we did find the correct font. But some were so indistinguishable as to make it quite complicated. There were parts even worse than shown above. This is why I would suggest revlar paper or similar. I have had a pk on revlar soaking for over a year and its still perfectly readable.

  Two years here under water....

  TESTING- Submersing paper wallets printed on water proof papers (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5296179.0)

   Edit:. One thing I do for all my loaded items is use water proof paper and have the private key in qr and alphanumeric format as well. I noticed some coin makers only have a qr code for their private keys IIRC.  What happens to that should it smudge or something like this happens? That's why I do both to make sure that issue never arises

Minor update: thanks everyone for sharing suggestions here and in DMs. I have been tied up with work so haven’t tried to redeem further, however I will give it a go tonight as I have been able to obtain a professional grade magnifying glass and microscope. I would also just like to say Smoothie has been very responsive, helpful, AND beyond committed to making sure I will be able to redeem this coin. Lealana holders are in good hands. Stay tuned for next update.  :)

Thanks, and best of luck!! Please share the quickest way you have found to check/verify all this as well if you can, I'd like to add it or make a new post on redeeming these babies... ;)

I have a very small shell script on an ubuntu linux machine for converting to base64, as that's not too tough really. :P

Glad to hear smoothie is helping out, and I'm sure it will work in the end. We all know it's funded, it's just a matter of getting those 9 chars correct.

FWIW, I physically showed/asked a few people who were here today what they "thought" they saw in the pics and they all surprisingly matched smoothies last suggestions (I had that page hidden so they couldn't see it, but did show it to them afterwards and they thought he was probably right, except for some doubt about that last 3rd char, which I struggle with a bit as well tbh ...  :(

I would add also try checking l70 as in L70 instead of 170 in the top row. Good luck!

As an alternative if nothing else works:

l70
Swk
uwg

l70
Swk
uwq

No luck still. Going to work on putting a concise review together of where I currently am, surprised I wasn't able to get it as I thought I had narrowed it down with magnification..

font comparisons of what was used in the actual key printing vs your photos side by side to best match enlarged size:

https://i.imgur.com/Ns0W4m8.png



TOP LEFT = more likely LOWER CASE 'L'                      

TOP CENTER = '7'                      

TOP RIGHT = to me looks more like a ZERO '0' than an 'O'



MIDDLE LEFT = S...5...s...Z....z...3?      
(this one ^ is a bit puzzling seems upper case
size though)                      

MIDDLE CENTER = lower case 'w' IMHO            

MIDDLE RIGHT = 'k' to me as opposed to upper case 'K'



BOTTOM LEFT = a...s....z (definitely looks lower case)    

MIDDLE BOTTOM = same as middle center 'w'      

BOTTOM RIGHT = lowercase G(g) as opposed to Q(q)




Given I stare at these characters all day here are my best guesses above.

Hope this helps.

it could be some of the other characters - I don't believe he has shared all the letters that were initially an issue from the start.

100XMR CRACKED! Once swept, I will be posting private keys (both in their initial state and existing state) along with the methods used to access wallet. Thank you to everyone and most of all, Smoothie, who spent plenty of time creating analytical comparisons and going back and forth in DMs constructively debating potential solutions and sure enough his Z on the middle row was a letter I had never tried which proved to be the missing piece along with his other spot-on predictions (crazy considering he only had zoomed in photos whereas I had professional equipment and couldn't get the correct results /fail).

I can either start a separate thread on the entire process or continue this thread, any preferences? This was quite the process and I probably learned the hard way by switching up methods throughout but hopefully can add to Owlcatz educational post for any future sweepers.

Very happy for you!

Good news!

Uff, I can imagine these were some rollercoaster days (and nights). Glad it worked out well! It sounds like the digital version of digging up a whole garden to finally find that hidden treasure box that was stored away for a decade.

Nice to see xmr is more up in sat value than the past 7 days lol meant to be 😉👍

Congrats!  :)

Perhaps staring at this font type for days/weeks/months/years may have helped to decipher certain character shapes.

Glad it worked out and you are able to access the funds.

Hey bud, that's great, whew!!

Anyhow, I think it would be cool if you posted here as my post is just piggy-backing at the end of smoothies' original brass 5xmr coin post I believe. I've wanted to make a new thread about it, but haven't had time yet, so can update/include anything (including all these posts and images etc LOL) :P

That may/will help reassure people peeling the future "ancients" is safe.

