  The three--dimensional magnetic solution to the Einstein--Maxwell field
equations have been considered by some authors. Several interpretations have
been formulated for this magnetic spacetime. Up to now this solution has been
considered as a two--parameter self--consistent field. We point out that the
parameter related to the mass of this solution is just a pure gauge and can be
rescaled to minus one. This implies that the magnetic metric has really a
simple form and it is effectively one-parameter solution, which describes a
distribution of a radial magnetic field in a 2+1 anti--de Sitter background
space--time. We consider an alternative interpretation to the Dias--Lemos one
for the magnetic field source.
