The idea was to create a commemorative coin to honor the work of HG Wells, the British writer, historian and sociologist best known for the novels “The War of the Worlds” and “The Invisible Man”.
But the two-pound coin that Britain’s Mint revealed this week angered some Wells fans, who quickly realized what they described as flaws and spoiled images in the coin’s design, which was inspired by the author’s books.
For example, the Martian machine that Wells described in “The War of the Worlds” as “a monstrous tripod, taller than many houses”, appears to have four legs instead of three. And the image of the invisible man on the coin shows the character wearing a top hat and not the “wide-brimmed hat” that Wells described in his book.
Wells aficionados’ mistakes and response were reported by The Guardian.
“Can I just notice that the big walking machine on the coin has four legs? Four legs ”, Holly Humphries, a digital artist, said on Twitter.
Mrs. Humphries, from Oxfordshire, England, said she realized the mistake on Monday, the day the coin was announced by the Royal Mint, when she read about it in an online forum dedicated to “The War of the Worlds”.
“The tripod has been an iconic and famous thing in fiction for over 120 years,” she said in an interview on Tuesday, “and making that mistake shows an incredible lack of familiarity with the work, especially when you’re trying to honor the writer with such a coin. “
Patrick Parrinder, president of the HG Wells Society in London and author who wrote about Wells, also identified the error.
“Three good legs, four bad legs,” said Parrinder of the tripod. “It is a pity that the artist did not choose that.”
Adam Roberts, vice president of the Wells Society and professor at the Royal Holloway, University of London, said on Twitter, “Wells’s Tripods not only had * three * legs, Griffin, his invisible man, doesn’t wear a top hat.” The character’s face, he added, was bandaged under a “wide-brimmed hat”.
“So it’s two by two,” he said.
Wells, who was considered a notable literary figure of his time, is best known for his science fiction novels, some of which have been adapted for cinema. He died in 1946 at the age of 79.
In announcing the coin, The Royal Mint said it was “celebrating the imagination and inquisitive mind of a man who helped shape the world we live in.”
A spokeswoman for Royal Mint said in a statement on Wednesday that “it works with leading designers from around the world to create art on the single canvas of a coin”.
“We encourage you to be creative and distinctive in your responses to the briefing,” she said. “When developing a design for the HG Wells coin, we asked artists to consider their life and work, ensuring that the coin was instantly recognizable and made the best use of space at £ 2.”
The coin was designed by Chris Costello, a Boston-based graphic designer and illustrator. It depicts the four-legged alien machine with the invisible man in the foreground. The coin’s look also includes a partial Roman numeral clock, a nod to “The Time Machine,” Costello said on his website.
“The characters in War of the Worlds have been portrayed many times and I wanted to create something original and contemporary,” said Costello in a statement released by Royal Mint. “My project draws on a variety of machines featured in the book – including tripods and handling machines that have five articulated legs and several appendages. “
He added this “The final design combines several stories in a stylized and unified composition that is emblematic” of Wells’ work “and fits the single canvas of a coin”.
On his website, Costello also said he wore a top hat because “it was easily recognized as a Victorian era, in contrast to the futuristic machine in the background”.
The coin, which has a profile picture of Queen Elizabeth II on the other side, will be issued later this year, 75 years after Wells’ death, the Mint said on Tuesday. It is part of the annual set of the Royal Mint, a collection of coins celebrating birthdays in 2021, including the queen’s 95th birthday.