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Bugged Canadian Coins?
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."
For the life of me, I can't figure a reason that somebody would do this. Coins change hands quickly and RFID has a pretty limited range.
Aside from:
"Passing the coin to an unwitting contractor, particularly in strife-torn countries, could mark the person for kidnapping or assassination"
But that doesn't seem practical in this case.
Anybody make sense of this?
It could be worse, it could be Monday.
coins track YOU!
At least this Globe and Mail report thinks so:M .20070110.wspycoin0110/BNStory/National/home
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGA
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada
With RFID chips costing a fraction of a cent apiece, the addition of such a chip must at least triple the value of whatever canadian currency you add it to.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
We're just trying to find out what cola American defence contractors' prefer.
screaming about how the birds are spying on him makes a bit more sense now.....
Monstar L
In other news, the U.S. Department of Defense is now requiring all contractor's pocket change to be scanned upon re-enter the country.
Wow, and I thought I was on the cutting edge by stamping bills and entering them into Where's George?
In fact, a April Fool's joke I recall was that WG had developed a way to track US dollar coins, with a machine that would emboss a unique serial number into the coin's smooth edge. The new project would be "Where's Sackie?"
Looks like the Canadian government is way ahead of the curve on that one. Better alert the folks at Where's Willy?, the northern branch of Where's George?.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
They want that joke back. With interest.
Canada is changing from the "Looney" to the "Buggy" !
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Ok first off, I believe this is completely overblown, think about it. We give you coins that can be tracked, great, well what do you do with a coin. Spend it, so it ends up in someone else's pocket and da da da. Unless you know who's pocket the coin is in, the information gathered from it is relay useless. You could not even tell that the coin changed hands. Say I I owe Bill 5$, well here is some coins and its in a new pocket. and if people are worried about the coin being used to track you, again the coin can't tell who you are, so sure your location may be tracked but the info is meaningless. The only purpose I can see for this is to track the path of cash as it gets around between visits at the bank. there is already a website in Canada that people write on some bills, which you can go to, enter the specific bill's number, and see where the bill has been. but it dose mean someone had to enter it into the system, so you end up with missing places, but its still interesting.
Bugged coins, eh?
It's time to don tin-foil trousers to go with the tin foil hats we're all wearing.
Doesn't it make more sense that canada would use the coins with rfid chips planted in them to simply track circulaton rather than track a few individuals that would probably just end up spending the coins?
Two reasons they might not change hands quickly:
... unless some Canadian is trying to find American stashes of loose change.
1) Canadian coins don't get unloaded as quickly in the US since not everyone is happy to accept them, so often those coins are the last you attempt to spend. (a minor factor, I admit).
2) Everyone seems to end up with a pocketful of change at the end of the day that gets dumped in a pile. The pile just grows.
Still doesn't answer the why
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Well, it's like that old British saying: "If the pennies look after you, the lookers will get themselves pounded."
Wait...
Just pop your loose change in the microwave for 15sec problem solved ...
made of chocolate? MMMMMMMM chocolate.
0x7279727972797279
These RFID coins are clearly the work of Canadian Terrorists trying to harm the American people.
well, for sure, it would make creating coin vending machines much easier to implement, mechanically. once i was in canada and received a coin that looked like this which i initially thought was fake, but believed later after reading online.
From the article:
"The report, which first came to light in a U.S. newspaper, has since been posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists, an organization that tracks the intelligence world and promotes government openness."
Well, I don't see it on fas.org (search), and if its in a "american newspaper", its one that google news doesn't search.
Something just doesn't sound right about this whole story.... It makes no sense, and there's no other cites for it.
The coins may have been given in some immoral/illegal situation by Canada's equivalent of the CIA. Perhaps by one posing as a prostitute? Perhaps perhaps at the scene of a bribe (no, I'm not saying the coin itself is the bribe; but perhaps the bartender gave the bugged coins at the scene)? If the coins showed up on the person in a meeting with the contractor the next day you'd guess which members of the contractors team were present during the immoral activity.
