The Rules for Writing Roman Numerals

[Colophon]

@GuanoLad

There used to be, and maybe still is, a convention for TV series to write their year of production at the end of the credits in Roman Numerals. In 1990 they used MXM = 1000 + (1000 - 10) = 1990, but the actual standard convention was supposed to be MCMXC = 1000 + (1000 - 100) + (100 - 10) = 1990

British TV shows still use Roman numerals, and through the 1990s they used MCMXC, MCMXCI, MCMXCII and so on up to MCMXCIX for 1999. Never MXM for 1990, or MIM for 1999.

Actually I did notice the other day when watching a repeat of Father Ted that they messed up and gave the date as MXMXCVI, rather than MCMXCVI. So instead of 1996 it was apparently made in, um, (1000) + (1000-10) + (100-10) + (5+1), or 2086.

Someone else obviously noticed, too.