First, coins are struck, bills are printed. Second, it's not a mistake. It was common in the early part of the 20th century for artists to use the Roman alphabet when lettering artwork that had a classical theme. Latin only had 24 letters; V was both a consonant and a vowel just like Y is in English. As a vowel it was pronounced the same way we pronounce the letter U. Many other coins and buildings from that time period have the same affectation.
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