Guardian readers like their April Fools typographically flavoured! Apparently the paper ran this little picture as part of an article on the 1st April 1977. They put together a seven page special report on the fictional semi-colon shaped island republic of ‘San Serriffe’ including all sorts of seemingly plausible information about its economy, geography and population.

Quite how the names of the two islands (Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse) and the capital city (Bodoni) didn’t arouse suspicion is beyond me, but apparently there were many letters written in and requests for more information. There were even sponsored ads by companies in on the joke. They sold ‘I’ve been to San Serriffe’ bumper stickers and 12,000 San Serriffe t-shirts. My favourite spot on the map? ‘Gill Sands’ of course…

Read all about it and appreciate the ludicrous detail here along with other interesting hoaxes. Happy April 1st everyone, stay alert…

Found over at 30gms