The United Kingdom officially left European Union on January the 31st, three-and--half years after British people voted to leave. The U.K. government issued special coin to mark the occasion. However, the coin is at centre of argument about punctuation. The new 50-pence coin became available yesterday. It has the words: "Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations" on its reverse side. famous British writer, Sir Philip Pullman, is unhappy with punctuation. He believes phrase is incorrectly punctuated. Mr Pullman said there should be a comma after the word "prosperity". Such a comma is called Oxford comma. He said the coin, "should be boycotted by all literate people".
The Oxford comma gets its name from Oxford University Press, which makes common use of punctuation mark. In the USA, it is called serial comma. It is used before the final "and" or "or" in written list of three or more items. Many people say there is no need for Oxford comma in phrase on the 50-pence coin because the meaning is very clear. Word expert Susie Dent said Oxford comma is useful if it makes it easier to understand the writer's meaning. A U.K. citizen said the comma issue wasn't important. She tweeted: "It doesn't matter if there is comma or not on 50p coin. most important thing is that there is peace, and prosperity, and friendship with all nations."
