Czech Post has issued another Charles IV souvenir sheet after a spelling error was discovered on the original sheet’s Latin inscription.
The souvenir sheet, first issued May 4, commemorates the 700th birth anniversary of Charles IV, who was born May 14, 1316 and crowned king of Bohemia in 30 years later. He would eventually become the holy Roman emperor in 1355.
On the original sheet, Charles’ name is inscribed in Latin as “Karolus Quatrus”. This inscription is found in the lower-left selvage, and the error is found in the Latin word for fourth, “quartus,” which was misspelled as “quatrus”.
The stamp and sheet was designed by artist Jan Kavan; Milos Ondracek engraved the design. Prague’s Post Printing House printed the sheets using muliti-coloured offset and one-color (black) intaglio printing.
The following day, May 5, Czech Post reported the error and said the souvenir sheet would be recalled in exchange for a new version with correct spelling.
Representative from Czech Post said: “With respect to the significance of Charles IV, Czech Post decided to reprint the miniature sheet in the correct way.”
Both sheets include two perforated labels and a 54-koruna stamp.
Interestingly, as there were no errors on the stamps themselves, Czech Post claims they will not go to waste, adding the stamps will be removed from the unsold souvenir sheets and “used in another way for postal purposes.” A total of 35,000 souvenir sheets with the corrected text were issued following the original issuance of 54,500 error sheets. It’s unknown how many examples of the original errors were returned after being discovered.
Aside from the inscriptions in the lower-left selvage, the two sheets should are virtually identical.