The Great War had ended recently, and images of soldiers, slaughter, and valor were still fresh in people's minds. For his “Perplexities” column in the April 1920 issue of The Strand Magazine, Henry E. Dudeney chose the form of one medal, the Cross of Victoria, or Maltese Cross, and posed the puzzle of dissecting it to a square in the fewest possible number of pieces. His solution, requiring thirteen pieces, followed in the May issue. As memory of the war receded and wounds healed, the focus of everyday life moved on. And when, in 1926, collected puzzles from “Perplexities” appeared in Modern Puzzles and How to Solve Them, a change had also occurred in the Maltese Cross puzzle. In place of the original solution was a beautiful new solution that used only seven pieces! The remarkable dissection was attributed by Dudeney to a Mr. A. E. Hill.