Brazil: 5 or 50 centavos?

[chrisild]

Just came across this at another site: In Brazil a few thousand error coins have been recalled - pieces that should be 50 centavos coins but say 5 centavos. The central bank apparently announced this in mid-December, and said that the volume could be up to 40,000 coins.

Source (in Portuguese; you can have the page translated):
http://www.numisbrazilis.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/bcb-recall.html
Here is the mint's statement:
http://www.casadamoeda.gov.br/portalCMB/noticias?id=212

* This is a regular 50 centavos coin featuring José Paranhos Baron of Rio Branco
* This is a 5 centavos coin. It shows Joaquim José da Silva Xavier "Tiradentes".

Seems that the error pieces have the "appearance" of a 50c coin, including the Rio Branco portrait. But the indicated face value is just one tenth of that.

Christian

[Figleaf]

Obviously, the missing zero did not slide off by accident. The error coin has a broad edge and the coin is struck slightly off-centre, showing that the die was too small for the flan, in other words, wrong die or wrong flan, depending on your perspective.

Peter