# New H.G. Wells Commemorative Coin-How hard could it be to count to three? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 7, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953 "2021-01-07T19:47:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/1 "2021-01-07T19:47:00Z")
So the Royal Mint celebrated the life of H.G. Wells, with a 2 pound coin, featuring the Invisible Man in a top hat in the foreground, and a Martian Tri-pod in the background. [The UK’s new HG Wells coin features numerous errors – including a four-legged tripod (msn.com)](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-uk-s-new-hg-wells-coin-features-numerous-errors-including-a-four-legged-tripod/ar-BB1cwEGG) Giving his “Invisible Man” a top hat just means that someone never read the story, but giving a _tri_-pod four legs means that nobody, from the designer, to the commission that approved the design, to the people that made the coin…not a one of them could count to three. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/2 "2021-01-07T19:49:03Z")
“Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.” [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xOrgLj9lOwk/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AHeAoAC8AGKAgwIABABGGUgXyhSMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCbFWvhM8gk27b4qUoU12zCWgYlPw "Monty Python-Holy Hand Grenade") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/3 "2021-01-07T19:50:48Z")
Also, “And another flaw was spotted by Roberts, who said: “The legend written around the rim of the coin, ‘GOOD BOOKS ARE THE WAREHOUSES OF IDEAS’, is (though it’s sometimes attributed to Wells by various internet quote-sites) not an actual quotation by Wells.”” ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/4 "2021-01-07T20:13:54Z")
Well they counted to three allright, and then they got carried away and kept going. Could happen to anyone when you’re having fun, really. Numbers are weird. Goethe said it beautifully in [Faust](http://www.levity.com/alchemy/faust07.html): This you must ken! From one make ten, And two let be, Make even three, Then rich you’ll be. Skip o’er the four! From five and six, The Witch’s tricks, Make seven and eight, 'Tis finished straight; And nine is one, And ten is none, That is the witch’s one-time-one! Which I shamelessly [copied and _adapted_](https://schumanchu.eu/html/r1/r1_00125ivanka~holmes.html), to be sure. PS: Chris Costello, the designer, has been living in the Boston area for over 30 years, but H.G. Wells was English. Communication must have been difficult during confinement with all this pandemic going round. I wonder if this is the same Chris Costello who designed the [Papirus font](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_(typeface)). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/5 "2021-01-07T20:18:51Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > PS: Chris Costello, the designer, has been living in the Boston area for over 30 years, but H.G. Wells was English. Communication must have been difficult during confinement with all this pandemic going round. [e-mail]We don’t know how it is in Boston, but over here in Great Britain “Tri” means “Three”. Would you mind correcting your submission to reflect this fact? Thank you.[/e-mail] ---
**Author:** ![CoconutPete](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coconutpete/32/5294_2.png) [@CoconutPete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoconutPete)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/6 "2021-01-07T20:44:32Z")
I remember being in a high school geography class, when a girl in the class who was known to be ditzy suddenly had some epiphany about triangles and about how tri means three! ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/7 "2021-01-07T21:05:59Z")
I will write one hundred times: “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” … or maybe it’s me? … “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” “I know that nobody in the internet understands sarcasm, not even somebody who calls himself Czarcasm.” "I know that nobody in the internet … ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/8 "2021-01-07T21:15:29Z")
You should have seen the first design with a Time Machine shaped like a police box. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/9 "2021-01-07T23:55:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > “The legend written around the rim of the coin, ‘GOOD BOOKS ARE THE WAREHOUSES OF IDEAS’, There could have been _such_ an amusing typo. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/10 "2021-01-08T00:03:44Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There could have been _such_ an amusing typo. And at times an accurate one. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/11 "2021-01-08T11:35:04Z")
[Tripods have three legs and Triops has three eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgIaSURBSDI). ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/12 "2021-01-08T11:58:14Z")
Last year my gf showed me a cute little cartoon her agency had made for a client (she’s in advertising). After viewing it, I uncomfortably pointed out a minor factual error in the ad. She accused me of being pedantic, was angry, and the subject was dropped. A month later she told me the client loved the cartoon, but then pulled it because they were getting too many emails pointing out the error I’d noticed. Aren’t the only people who’d buy these coins the exact individuals who’d notice “subtle” errors? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/13 "2021-01-08T13:11:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Giving his “Invisible Man” a top hat just means that someone never read the story, Well, if they didn’t put a top hat on him, most people would think that they just depicted a suit of clothes on a headless mannequin. That top hat is needed to tell us that there’s an unseen head there. It’s the triumph of artistic shorthand over accuracy. It probably would’ve been better to have shown him with his head wrapped in bandages with the false nose. But then, Og knows, people would think that Wells had written “The Mummy”. There are lots of other Wells stories they could have immortalized – The Time Machine, The Food of the Gods, First Men in the Moon, The Land Ironclads, The World Set Free, or any of his many non-fantastic writings. Or his Outline of History. But none of these would have had the instant recognition of The War of the Worlds or The Invisible Man. And everyone instantly knew what that Martian Machine was supposed to be, despite the artist giving it the wrong number of legs. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/14 "2021-01-08T13:18:50Z")
The chances of anything four-legged on Mars are a million to one, he said. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/15 "2021-01-08T13:21:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Also, “And another flaw was spotted by Roberts, who said: “The legend written around the rim of the coin, ‘GOOD BOOKS ARE THE WAREHOUSES OF IDEAS’, is (though it’s sometimes attributed to Wells by various internet quote-sites) not an actual quotation by Wells.”” At least it’s more catchy than “She had an idea of love as a state of worship and service on the part of the man and of condescension on the part of the woman”. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/16 "2021-01-08T13:47:16Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > At least it’s more catchy than “She had an idea of love as a state of worship and service on the part of the man and of condescension on the part of the woman”. Or indeed, “It was senseless, it was utterly foolish, but all that was best and richest in Mr. Polly’s nature broke like a wave and foamed up at that girl’s feet, and died, and never touched her.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-h-g-wells-commemorative-coin-how-hard-could-it-be-to-count-to-three/929953/17 "2021-01-08T16:59:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There could have been _such_ an amusing typo. Even before I looked it up, I _knew_ there had to be a store called _The Best Little Warehouse in Texas_.