You're right, I've never seen a twoney (I guess I'm one of those stupid Americans). But, then again, the US did stop producing the 2 dollar bill a few years ago.
"Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could pinch them."
Marvin the Martian
Although this sounds like an isolated case, once the coin(s) is(are) back ;-)
in the US of A, where the heck would you spend it ?
Anyone in the US accepted any loonies lately ?
So the "they'll be ridd of the coin soon" reasoning is gone.
This was probably just a one time tracking test.
End of Line.
In Canada.. coins track YOU!
no no no no!
In The Great White North the money trail follows YOU!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
We're wondering why you haven't invaded us already, we sell you far more oil then any other country :)
if you did have some of these coins, how would you tell?
Those are no coins, those are tokens from Jacques E. Formage, the popular canadian pizza place and arcade combo!
The same technology was once used by the Fox network to track hockey pucks in-game.
They use it to track bears...bears who buy canadian beer.
It's used to track if Gretzky's wife is gambling at the slot machine again.
It's all a plot to try and locate Bob and Doug McKenzie since nobody has seen them in a while.
If they were wireless devices, they'd operate under 802.11eh
Hey, we fingerprint all Canadians entering the US, soon to demand (RFID) passports from all of them, while our NSA is tapping their phones and email. Who knows what our CIA does up there.
Since Americans are allergic to Canadian pennies now worth almost as much as ours, and dump them whenever we see them on our side of the border, these RFID trackers are relatively pretty benign.
Maybe if we just all wound down the BS simcurity that pretends to protect us, and instead actually just destroyed us some Qaeda recruitment cells, the US dollar would become strong enough again that we wouldn't bother schlepping their Canadian coins back home, like pocket lint.
--
make install -not war
The polar bear, it watches me!
:)
Unlike your own president, we're not inspecting your post, just pocket lint.
the Canadian Dollar is close to reaching parity with the US Dollar.
:-)
That statement is exactly the same as saying the Canadian Dollar is valueless. The US Dollar is on its way with reaching parity with zero.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
As the world knows it is cold up here in the Great White North eh! There is usually lots of snow too, eh! Well I can tell you from experience that with all our socialist programs we pay lots of taxes and as a result we don't often end up with folding money, eh! So when your coins go missing it really hurts, eh! Like when you lose a handful of coins in the deep snow, eh! So with RFID coins you just get the portable reader out and scan for the coins to find them, eh! Or, you scan your couch to see if you can afford to order in a pizza with back bacon, eh! You walk in to Harvey's (like McDonald's but much better) and they scan you on the way in and let you know what you can afford, eh!
Assuming that it was adhered, I could conceive how it could be accidental.
Is this some odd Canadian spelling of Defense? At first I just thought it was a type-o or a missed spell check, but ever place in the article that the word is used, it is spelled with a 'c'.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
The metal based aliens simply made a mistake and implanted their tracking devices in what they thought was the dominant life form on the planet. OTOH, maybe money is the dominant life form....
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I don't think I'll be putting any metal change into a microwave, thank you!
I've talked to some Canadians and the majority of them are very paranoid about an invasion by the United States. Given our track record, I cannot totally blame them, although I recognize that it's pretty irrational from a political standpoint. I've also heard that Canada has some sort of contingency plan to get the help of the Chinese or Russians if we were to invade.
It's obvious to you and me that the idea of an American invasion is ridiculous but Canada has their tin-foil intelligence agencies just like we do.
... W has found a basis for invading Canada. ;-)
/ducks.
Just joking...
Canada has caught America's flu. The Canadian gov't is getting as paranoid as the American gov't. Don't worry Canada you still have some room to catch up. The US gov't rountinely violates our Constitutional rights.
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov't.
Besides the point, who uses Canadian money anyway?
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov't and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
RMS seen with foil wallet.
Black books: "These books sir, are they real leather? I have to have real leather to go with the sofa. I'll give you 20 pounds for them."
