"The graphical software package used by [Note Printing Australia] has no copy-paste mechanism and no spelling or grammar check. The text was manually typed in and misspelt at this point," according to a report into the error from the printing agency, dated January 11 this year."
Specialist software for industry can be absurdly shit sometimes. There are seemingly tons of niche software packages used in business that cost thousands per copy and lack even the most rudimentary features normally found in most software.
For a 3-D modelling course at university we were forced to use software that had no undo mechanism (and only ran on Windows). We very quickly learned to create save files after every single modification, because it was so easy to lose hours of work with a single mistake.
In retrospect I wish I had looked for a way to import files from Blender-3D.
It would be funny if note forgers would use the same software for improved authenticity, re-type the text, and do it correctly - the forged notes could be easily spotted since they use the correct text.
"Easily" is a bit of an exaggeration - the text is so tiny you wouldn't be able to read it without putting it up to your face and you'd run into the other security features first.
Best method I've ever used for spotting misspellings in what I write: read the words you've written from last to first. Reading in this order breaks the prediction your brain does on what it expects to read next and stops you from filling in the words yourself or simply recognizing them by "shape" instead of reading each letter.
Of course this does nothing for grammar or general flow nor does it help you if you've spelled the wrong word correctly.
I print my stuff on actual paper and do a manual proof read when I think I’m done. I’m constantly surprised by how many spelling mistakes I still find during final proof reading that Word isn’t underlying with red squigglies.
Spellchecking isn't universal, and I've frequently found myself typing completely different words than I had intended, which are not misspellings. That would be picked up pretty quickly.
The funny thing is that this typo managed to pass through the inspection/review of so many different people. Related to the “copy & paste” between programs, this depends from which point of view someone looks at it, having to type/input information manually avoids copy&paste mistakes but on the other hand introduces human errors.
That’s the reason a good company should have reviews and a clear process for its software and documentation.
> "It is spelt wrong all the way thru [sic] microprint!"
They'll [sic] the "thru", but the article image clearly shows that the sentence in question says "It is spelt wrong all the way thru the microprint!", which has the added bonus of being grammatically valid, unlike the supposed quote.
Once they correct the mistake, those notes will be worth a fortune to collectors in a couple decades.
Collectors love errors. And since the history is well documented online you get a bonus of free provenance.
They don't plan to recall them. Collectors love errors mainly because they're rare. There's 480 million of these and they'll never be worth much more than 50 AUD.
As someone has already stated, they recycle these notes as well. Even though they're plastic, they won't last forever. It doesn't help they're high denomination and therefore less used, but I wouldn't be surprised that after about 50 years, there will be a lot less of these.
They'll be even more rare in an un-circulated state.
Aren't the valuable collectibles generally small batches with messed up production, like a skipped layer of printing or a misaligned coin stamping? I would be surprised if a graphic design mistake printed without issue on millions of dollars of currency would end up being very valuable.
As with most collectibles, it's value is its distinctive.
Rare but otherwise correct coins or bills likewise carry a markup -- wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, etc.
Mistakes are usually scarce enough that their rarity is exceptional. Were currency errors commonplace, they would not be seen as valuable.
In 2007, the U.S. accidentally minted some Presidential dollars that lacked "In God we trust" [1] [2]. In good condition, one is worth a few hundred dollars.
This is the appropriate response to an error: "nobody died". I can't help but wonder what would have been the response if this happened in the US? I assume a full news cycle would be taken up with opportunistic politicians trying to score points by ascribing blame to their enemies.
I tend to think it would be about the same reaction in the United States. "Oh those dumb printers hahaha [cue one day of local news stations across the country having an easy story to take up their air time that night]" and then it'd be over.
Though I won't rule out that someone would probably suggest that the mistyped word was actually a valid spelling, and anyone that said otherwise was fake news.
It’s a nice security-by-obscurity feature if someone makes a counterfeit and doesn’t spot the typo. That would be easy to miss unless you had explicit instructions to spell the word wrong.
