Sherlock Holmes 50p includes contentious book title

The apparent mistake is simple enough, instead of reading 'Sign of Four', the coin, which details many Holmes stories in small print, reads 'Sign of the Four', but The Royal Mint are not the first people to add the redundant definite article, with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1890 book having been published under either name in the past.

The mistake was pointed out by author Philip Ardagh (@PhilipArdagh) who tweeted:

'Dear @RoyalMintUK, There is an error on your new 50p coin. Conan Doyle didn't write a story called The Sign of THE Four. It was The Sign of Four. If you think this is a 'minor mistake', you don't know #SherlockHolmes fans!'

Such a mistake, which is already being questioned, is unlikely to be corrected by The Royal Mint, meaning the coin will not be corrected and only the already issued version will be available.

 

Dear @RoyalMintUK, There is an error on your new 50p coin. Conan Doyle didn't write a story called The Sign of THE Four. It was The Sign of Four. If you think this is a 'minor mistake', you don't know #SherlockHolmes fans! @thebookseller @GuardianBooks @FaberBooks pic.twitter.com/5wngVcHKBw

— Philip Ardagh (@PhilipArdagh) May 24, 2019

Ardagh later clarified the different versions of the book title…

This is the US magazine in which it was first published. The first UK book publication, by Blackett (also in 1890) was The Sign of Four which is taken to be part of the canon - hence all film adaptations being The Sign of Four. Some pirated editions also used the spurious 'the'. https://t.co/myziS28Vkr

— Philip Ardagh (@PhilipArdagh) May 24, 2019

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