Chile silly billy

I'm sure we've all dropped a few clangers during our working lives, (more than a few in some cases), and, as a boss, I'm a firm believer in second chances. (And, with our Gordon, third, fourth, eighth, nineteenth, fiftieth and so on.) So I had to feel for one Gregorio Iniguez, the erstwhile general manager of the Chilean mint and a first-class scapegoat.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Those are serious country names, with ample opportunity for a spelling slip-up. A minter's nightmare, to be sure.

But Chile? C-H-I-L-E? Surely not. Five little letters, that's all. Alas, a less-than-diligent minter recently got a little trigger happy with the 'I' and a raft of 50 peso coins were sent out bearing the name CHIIE. Stranger still, the currency was issued in 2008 and the blunder was not picked up until a couple of months ago. Maybe it's trickier to spell than I thought.

The coins remain in circulation and have become collectors' items, while Señor Iniguez and a number of other staff have taken the fall and been deminted, to coin a phrase. A mint spokesperson told Reuters the fiasco has "brought the institution into disrepute".

Well, I should think so. Personally, I've always held the Chilean mint in the same rarefied regard most people reserve for Médecins Sans Frontières or the Peace Corps. Now, I don't what to believe in...