A typo isn’t just a typo, especially if it’s all over a major piece of world currency.
Australians have been laughing, cursing, sighing and facepalming over a misspelled word on the newest printing of the Australian $50 note.
They left out an I in the word “responsibility,” and no one in the country is apparently missing the irony of misspelling that particular word and not catching it until 46 million of them had been sent out into the financial world…
The typo was part of the microtext of the note.
It’s really small, so small that a) most of us wouldn’t even notice it, and b) they aren’t going to recall them.
And so unlike some past currency bloopers, this one probably isn’t going to become a collector’s item, like, say, that time the Bank of Ireland produced a 10 Euro James Joyce commemorative coin that misquoted his book “Ulysses.”
And the printing process for currency is pretty complicated and requires multiple trips through the machine.
Striking coins is pretty elaborate too, so it’s only natural that there are flaws.
Most of them get caught before being sent into circulation, but not always.
In 1955 the US Mint mis-struck the Benjamin Franklin half-dollar in a way that made it look like the great American patriot had long buck teeth.
That was definitely not what the Mint was intending, so naturally, coin collectors fell in love with it, and began calling it the “Bugs Bunny” half-dollar.
Let us turn now to large amounts of money.
Last month in Grand Haven, Michigan, a guy was, for whatever reason, driving through town in his pickup truck, which had a cardboard box containing $30,000 in cash.
And, as is wont to happen in these situations, the box fell off the truck and $30,000 in cash started flying all over the place.
It was raining money in downtown Grand Haven! Authorities say much of the money has been recovered, and they’re hoping residents will return the rest, no questions asked.
No word on if they found any typos on all that currency.
Huge typo spotted on new $50 note (News.com.au)
Bank alerted to Joyce coin risk (The Herald of Dublin)
Error Is Human, Pt. 1: Certifiable U.S. Paper Money Errors (Coin Week)
People rush to grab whirling cash after $30,000 falls off back of truck (MLive)
