Mint Misspells Country’s Name on Coins
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, reports the BBC.
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.


Doctor gives Man two Left Feet
A prosthetics expert who gave an elderly patient two left feet by fitting the wrong artificial limb, has been struck off.
Patrick Morrison was looking forward to walking properly again with a new prosthetic foot after his right limb had to be amputated.
Mr. Morrison, 76, of Bathgate, West Lothian, found himself leaning to one side but thought it was part of the breaking-in process.
So he was devastated when he discovered that prosthetist Malcolm Griffiths had given him a second left foot, reports the Daily Mirror.
The pensioner’s ordeal began when he had to have his big toe amputated three years ago. The wound became infected with MRSA and he later lost his right foot.
He got his new artificial limb at the Smart disability centre at Edinburgh’s Astley Ainslie Hospital.


Man Drives off a Car from the Roof
A motorist and his young son had a lucky escape when he accidentally drove his car off the roof of his apartment building.
The man was trying to park his car on the rooftop carpark when he accidentally stepped on the accelerator, reports Straits News.
The car shot backwards over the edge of the roof, through a low wire cable and crashed 25ft down to the alleyway below.
Amazingly, the man and his five-year-old son, who was sitting in the passenger seat, were unhurt in the accident.
The car smashed a
wall-mounted air conditioning unit before landing upside down, on its boot, after the mishap in Xiamen, southern China’s Fujian province.


Actor Collapses after Drinking Real Vodka
A method actor was rushed to hospital after he collapsed on stage while drinking real vodka to give a convincing portrayal of a Russian drunk.
Marc Schulze, 36 - appearing in ‘Moscow - Petushki’ by Russian satirist Venedict Yerofeyev in Frankfurt, Germany - had downed one shot after another during the course of the show.
But the audience realised something was wrong when he started missing his lines and staring blankly at other actors.
One theatre-goer said: “He was turning in a very realistic performance and it looked really impressive. I was amazed at how good his drunken staggering was and how he was slurring his words.
“But as the performance went on he started to miss lines and looked really confused and the audience could tell there was something wrong. Then he just collapsed.”
Now he has been ordered by producers to stick to water in future shows.


Pensioner Smashes her Car into a River
A Devon pensioner trying to reverse her car out of her garage instead shot forwards, smashing through a wall and into a stream.
Pat Dancer escaped with only minor injuries after a gearbox error led her demolish a brick wall at her home in Chillaton near Lifton.
She has been attempting to manouevre the blue hatchback out of her garage when she scraped a side wall and panicked, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Amid the confusion, she took the car out of reverse and into a forward drive gear before flooring the accelerator.
The car landed on its front bumper in the gulley with Mrs. Dancer, aged in her 70s, trapped inside. A neighbour spotted her in distress and dialled 999.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and freed Mrs. Dancer before taking her to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth for treatment to leg injuries and mild hypothermia.
Her car was found in the river with the front wheels under water but luckily she was largely unhurt.