RBA not fazed by Australian $50 note typo

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.

I don't know about other OS, but in Windows it's absurdly difficult to build an input mechanism that doesn't allow pasting.

Of course, bad design is also caused by human error.

Reminds me of: https://www.gislounge.com/map-traps-intentional-mapping-erro...

"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.

Uhh but weren't the maple trees there before that?

If you have access to a computer, why not just use a spellchecker :)

This is also my favorite. It also works pretty well for punctuation and general flow, I find.

Perhaps if Australian bills have a similar lifespan to US currency. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2014/09/12/how-ma...

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.

With inflation, they'll be worth less than 50 AUD. :)

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.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/godless-dollar-coins-slip-throu...

[2] https://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/godless-dollars/

I doubt someone would attempt to remake the bill from scratch like that, instead of scanning.

Nobody at the U.S. Mint would be any more "embarrassed" than anyone else over a misprint on U.S. currency.

But these people, part of the U.S. Treasury, might be: https://moneyfactory.gov/

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.

An error on legal contract is very different from a typo on something that doesn't matter as it doesn't affect functionality at all.

> But "nobody died" isn't a valid excuse for mistakes on filing for taxes or legal contracts.

I have had a lot of mistakes filing my taxes (Spain) when I was working as a contractor. You pay a small fine (100€ for a yearly report) and move on.

You will be prosecuted if you lied in your taxes. But, mistakes happen all the time and its not big deal.

You clearly have never been to Australia.

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.

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...

Guy done need Spellingly

Comment of the week :)

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.

agreed - as per the original glib response, "nobody died". Life/death situations are the ones where our brains should be finely tuned & trainable.