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Is it "Chiie"' or "Chile"? Mint issues bad coins
2010-02-14 15:19 BJT
Quote:
A Chilean 50 peso coin is seen in Santiago,
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. More than a million of
the coins were printed in 2008 with the name
of the country misspelled as 'chiie,' rather
than 'Chile.'(AP Photo/Aliosha Marquez)
A spelling mistake in the country's name on coins does not happen a lot. But some coins in circulation since 2008 have name of country misspelled, resulted in the release in Chile of more than a million error coins.
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. The die was reviewed by more than 80 people at the mint and used to produce 1.5 million coins. But no one has ever found the mistake.
A Chilean 50 peso coin is seen in Santiago, Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. More than a million of the coins were printed in 2008 with the name of the country misspelled as 'chiie,' rather than 'Chile.'(AP Photo/Aliosha Marquez)
A Chilean 50 peso coin is seen in Santiago,
Friday, Feb. 12, 2010. More than a million of
the coins were printed in 2008 with the name
of the country misspelled as 'chiie,' rather
than 'Chile.'(AP Photo/Aliosha Marquez)
Rosa Lara, Coin Dealer, said, "It is not common to find an imperfection coming from the mint. It's been many years since something like this happened at the mint."
A coin collector called to point out the error in October of last year.
But one month later, the Mint handed over the shipment of 1.5 million faulty pieces to the Central Bank, which did not become aware of the error until it was reported by the newspaper.
The engraver and the head of the mint were fired over the matter.
Posted 02/14/2010 9:27 pm
