Actually I think it's an ancient Egyptian hieorglyph depicting an alien taking a dump, captured by a 1950's impressionist artist.
But it's so small and unintrusive at arm's length that it doesn't bother me, and the nine-image radial presentation most closely mimics the classic Paulson style.
One of the drawbacks of the RHC design (besides no outer ring, oversized recess, and hats too close to edge) is that the hat/cane images are too big. Sometimes smaller is better....