My wife, Jean, has been busy adding 1991 knives and she noticed a significant factory error that I haven’t seen published.   It involves the motto of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum”.

In the late 1980’s and 1990’s a series of  trappers was made and they included a silver dollar in the box.  Some were called “Silver Dollar Trapper” and some were called “Liberty Trapper”.  For years these were made with the second blade having a blue eagle and the year in red.   Notice the 1989 blade closeup below.  Notice that the eagle banner says  “E PLURIBUS UNUM”.  This is a Latin phrase for “One from Many”, and refers to the states coming together to form the United States.  Now notice the same area on the 1991 blade.    This blade says “E PLURBIS UNUM”.  PLURIBUS is not spelled correctly.

Interestingly, this error will be repeated in 1991, 1992 and 1993 trappers as shown.   But it will then be corrected in the 1994 and later knives.  Collectors know that errors like these tend to increase in value faster than their peers.

KnifeDB.com is the home of many articles of value to collectors.  If you like this be sure to see the article on “Case Outlaws”.