…and from today’s WTF? File, we have the following report:
Spy transmitters in Canadian coins: Report
The report gives few details. It seems to me that maybe one could embed an RFID chip in one of the larger Canadian coins. RFID chips are passive devices that echo back a string of data in response to (and powered by) an incoming radio signal. But they have a short range of a few metres, and metal tends to block them.
The report implies more complex devices. Is this possible?
I’m checking. I have whispered to my toonies about nefarious conspiracies against the national security of our country. If men in dark suits show up to take me away, the story is probably true.
“Comrade! I gladly report that you are right, there Is a big meeting at industrial complex ‘X’. At least 50 people are apparently all huddled into the corner of what the blue-print calls the ‘break room’. But all our audio department can pick up is a series of 5 or 6 loud mechanical ‘clink’ sounds followed by a short motor hum and a metal door being opened and closed…”
How many high-level U.S. defense contractors walk around their U.S. Defense installations with CDN coin in their pockets? I will hazard a guess that it is very few. Hide the transmitters in U.S. currency, that might work a little better.
Show me a photo of a “transmitter coin”, from a reliable source, if you please.
Then, and not before, I’ll believe it.
:dubious: :dubious: :dubious:
HA! And you all thought the foil was only for **chocolate **coins!
“Subject went over t’Horton’s for a cup of coffee at 7:35am – after that, he’s all over the map.” 
What a loonie idea.
There’s only one thing to do: Invade Canada!
Ha! That’s exactly what I was thinking. If it was true, that would be the most poorly thought through plan ever.
(Waits for CSIS to burst into the laundry room in my building.)
You forget!
George W. Bush is In Charge!
There’s only one thing to do: Invade Bolivia!
I can’t believe that was printed as a serious article! I wonder if Torstar has been taken over by Weekly World News?
There are so many things wrong with this ‘plan’ it’s hard to know where to start. How would you ensure the right people got the coins in the first place? Given that loonies and toonies are heavy and clunky, how would you guarantee that they wouldn’t be disposed of as soon as the contractor in question wanted to buy a paper or a coffee? How, other than pasting the coin to the body of the contractor (which might be just a tetch obvious, I’m thinking) could you possibly guarantee that this spy device would be in the right place at the right time to be of any use?
Sounds very much like an Urban Legend that some sleeping editor missed.
NPR’s picked up the story as well, and supposedly the DoD has confirmed it.
Well, now the CP has picked up the story.
Hm. According to the Globe and Mail, the contractors just got some special-edition coins in their change.
If men in red plaid jackets and tuques show up, the story is definitely true.
Whoever released that story = embarrased. 
Yes, the Glove and Mail story gives more details and makes more sense. Of course, given teh stealth manner in which the Mint has been releasing new commemorative coin designs lately (they just show up in our change now; I’m not sure that they even issue press releases anymore), it’s not a surprise that someone was suspicious.
Yes, I’ve called the bomb squad out three times this month already. :dubious:
Someone foreign… and, I am increasingly-suspicious, a little clueness.