Money, money, money [Matthew's Journal]

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Please vote in the poll before checking the correct answer (or viewing the text below the cut)

[Poll #1626278]

This poll was prompted by watching an old QI episode, where it was asserted that 80% of people pick the wrong answer, possibly because of handedness.

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There are 32 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

What's the right answer? Darn it, she faces right. I never claimed to be observant.

Oh, is this a mirror thing? She is looking to the right of the coin, but if you were the queen, you would be facing left.

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Wot she says.

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From her point of view, she's facing forwards, surely?

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Rachel made this point at greater length, and professed to seriously not understand what the alternatives are. On reflection, unless I hear more from Fry, I'm more and more inclined to the view that she's right. If you're observing a person facing you, or lying on their back, or a portrait of them doing so, their left is your right and vice versa. But a typical profile view is where someone is looking forward and you're looking at their body and head from the side. So, I reiterate my answer that from my point of view she's facing right in profile, and her point of view can't apply (because the way she's looking would have no impact on how she appears on the coin).

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Agh. I bet that is it, now :) Although I would still prefer to use "facing" to refer to MY left and right. I wondered who would be authoratative on that subject, presumably only some heraldic body (for the "official" usage) and an internet poll (for the "common" usage). FWIW http://www.royalmint.com/Corporate/facts/coins/RoyalPortrait.aspx uses "facing right" but OTOH I don't know who wrote that and if they knew any more about the question than I did.

OTOH, I couldn't actually bring an image to mind. I guessed right, but I think mostly by chance. (The link says successive monarchs are supposed to be shown facing in opposite directions; I don't know if that'll be maintained.)

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I am always confused by left and right. Especially left and right of someone else, or an object.
But I did imagine her wrong.

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Agh. I bet that is it, now :) Although I would still prefer to use "facing" to refer to MY left and right

Yes, I agree! I pictured her correctly in my head (facing to the right of the coin) but I'm not sure if that means I answered right!

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I'm currently satisfied with my answer, (although think the data will be irretreivably commingled between "which way people think she's facing" and "what they mean by facing"), but I expect Stephen Fry had a plausible sounding explanation of why we should listen to the alternative.

Emperor: What DID he say?

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Oh, hell. Hadn't even occurred to me. FAOD, I interpreted 'facing left' to mean that from my point of view as I look at the coin (the right way up :-), her nose would be on the left side and the back of her head on the right side, so that we'd be viewing her left cheek.

And I voted it, and it appears to be wrong. Mind you, I'm faintly surprised to hear that it's even consistent; if there had been an option for 'in profile, but no consistency of direction between different coins', I'd have picked that one (and still been wrong :-).

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What Simon Said :)

(Though I note that we'd have been correct if the question had been about stamps. So maybe I just pay more attention to post than money, or something.)

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I think I was confused with stamps, where she does face to the left.

Me too.

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Yes, this. For some reason the image of her head facing left on a stamp is much more iconic than that of her on a coin.

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Probably because we all "look" at stamps, whereas we can count out and hand over coins without really looking at them - and they have 2 sides, so there's a chance of not even seeing that face anyway.

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I knew that stamps and coins are the opposite way round from each other, but I couldn't think which was which, darn it.

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I watched that QI too, but when I try to imagine coins I still think she's facing left.

Took me a while to find an actual current British coin (the ones with the part-of-crest on the back) to check. I was wondering if she'd been flipped around.

I watched QI and still got it wrong!

I watched QI and would have got it right but didn't want to skew the results.

I remembered as 'opposite to a stamp' (which we look at more) and stamps are left so coins are right. I find it very easy to visualise her on a stamp, and much harder on a coin!

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Interesting - I guessed "in profile, facing left" too. Possibly I'm getting confused with stamps.

I would speculate that the fact people don't know isn't necessarily down to handedness, more that they don't actually take so much notice and, having just checked both a £1 coin and a first class stamp, she looks a different way on each.

Does the monarch's head always look the same way on coins? I CBA to go and find my box of old 10p/2 shilling pieces to look at.

No. They alternate (the exception to the rule being the ultra-rare Edward VIII coins, because he preferred his left side)

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Other in my case means, I just saw that QI episode too. =)

ditto

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I plead dyslexia.

What extraordinarily even polling.

Yes, I was noticing that :)

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Was this QI inspired?

I watched QI last week, too. ;) (new ep, though).

[x] Upside-down, facing left

i presume you mean the current queen as it changes each reign and i have a victorian penny in front of me

October