I have to wonder what you both/either think might have occurred here, any ideas, just curious? Thanks a lot for helping out @smoothie , I knew you guys would get it but I worry this may worry other collectors if it has affected other coins (I assume)? So I think it'd be fine to have it out here... Smoothie, do you get issues like this frequently, not often, or just once in agreat while? Excuse my somewhat intrusive questions, but you know i'm a collector and it troubles me too and I'm just very curious what you think happened here, and if it may affect other coins as well. ;)  You are the damn master, ya know!? :D

Thanks all, and happy to have helped  in any way, even with the first post I made years ago! :P

 

I wonder if someone a few hundred years from now is going to have this same problem. We will all be dead, erased to dust, and unable to help the poor soul.

I figure these pieces will be in a museum at that point a few exhibits to the left of the covid-19 pandemic exhibit & the space x stage one booster exhibit. Maybe down the hall from the vintage iphone section.

If not in a museum, in some Rothschild descendant's personal vault.

Perhaps the search for the lost private key will be the plot of Indiana jones V?

Very good!
Maybe possibly one will have made it to a colony on Mars and someone there peels that,
faces the same issue and then has a mammoth task to figure out what paper is even.

We are thinking of the future possibilities and they could be thinking of our "primitive" ways.

---

Anyway, very interesting read, glad rxalts resolved the issue, key was snapping a quality
image immediately after the peel.

and also the time and effort spent by the some of the legends above to help out. Its
comforting to know there is a great group of collectors and knowledgable people here
on this board.

Z? No way bro  ;) Glad you got it finally lol

https://i.imgur.com/QBb7wB4.png

@Owlcats, this is news to me.

Not 100% sure what could have caused this…

Environmental factors could possibly be the cause as you’ve previously stated. How it was stored in transit to the original customer, same for grading, stored in custody of whom had the coin at any particular time, what type of storage the coin was introduced over time are some things to consider.

When coins are put together on my end I turn the key face upwards to view it myself to inspect its readability before facing it downwards and applying the hologram.

Keys have always been legible during this process. But as a matter of habit I do this for my own piece of mind.

Same goes for generating keys. I’m so paranoid that I turn off and unplug all electronics, unplug all nearby appliances when generating keys to avoid any possible avenues for someone to gain access to the keys I create. A few times I even went to a random remote location with an air-gapped computer that never touches the internet or any network in the wilderness with no other electronics nearby to generate keys.

Deterioration of the key clarity on my end has never been an issue I’ve witnessed first-hand nor heard about until this posting.

In year's past and recently I opened a few sample coins from this series and others and have had the same results I’ve always had (i.e. key in tact and fully readable).

The only common issue I’ve run into is some mistaking a ZERO for an O or a lower case L for a 1 etc.

For future iterations of coins I think it would be reasonable to consider permanently putting a copy of the key on to the coin along with its paper counterpart and marking the hologram (something like “Buyer Funded” marking but perhaps a symbol marking to denote that this coin has an extra copy permanently put on the coin) in some unique fashion. The most recent coin release has a copy of the key on the coin itself, but no indication of a hologram marking as they all had a second permanent copy placed right under the paper/hologram.

Some have voiced the possibility of hacking the coins through other means if the key is permanently put on to the coins. Customers could have a choice in that matter when purchasing and bear the risks of both avenues as putting a secondary key permanently on to the coin could introduce other attack vectors that I am not able to test for currently.

Regarding if this were to be an issue in the future (I'm not expecting it to be), I would be willing to help with the process of redeeming where I can, assuming the appropriate information is given to me. This may be limited given there are times when I'm not on the forum for periods of time.

Wow, that's great! I'm sure we will all sleep much better... My rule is try and get them graded / slabbed /sealed asap. :)

Appreciate everything as always, thanks very much! :)

I wonder if the coin was placed in a hot place at some point and the hologram's glue caused for its vapor to be trapped inside the ICG case which ultimately caused for the deterioration of the private key. This is the only thing i can think of.

Congrats on cracking the PK and Kudos to smoothie for focusing all his efforts into assisting in the process.

WOW! That was quite a roller coaster ride of a thread! Holy crap! Glad it worked out OP :D

glad this worked out for you, was getting a bit toey just reading it.

credit to the community for all the assistance provided.

Seriously. Great community here!