Canadian Spy Coins Debunked
by Ken Porter
In January of this year, the US Defense Department issued a warning about Canadian spy coins. The media was all over this [story]. Today we learn what all the fuss was about.
The Royal Canadian Mint, together with The Royal Canadian Legion, unveiled a new quarter in the fall of 2004. The 25 cent coin was the world's first coloured coin put into circulation. It featured a red poppy, the symbol that pays homage to all the brave Canadians that have died while in the service of the nation.
These coins some how showed up in the pockets of US army contractors that were travelling in Canada.
The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something manmade that looked like nanotechnology," said once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails.
The nanotechnology turned out to be the protective coating use to prevent the coloured image from rubbing off.
Comments
Woooaaaaaahhhh a coin! It's gonne kill us all!!!
It's a very cool coin.
It really is a cool coin. I own one of those, because I was nerd enough to try to collect all Canadian quarter coins while I was there. :) Mine is not as red as it was anymore, making it even harder to imagine some kind of nanotechnology in it.
Here in Canada, we take those special coins for granted I guess. We have special coins for many occasions and to be honest, I look at them when I found one in my pockets, but not more than that.
My Grand Pa would be made as he was a coin collector. I'm just not in the business of keeping a coin for 30 years and in the end, it's worth 75 cents instead of its nominal 25 cents value.
I think Canada has the most productive mint in regards of special coins (if I remember the old man's stories).
Personnaly, I prefer our special 2 dollar coin that was made in 2000:
http://www.bantjes.com/marian/pictures/su_coins-2dollar.jpg
It has very pronounced relief and the two metals makes it pretty cool.
But in the end, all that change is quite heavy in our pockets...
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