Thanks for the coercion rules hint Marc. We use char 254 a lot but never came across this problem it's given us a nice heads up. We can nip any potential problems...

It's do with the way the Þ Icelandic Thorn (222,254)  character sounds. It sounds like TH  so  "Þe" and "The" would sound the same. The ß character in German sounds like SS...