MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chilean coin commemorating 1973 coup sparks controversy on social media

The piece contained the inscription “four swords united in the blue of September” and depicted soldiers shooting at the Palacio de La Moneda

A Chilean Bank was forced last week to withdraw from its online collectors' store a coin alluding to the 1973 coup d'état from sale following protests on social media. One of the sides of the coin showed an image of troops shooting at La Moneda Palace.

The coin was offered for a few hours and then removed from the Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI) online store after strong criticism from users angered by the commemoration of the Sept. 11, 1973, overthrowing of democratically-elected President Salvador Allende. Users branded the coin as an “apology to the coup and the dictatorship.”

According to BioBioChile, the coin was on sale in the entity's online store at a price of Ch$ 9,990 (US$ 12) after originally seeking Ch$ 12,990 (US$ 15.7).

The piece offered contained on one of its faces the inscription “four swords united in the blue of September” and depicted soldiers shooting at the Palacio de La Moneda.

On the other face, it read “Libertad” next to the figure that was seen for several years on Ch$10 coins in Chile and with “11-IX-1973” written on it.

After social media protests, the coin was no longer on the bank's website.

Hours after the controversy, BCI issued a statement in which they decided to “unpublish the product” promising to “review our filters in order to prevent this situation from happening again.”

“Regarding the promotion of a product that is interpreted or associated with political allusions in our BCI store, we declare that BCI has a marketplace called Tienda BCI, where various SMEs companies are offered a space to sell their products,” a Twitter thread read.

“The offering businesses are responsible for the products offered there, with BCI having no responsibility whatsoever for them or their quality,” the BCI disclaimer went on.