Bident, not trident

Due to an overzealous spellcheck feature, the word "bident" was twice changed in a paragraph in the February 2 edition of "Focus on philately." The paragraph should have read as follows:

As a state emblem, the trident dates back to the medieval empire of Kyivan Rus', when it was the coat of arms of several members of the ruling dynasty. At that time, the trident was stamped on gold and silver coins issued by Prince Volodymyr the Great, who might have inherited the bident of his father Sviatoslav the Conqueror as a dynastic coat of arms and modified it to a trident. The latter was also used on silver coins of Volodymyr's son Yaroslav (later called the Wise), probably during the period when he was governor of the city of Novgorod the Great, or Novgorod Velikii. Several other contemporary and later princes reverted to using the bident again as their coat of arms.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 16, 2003, No. 11, Vol. LXXI

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