Irish Central Bank admits (that) it made error on James Joyce coin

He is regarded as one of Ireland’s literary giants and most innovative wordsmiths, but James Joyce has himself just become the subject of an unintended piece of linguistic innovation.

A specially minted coin honouring the author features a depiction of his head and a passage from one of his best-known works, the novel Ulysses. Trouble is, it gets the quotation wrong, inserting an extraneous “that” into the sentence “Signatures of all things [that] I am here to read.”

The coin, a 10 euro piece, was produced by the Irish Central Bank and has just gone on sale for €46.

While the bank has admitted the error, the coin remains on sale and buyers are to be informed in advance of the mistake. Anyone who has bought the coin and wishes to return it will be given a full refund.

The bank displayed it’s own level of creativity when it said in a statement: “While the error is regretted, it should be noted that the coin is an artistic representation of the author and text and not intended as a literal representation.”