I disagree somewhat. US news might laugh about it on morning news coverage. But is it that trivial and a laughing matter? I get it, typos are funny and no one dies. But "nobody died" isn't a valid excuse for mistakes on filing for taxes or legal contracts. Errors do matter, even if no one dies. not to overblow the issue, but governmental trust may require error avoidance for many people.
FWIW, my reading of the article is that the "nobody died" comment was not made for fun or political points or to deflect blame, but to console the printers responsible who were beating themselves up about their error.
Taxes and contracts can a big impact on the people they affect, though. A typo on a bank note has no direct effect on any users. It's an aesthetic problem, not a functional one.
Really? Isn't it going to throw a lot of false positives when people try to spend them and the cashier thinks that the misspelling means it's counterfeit?
46 million bills were in circulation for 8 months before the first person even noticed the typo, so probably not, no.
I've been a cashier, and trust me, we had more important things to do than examine bills with a magnifying glass looking for spelling errors. If a bill seemed suspicious at a quick glance, I swiped it with the counterfeit detector pen, and if it came out fine, I shrugged and put it in the register.
You really think any cashier is going to read the microtext on every bill they get? You practically need a magnifying glass just to see the typo. It's an absolute non-issue no matter what way you spin it.
Nothing would happen. Some currency collectors would want them because they represent a minor variety, but, with 480M printed, they wouldn't even be worth very much. There might be a 1 minute story on the news like "look at what those dummies at the BEP (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) did now," but it wouldn't be news for very long, if at all, outside collector circles.
I think you have it the other way round. "nobody died" is the pithy and fun response from a politician trying to deflect and score points by being pithy and fun. The standard of error of the part of the government that, you know, prints money should probably be a lot higher than 'nobody died'.
The article mentions that the banknote passed multiple reviews before release, but doesn’t say who had the ultimate responsibilty for its being approved.
Does it matter? Who fucked up on a typo of this minor amount isn't a problem - even the Governor of the Reserve Bank (who's signature is on the note) says not to worry.
Well if they’ll recall these they can become pretty rare pretty quickly as all notes returned to a bank either voluntarily or via circulation would be destroyed and exchanged with new ones.
Not now but eventually they are recalled, notes even plastic ones usually only have a decade or so in circulation in most countries until they are issued a soft recall.
I would assume a joke based on the scare quotes around the spelling of "centre".
And at the risk of killing a joke (which I liked), I found the chart of "centre" vs "center" usage interesting:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/87978/how-and-wh...
Can you cite something linking education level with an improved ability to spot typographical errors? According to the psychologist quoted in this article[0]/study our inability to spot typos might be an innate limitation of how our brains process information, rather than a lack of intelligence/education.
This wasn't a typo. One person makes a typo. When creating a high-profile physical thing with text on it, there are authors, editors, typesetters (or the digital equivalent), copy editors, and proofreaders involved. If this wasn't reviewed by at least four people prior to printing, and if there weren't then test printings reviewed by additional people, then the entire process is flawed. But it still wasn't a typo. It was a failure in quality control.
My dig about education level was too subtle, so I'll be more blunt: too many stupid people were involved. People who don't know how to spell (barring special circumstances like dyslexia or communicating in a non-native language) are stupid. Everyone makes mistakes, but when multiple people whose job it is to produce something like this fail, it's no longer a mistake. It's because they were unable to review it and notice the problem.
All it takes is five minutes of reviewing Facebook posts or comment forums to see just how pervasive this stupidity is. Hacker News is one of the few forums I participate in, because most of the people participating are intelligent, and reading comments here doesn't make my eyes bleed.
As the sibling commenter stated, no one died, and this isn't a big deal. It's still an embarrassment.
You've gone from one unconstructive thing ("lacked [a] grade-school educations") to another ("stupid"). My link explains why neither one of these adequately explains why people make or miss these kind of mistakes, rather than just hurling out glib insults as an explanation.
I agree with most of this even though it comes across as a bit aggressive.
HN is one of the few places I enjoy reading comments because people actually care about communication, and I love reading well-expressed, well-written comments from intelligent people.
