Bank admits ‘responsibilty’ for spelling gaffe
Mistake made three times but 46 million Australian bills are circulated before the error is spotted
AUSTRALIA’S reserve bank admitted yesterday to making a spelling error not once but three times on the country’s new, technically advanced 50 dollar note.
The embarrassing mistake may have gone unnoticed had it not been for an eagle-eyed member of the public, presumably with time on their hands and access to a decent magnifying glass, who contacted a national radio station after spotting the error.
Their scrutiny revealed the mistake inside the minuscule print that covers part of the note, with the word responsibility spelt “responsibilty”.
It was too late to remedy the error – 46 million of the notes were printed back in October last year and are already in circulation. The Reserve Bank of Australia said the notes would not be withdrawn, but in the next print run the mistake would be remedied.
The notes had been billed as among the most sophisticated and hard to forge in the world, made of polymer and incorporating holograms and microscopic text.
“This does not affect the legal tender status of the banknotes,” a bank spokesman said. “We have reviewed our processes to remove the likelihood of such an error occurring in the future.”
An anonymous caller to Triplem radio said “a source close to the making of the note” disclosed the error. “People stood at a wall looking at an image of the note from five metres away, it was the size of a kitchen table – and none of them picked it up,” he added.
The spelling mistake is in tiny print which appears above the shoulder of the woman featured on the note – Edith Cowan, the first woman elected to an Australian parliament. It appears not just once, but three times, in text that is barely legible to the naked eye.
“It is a great responsibilty (sic) to be the only woman here, and I want to emphasise the necessity which exists for other women being here,” says the quote, which is from Cowan’s maiden speech to the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia in 1921.
She played a crucial role in winning the vote for women in Western Australia and at the age of 60 entered parliament, becoming a key figure in opening the legal and other professions to women.
In a country renowned for its love of nicknames, the 50 dollar note is known as a “pineapple” because of its yellow hue, while the 100 dollar note is sometimes referred to as a “jolly green giant”.
The 50 dollar note, which is worth around £27, is the most widely circulated in Australia.
The other side of the note features a distinguished Aboriginal author and inventor, David Unaipon, who lived from 1872 until 1967.
Experts believe the erroneous notes will not have any extra value to collectors because there are so many of them in circulation.
The typo is certain to secure Australia a spot in the hall of fame of currency blunders.
When the Bank of Canada started printing bank notes bearing the likeness of the Queen, people complained that they saw a devil in the whorls of her hair.
The Philippines faced embarrassment in 2005, when it published new bank notes that misspelled the name of then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. On the notes, her last name was spelt “Arrovo”.
The notes, authorities said at the time, were still valid, and, in fact, collectors coveted them.