The United Kingdom left the European Union on January the 31st. The British people voted to leave three-and-a-half years ago. The U.K. made a special coin for the occasion. It is at the centre of an argument about punctuation. The new 50-pence coin has the words: "Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations" on one side. A British writer, Sir Philip Pullman, is unhappy. He believes the punctuation is incorrect. He said there should be a comma after the word "prosperity". Such a comma is called an Oxford comma. He said everyone who can read should ignore the coin.
The Oxford comma's name is from Oxford University. In the USA, it is called the serial comma. It is used before the final "and" or "or" in a list of three or more items. Many people say an Oxford comma is unnecessary on the 50-pence coin because the meaning is very clear. A word expert said the Oxford comma is useful if it is easier to understand the writer's meaning. A U.K. citizen said the comma wasn't important. She tweeted: "It doesn't matter if there is a comma or not on the 50p coin. The most important thing is that there is peace, and prosperity, and friendship with all nations."