7 Handed 1973 EEC 50p...?

[MikeCoin]

My father has always maintained that somewhere down the road he was told that the 9-hand EEC 1973 50p was originally meant to be issued with 7 hands but soon afterwards two other countries joined and so the design had to be bumped to nine.

I've attached a photo to the design in question.

I've looked all over the Internet trying to see if this coin variation is out there but I can't find it anywhere.

[Peckris]

7 hands would have been good for an equilateral curved heptagon - one hand per side

[AardHawk]

Now that there are twenty-seven members the new 50p is going to be issued with a Gordian Knot of 27 hands