THE LEAST ACCURATELY LABELLED MUSEUM EXHIBIT

A first class example of inaccurate labelling was discovered in October 1971 in County Durham. The object was exhibited in a South Shields museum as a roman sestertius coin, minted between AD135 and AD 138.
However, Miss Fiona Gordan, aged 9, pointed out that it was, in fact, a plastic token given away free by a soft drinks firm in exchange for bottle labels. The dating was in her view, almost 2,000 years out.
When challenged to provide evidence, she said: ' I know because the firm's trademark is on the back.' A spokesman for the Roman Fort museum said 'The token was designed as a roman replica. The trouble was that we constructed the letter "R" on the coin to mean "Roma".
In fact it stood for "Robinsons", the soft drinks manufactures.'