If you live by teh spy, you die by teh spy…
7 May 2007 by Naomi
BWAH-ha-ha-ha-ha!
American private contractors decided that these quarters were “radio-transmitters”!
‘Poppy quarter’ behind spy coin alert
The harmless “poppy quarter” was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as “filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology,” according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.
The silver-colored 25-cent piece features the red image of a poppy — Canada’s flower of remembrance — inlaid over a maple leaf. The unorthodox quarter is identical to the coins pictured and described as suspicious in the contractors’ accounts. [...]
“It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source,” wrote one U.S. contractor, who discovered the coin in the cup holder of a rental car. “Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire-like mesh suspended on top.” [...]
“We’ll have a good laugh over it,” said John Regitko, who writes a newsletter for a leading coin-collecting organization, the Canadian Numismatic Association. “We never suspected there was such a thing (as spy coins) anyway.”
Regitko predicted the quarter will become especially popular among collectors because of its infamy as the culprit behind the spy warning, despite the quarter’s wide availability. “Everybody has some in their drawer at home,” he said. [...]
The supposed nano-technology on the coin actually was a protective coating the Royal Canadian Mint applied to prevent the poppy’s red color from rubbing off. The mint produced nearly 30 million such quarters in 2004 commemorating Canada’s 117,000 war dead…
Oh, my… Just think: nearly 30,000,000 radio transmitters. Just accumulating in vending machines and casinos. It boggles the mind.
8 May 2007, on 12:25 am
If I found a funny coin I would hie me down to the nearest coin shop and ask them about it. After hearing their answers I would ask for the names of some local numismatists. That way I could get the straight poop from a number of different people who know their stuff. Several opinions from diverse sources ought to suffice.
And I’m not even a spy. (I could be, though. Anyone want a resume?)
What the hell did this shit cost you and I? And how does a glorified gumshoe interpret a clear coating over metal as “nanotech?” That sad sack couldn’t even define the term.
But then, I shouldn’t be churlish; they are just trying to make my life safer and safer and safer and safer . . . aren’t they?
8 May 2007, on 1:02 am
CW (and I do love your name!), you make excellent points. Especially about the straightjacket of “safety” they’re trying to buckle on us all!
I believe the quality of our “spooks” has deteriorated since 2001. And I lay the blame squarely on “outsourcing” our intelligence. We’ve traded “dedicated to our national interests” for mediocre “in it just for the money”. Although the “glory” must get them laid more often.
I think these slackers have been watching too much Hollywood — and reading Ian Fleming as THE authority.
8 May 2007, on 1:43 am
Well, this is sobering! RJ Hillhouse, of The Spy Who Billed Me blog, just said in a email to me:
My “tee-hee” might turn into an “oops”!
If you link to her blog, check out her new book, Outsourced, which will be in bookstores June 12.
8 May 2007, on 3:24 am
MOD NOTE: UH OH!!! THE BLOG GRAMMAR POLICE ARE WATCHING!!!
Crudely Wrott says:
[...] What the hell did this shit cost you and I? [...]
Can’t people just use plain old, grammatical English?
YOU MEAN: “What the hell did this shit cost you and ME?”
That’s your sentence in normal, correct English…
Mod note: Not quite correct, david dear. In proper and correct English writing, one would not capitalize the word “me” in this sentence, nor the words “you mean”. The absolute correct way of writing this sentence would be:
You mean: “What the hell did this shit cost you and me?”
Thank you for your passing interest to stop by to merely attempt to correct the grammar error in ONE comment here on our site, while contributing absolutely nothing to the discussion of the topic of this post.
Perhaps, if you have a compulsion to correct spelling and grammatical errors, you might try visiting some Christian sites where they will provide you with a steady supply of grammatical and spelling errors to correct and practice on to your heart’s content.
8 May 2007, on 3:29 am
Who are these army “contractors”? “Contractor” is the word used for mercenaries in Iraq and elsewhere, the Blackwater people–if you can call them people–for example.
Pandagon has a report on some of these “contractors” operating even in America.
http://pandagon.net/2007/05/07/blackwater-expands-authoritarians-rejoice/
8 May 2007, on 7:09 am
My father, who actually caught spies (most good ol’ ‘murkans or people with diplomatic ties) had a book with all kinds of neat things, and it was from the ’50s and ’60’s. I wasn’t supposed to see it, but I did.
There is a mentallity which regards everything that is unfamiliar as sinister, a threat, something to be suspect until it proves benign, and even then…
8 May 2007, on 10:50 am
This is totally ridiculous.
Being in Canada, I got my first Poppy Spy Quarter at Tim Horton’s coffee shop. I guess I was unaware that I was helping take over the world!!
American paranoia has gone too far in my opinion.
I blogged about this as well.
8 May 2007, on 11:11 am
You know what gave it away, don’t you?
Canadian coins do not have In God we Trust smeared all over them.
Obviously the specie is part of a dastardly Commie plot.
8 May 2007, on 12:40 pm
“Just think: nearly 30,000,000 radio transmitters. Just accumulating in vending machines and casinos.”
Hey, when nanotech actually does take off, hiding millions of radio transmitters in coins will probably be a pretty effective way of eavesdropping.
(For all of five minutes, or just enough time for patriotic nanobots to start screening those huge clunky pieces of metal in your pockets for listening devices, and of course all this assumes we’re still bothering to mint currency by that point.)
8 May 2007, on 12:43 pm
Mod: Don’t you find it interesting that grammarNaziDavid missed the two spelling aberrations in the post’s title? Or is he just an egoist that is fixated on I/me/my issues?
Thank you for sending him packing. I suspect he is either a neoconservative or a fundamentalist/evangelical or both. What is not in doubt is: he is a nitpickingtightass.
Fare thee well, David!
8 May 2007, on 1:23 pm
If these contractors were selected by the Bush admin then it all makes perfect sense. They were selected for their loyalty to Stupid is as Stupid does. They were not selected for their ability to reason nor for their intellect. Abso-fucking-lutely amazing.
And I must add. This is a liberal smear against the good men doing a good job. Right Brownie?
8 May 2007, on 1:37 pm
Thank you, Monty Loree! I especially liked the links to other stories about this. How about this comment from one of them:
The title of this post is just a bastardization of “live by the sword, die by the sword”. I believe that these contractors/agents/spies/spooks live very weird lives. Always afraid they’ll slip up, miss something, be found out. Afraid that the “other side” has better tech and/or more knowledge – even if they’re on “our side”!
Pieces of info/intel are just cards in a huge cut-throat, global poker game being played by some very ruthless card-sharps…
8 May 2007, on 2:46 pm
I guess I’m not cut out for counterespionage. I would have thought that was a weird — and somewhat ugly — coin.
8 May 2007, on 5:32 pm
Quarters? What quarters? Oh! Those quarters.
Why… there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them. I swear on my Timbits, they’re completely harmless normal quarters.
Now, just go on about your normal business, and have a nice day!
*Whew! And for a minute I’d thought they were really on to us.*
8 May 2007, on 8:55 pm
It’s true ok. But it’s not what you think.
.
.
.
We’re coming for your cheese.
10 May 2007, on 1:56 pm
*sings theme song from South Park: The Movie under breath*:
“Blame Canada! Blame Canada!…”