Spelling and grammatical errors on coins

[bart]

There are also 2 coins of the Philippines: 10 sentimos where PANDAKA PYGMEA stands instead of PYGMAEA and 50 sentimos with PITHECOBHAGA JEFFERYI instead of PITHECHOPHAGA JEFFERYI

Bart

pictures from worldcoingallery

[Bimat]

One more-BBasil (Brazil) 1000 Ries 1922,KM522.1

(Image from Joels Coins)

Aditya

[RHM22]

Great additions! I especially like "BBASIL".

[Figleaf]

Here is a spelling error on purpose.

You are supposed to think you are looking at a Frisian duit. The coat of arms is the same, The text is FRI SIA. Except that it isn't. The legend is FRI CIR.

At independence, the Republic was a protestant nation bordering the catholic Southern Netherlands. The South consisted mainly of the Spanish Netherlands, the prince-bishopric of Liège and Luxembourg, but there were also some very small semi-independent areas along the religion border. One of these was the county of Reckheim (sorry for machine translation, this lemma is not available in English). It was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, but in reality a minute enclave in the Spanish Netherlands.

The counts of Reckheim operated a mint that produced coins looking a lot like coins of the Republic, but severely underweight. The count cynically abused the illiteracy of the poor and employed professional smugglers and shady merchants to circulate his coppers. However, he covered his behind by making errors he could explain. The text FRI CIR on this coin could be explained as Fredericus Romanorum Imperator Comitus In Reckheim, referring to the emperor and the count. The county's coat of arms was a single climbing lion, but that was apparently close enough for the judges of the (catholic and Habsburg) imperial court.

Peter

[chrisild]

Chilean mint boss loses job after coin spelling error
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7024750.ece

(Edit) Here is a photo of such a piece from, umm, the Daily Mail website:



Christian

[Figleaf]

Rightly so. A mintmaster is paid to bear final responsibility. If something goes wrong, he should take the responsibility and leave, whether or not he could have done anything to prevent the error. I wouldn't go looking for this, but if it were offered to me at a reasonable price, I would fall for it because of the unusual story.

O'Higgins is an unlikely name for a Chilean. Here is how wikipedia explains it: O'Higgins was born in the Chilean city of Chillán in 1778, the illegitimate son of Ambrosio O'Higgins, Marquis of Osorno, a Spanish officer born in County Sligo in Ireland, who became governor of Chile and later viceroy of Peru. His mother was Isabel Riquelme, a prominent local lady—the daughter of Don Simón Riquelme y Goycolea, a member of the Chillán Cabildo, or council.

Peter

[chrisild]

Out of curiosity, what do you see here?
http://www.bcentral.cl/eng/banknotes-coins/coins/m0050.htm

Looks like CHIIE to me. But elsewhere I read that this error can be found (only?) on the pieces dated 2008. According to the reverse depicted at the central bank's site, that piece is dated 1995. Hmm, maybe they combined images of two different pieces.

(Update) According to this article (in Dutch), people currently pay 30,000 pesos (~€42) for such an error piece.

Christian

[translateltd]

Here's one on a medal that I had forgotten about.  The ANA's 113th anniversary medal, 2004.  Someone consulted me about the translation of "gateway to the west" at the time - not that I was qualified to suggest anything - and I don't think I actually had any input in the end.  Regardless - and apart from any discussion about the whether the translation is actually correct (a French colleague suggested "Porte pour l'Ouest" would be better) - the final medal has Quest rather than Ouest.  It doesn't seem to have been picked up, and isn't mentioned as far as I can see in the catalogue of recent ANA medals that was published in the Feb 2010 ANA "Numismatist".

[Figleaf]

 

BTW My translator daughter says it should have been "Portail pour l'Ouest".

Peter

[translateltd]

BTW My translator daughter says it should have been "Portail pour 'Ouest".

Peter

Yep, there will be plenty of different opinions on how best to translate the expression.  My French colleague was a professional translator too :-)  The key point is that "Quest" should never have got through - I suspect someone's spell-checker did an automatic adjustment in the communication chain somewhere ...

[RHM22]

In regards to the Chilean coin, is the word "chiie" possibly an offensive word in that country? From the way the article was written, it sounded like it was worse than just a spelling error.

[chrisild]

Don't think it is in Spanish. But heck, there are universities out there that have entire departments dedicated to it.

Dept. de Chiie Organique
http://myais.fsktm.um.edu.my/view/corp_creators/Universite_de_Yaounde,_Cameroon,_Dept._de_Chiie_Organique.html

Christian

[RHM22]

Well, at any rate, it would be a nice addition to any collection misspelled South American coins. First BBASIL, now CHIIE.

[Bimat]

About 1.5 million ChIIe coins have been struck,but no one knows how many have been put into circulation.I would like to have one,definitely

Check also: http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20100214/102187.shtml   

Aditya

[RHM22]

About 1.5 million ChIIe coins have been struck,but no one knows how many have been put into circulation.I would like to have one,definitely

Check also: http://english.cctv.com/program/newshour/20100214/102187.shtml   

Aditya

I would like to have one as well, but I predict that the prices will be very high until everyone forgets about this news story.