Australian Government once printed $2.3bn worth of currency with a typo

The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to redesign the $50 note and give it a fresh look in October 2018 to improve the security of banknotes and reduce the probability of counterfeiting.

However, in what one might deem it as the costliest typo, Australian bank misprinted a bit of text, confusing the spelling of ‘responsibility’. It was only after printing $50 bills 46 million times, did they realize that they’ve been churning grammatically erroneous notes.

The micro text on the note is an excerpt from a speech by Edith Cowan, Australia’s first female member of parliament.

The excerpt reads– “It is a great responsibilty to be the only woman here, and I want to emphasise the necessity which exists for other women being here”.

The $50 bill is the most commonly used note and features a picture of David Unaipon, Indigenous writer and inventor on one side, and Edith Cowan, on the other.