Daily Mail Reporter Dateline: 13th February 2010 "Embarrassed Chilean Mint chiefs have sacked their general manager after thousands of coins were made with the name of the country spelled incorrectly. Instead of 'Chile', the coins, minted in 2008, are marked 'Chiie'. The 50-peso coins, worth about 9 USA Cents (United Kindom's 6p), circulated through the South American country for a year before the error was noticed. The mint said it has no plans to take the coins out of circulation, and eagle-eyed Chileans have begun hoarding the coins in the hope they rise in value as a collector's item. The mistake cost general manager Gregorio Iniguez and several other employees their jobs. The mint said in a statement: 'In a board meeting it was agreed to terminate the contract of Gregorio Iñiguez, who held the post of general manager.' Head franker Pedro Urzúa has defended himself after it was claimed he had deliberately caused the coins to be manufactured. "I have been accused of having written the word 'Chiie' deliberately, but it was an error spotted by neither myself nor the entire chain of people who saw and approved it afterwards,' he said" Not only did they miss the error, no one in the country noticed the mispelling until the owner of a coin shop in Santiago named El Penique Negro (The Black Penny) first noticed the spelling mistake in February 2010 and notified a local Santiago newspaper. Since then shoppers all over Chile have been examining their change more closely to see if if they have II on their 50 peso coins. Here's a photo courtesy of Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adanisherrorcollector/4352168452/ Thought you'd like to know... Clinker
Agreed. Earlier this year I read several articles about this, and one said that >An Engraver unknowingly erased the bottom arm of the capital letter "L", when he was fixing a minor deformity in the original die, created to produce coins for the years 2010 and 2011.< In everyday life it is fairly normal that such misspellings are not noticed. I know people who I would never ask to proofread a text, as their minds apparently ignore or "fix" minor spelling errors. Then of course there are many people who simply use coins without really having a closer look at them ... Christian
