Boss of Chilean mint fired after thousands of coins are issued bearing a howling error: 'C-H-I-I-E'!

Boss of Chilean mint fired after thousands of coins are issued bearing a howling error: 'C-H-I-I-E'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 5:22 PM on 12th February 2010

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Embarrassed Chilean Mint chiefs have sacked their general manager after thousands of coins were made with the name of the country spelt incorrectly.

Instead of 'Chile', the coins, minted in 2008, are marked 'Chiie'.

The 50-peso coins, worth about 6p, circulated through the South American country for a year before the error was noticed.

Costly error: The general manager of the Chilean Mint has been sacked after thousands of 50 peso coins were made reading 'Chiie'

The mint said it has no plans to take the coins out of circulation, and eagle-eyed Chileans have begun hoarding the coins in the hope they rise in value as a collector's item.

The mistake cost general manager Gregorio Iniguez and several other employees their jobs.

Sacked: Gregorio Iniguez oversaw the blunder

The discovery of the spelling error is not the first embarrassing blunder at the Chilean mint in recent times.

Last October, a staff member 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.

The mint said in a statement: 'In a board meeting it was agreed to terminate the contract of Gregorio Iñiguez, who held the post of general manager.'

Head franker Pedro Urzúa has defended himself after it was claimed he had deliberately caused the coins to be manufactured.

'I have been accused of having written the word "Chiie' deliberately, but it was an error spotted by neither myself nor the entire chain of people who saw and approved it afterwards,' he said.