The general manager of the Chilean mint has been sacked after thousands of coins were issued with the name of the country spelt wrongly.

The 50-peso coins - worth about 6p - were issued in 2008, but no-one noticed the mistake until late last year. Instead of C-H-I-L-E, the coins had C-H-I-I-E stamped on them.

The coins have since become collectors' items and the mint says it has no plans to take them out of circulation. People have reportedly been hoarding the coins in the hope their value rises.

But the mistake has cost the mint's general manager, Gregorio Iniguez, and several other employees, their jobs. It is not the first embarrassing blunder at the Chilean mint. Last October, someone there sold a rare medal, which should have been housed in the institution's museum, to a coin collector.

A month later, another medal - this one bearing the face of the country's then President Michelle Bachelet - was inadvertently sold on the open market.

How big a deal can it be if it takes nearly two years to spot the error!

The redundancy settlement sounded fine until he actually got it.

The original was here