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Canadian Coins Not Nano-Tech Espionage Devices

Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon May 07, 2007 11:06 AM
from the reality-is-always-funnier dept.
Security Government Politics
Necrotica writes "An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier this year. The odd-looking — but harmless — "poppy coin" 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 "anomalous" and "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."
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[+] Politics: Bugged Canadian Coins? 354 comments
tundra_man writes "CBC has an article about RFID type devices in Canadian coins found on US Contractors. From the article: 'Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense.' The report did not indicate what kinds of coins were involved."
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  • wow (Score:5, Funny)

    by ArcSecond (534786) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:08AM (#19021061)
    Just wow.

  • Conspiracy? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tuoqui (1091447) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:09AM (#19021065) Journal
    Man this has tinfoil hat written all over it... Why wasn't the contractor given a government issued one?

    I mean really, nanotech in coins? They use nanotech in computer processors and look how much time and effort it takes to make one of them.

    • The biggest conspiracy theorists are the spies. They actually make a decent living hatching ridiculous conspiracy theories (oooh, the Canadian Mint is run by aliens using their advanced nanotech to prepare for invasion). That way their masters get to spy on pinko commie agitators everywhere, like environmentalists and democracy advocates (ooh look, the Raging Grannies [wikipedia.org] are inciting insurrection, let's tap their phones, send in the moles).

  • Espionage devices or not ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by WrongSizeGlass (838941) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:09AM (#19021085) Homepage
    ... they still don't work in American vending machines or toll booths ... and thats what really matters, isn't it?

  • State of Fear (Score:5, Insightful)

    by A beautiful mind (821714) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:10AM (#19021097)
    Kind of expected in a state of overly paranoid affairs. Paranoia is where rationality gets thrown out of the window.

      • Re:State of Fear (Score:5, Informative)

        by gvc (167165) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:56AM (#19021847)

        Yeah but the great thing about paranoia is you only have to be right once for it to all be worth while. :)
        Fallacy. The value of any sort of test or alarm depends on its positive predictive value; that is, the probability that when the alarm is raised, it is for cause. Paranoid judgments have essentially 0 predictive value. They are harmful because they divert resources from efforts with higher predictive value, and due to the direct undesirable consequences of responding to false alarms.

  • Remembrance Day coin? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MrJynxx (902913) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:12AM (#19021123)
    Aren't those the special Tim Hortons(Canadian version of crack in a cup) Remembrance Day coins they gave out a few years back? Funny they thought it had a microchip in them. Man some people can be so naive.

  • All this tells me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mwvdlee (775178) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:14AM (#19021157) Homepage
    All this tells me is that the Americans think it's possible for coins to be used as spying devices. They wouldn't think it if they weren't somehow certain. I'd be carefull with American coins if I were you ;)

  • Canada vs. US (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kimos (859729) <kimos...slashdot@@@gmail...com> on Monday May 07 2007, @11:14AM (#19021169) Homepage
    I can't think of a more appropriate example to illustrate the differences between our two countries.

  • Typical Defense Security Service (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CXI (46706) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:20AM (#19021251) Homepage
    The Defense Security Service is the same group that felt it was a good idea to ban access to their websites based on top level domain name. You see, they figured no one with a .edu domain name could be trusted despite universities being a large consumer of their services. I asked them how the heck we were supposed to view their site. They suggested that we "buy a .com" and then it would work fine. After weeks of explaining to them how bonehead an idea that was they changed their policy. *sigh*
  • "The report did not indicate what kinds of coins were involved. A service spokeswoman said details of the incidents were classified."

    So, basically, a weird looking coin led the government to believe there was an international threat, and the reason this belief remained intact for more than... say... 30 seconds, is that these idiots were too dumb to Google "remember souvenir" (the words on the coin), and yet they're given the ability to classify such nonsense, escalating a problem that could've been resolved by asking any Canadian to empty their pockets, into a threat to national security.

    Are they really stupid enough to think that spies are going to make tracking devices in the form of big red X's, and then put those devices on coins that are unlikely to stay in their possession for more than a day?

    The most hilarious part are the comments by one of the U.S. contractors, who sounds like he just got his Official Little Orphan Annie secret decoder pin in the mail:

    "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."

  • And in other news... (Score:5, Funny)

    by caffeine_monkey (576033) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:29AM (#19021385)
    The Nigerian yellowcake was actually just... yellow cake. Angel food cake, to be exact.

  • Projection (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Excelcia (906188) <kfitzner@excelcia.org> on Monday May 07 2007, @11:39AM (#19021545) Homepage
    When you are a country who's law allows the kidnapping of foreign nationals, who's laws allow "rendition", who's laws allow Guantanamo to exist... a country who spies on everyone else, then you see yourself in others too. One tends to expect from others the sort of treatment you meet out. Conversely, the society for which the above is unthinkable tends not to see those threats everywhere else. This story isn't so much funny, as it is deeply... deeply sad.

  • Royal Canadian Mint is very High Tech... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gwn (594936) on Monday May 07 2007, @11:51AM (#19021763)
    I can understand the concern, especially considering the quality and technical savvy of the Royal Canadian Mint. Here is part of the Wiki entry:

    "The Mint has been at the forefront of currency innovation. Among the Mint's technical innovations have included its plating process, which consists of a multi-ply technology that allows electromagnetic signatures to be embedded in the coins, assuring readability in the coin-processing industries.[3] Its other innovation was the world's first coloured circulation coin, the 2004 Remembrance Day 25 cent piece, with a red poppy on the reverse. Further innovation was achieved with the adaptation of the Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) technology to coat its dies, extending the life of the die beyond that of past chrome coated dies.[4]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Mint [wikipedia.org]

    Now, consider that the mint also makes coins for many other countries, US military contractors and security conscious travelers can be even more paranoid.

    By the way, Canadian money is made by and controlled by the Canadian government... Do you know who makes and controls US currency? If you guessed the US government, you should check again.

        • Re:No big deal (Score:5, Insightful)

          by nasch (598556) on Monday May 07 2007, @12:00PM (#19021923)
          We're not laughing at them for being suspicious and checking out something they weren't familiar with. We're laughing at them for being suspicious and not checking it out. They knew it was a Canadian coin. A quick Google search on "canadian quarter red flower" probably would have cleared it all up. Confirm that with a phone call to the Canadian embassy. The whole thing could have been over in ten minutes, and then if it becomes public, they say yep, we wondered about those coins but we quickly discovered they're harmless. Now, they've demonstrated that not only are they paranoid about anything looking slightly strange, but they also don't have any idea how to investigate it. So we'll have the aforementioned sea of false positives, and if there are any real positives we don't have any reason to think the government is capable of doing anything about it. I don't find this situation reassuring, because we're being asked to give up some liberties without any evidence that our security is improved anyway. And no, that doesn't mean I necessarily approve of giving up liberty for security.

          P.S. whoever "they" are

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