"Are they leather-bound pounds? I want leather-bound pounds to go with my wallet."
Well, I'm sure you all know that us Canadians are terribly conceited, specially when it comes to civil rights and all that, and espcially when comparing ourselves with the Americans.
Ergo, the bugs can't possibly be planted there by our government! Impossible!
I bet it's the Brits!
You see, the way the monarchy and the Commenwealth are all setup, every year our mint imports the small slabs of metal with the Queen's head on them from the UK. They have to be minted their, by order of King Edward II. When our mint makes the coin, we make everything except the Queen's relief, and then solder the important british slab to our coin.
I have a firm belief that the bugs are part of the important relief.
The crazy dude on the corner...screaming about how the birds are spying on him makes a bit more sense now.....
So, that's why the call it the "Loonie"!.
Can anyone here imagine a better way to make an RFID useless than putting it in the middle of a coin? And then after making these magical coins, apparently the same super-spies went all over the US and installed readers at every sensitive plant. Without anyone noticing. Wow, with spies like that, who needs bugged money?
The sad part about this is that someone believed it.
Maury
It's probably just some engineering nerd's Social Experiment. Maybe see if he can get the coins back at some point.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
i see a trend here, eh.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There after the President's analyst!
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
I keep reading comments saying how useless the RFIDs would be now...anyone bother to think that perhaps they've already been used? How are we supposed to know the original intent? Its the fact that they were there to begin with, not that they aren't much use now or after they've been spent, and that they wouldn't have been created without a purpose in mind...
Walk with Music;
I believe it's one of those "If you don't know, you aren't smart enough" situations.
I mean, sure, to use it's useless and pointless but there is some next level stuff going on.
Follow the music. You'll find her.
I saw someone in Ikea last weekend buy a 2.59 item with Interac. I mean come on, whats the service fee on that? $1 or $1.50? Thats quite a markup for the convenience of paying with plastic.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
I'm just a lowly Electrical Engineer who works in RF.
At my last job, we made transmitters. Some of them were really small - small enough to be surgically implanted into fish or ducks. It was cutting edge stuff; I had to work with the manufacturers to work out bugs in the chips, compilers, and programmers.
There is no way that a working transmitter can be fitted into a mockup coin. You'll have to have some kind of processor. The 10F202 is really small, coming in at about 2mm x 4mm x 2 mm, plus a little extra for the leads. Next we'll add the required RF circuitry, like the tuning and bypass capacitors, amplifiers, etc. We'll neglect voltage regulators and other things, but you're looking at more parts than what will fit in a toonie.
We'll assume that no board is being used, since that alone will negate the chance of a coin being used.
Let's assume an 800MHz signal. Why? Well, why not? That's going to give a 4-inch antenna. Let's assume a 24-gauge wire with a very small insulator, giving it almost negligible displacement. If you wrap this up inside the coin, you're going to have - quite frankly - fuck all for range. I guess you could run the wire on the outside of the coin, but you're not going to have much luck. Internal antennae just don't work very well.
Then you have a battery - oh, whoops, no more room.
So how does this work, again?
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I misspelled 'They're'.... I need to slow down.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Little known fact: Ever since Dudley Do-Right made his first appearance on television, Americans have been terrified of Mounties. So long as Canadia keeps its Mounties along the border, you will be safe.
They may not have printed any for a while, but new $2 bills are still being put into circulation. They disappear just as fast because they're such a novelty.
As the article states, tracking someone through tracking currency on that person is stupid. The point braught up is what happens when the person puts the coin in a pop machine. Basically, tracking someone through currency of that form could only work in a controlled environment where the person is within range and AS LONG AS THEY DONT SPEND MONEY! The funny thing is is that the coin in Canada is partly there to spur spending as no one likes having coins in their pocket. THerefore, this is officially the stupidest place to put a tracking device. THEREFORE, it is probably some corporate spies rather than government spies (as the article points out there are tons of them at tech trade-shows). This just in...Canada has weapons of mass distraction! We must liberate their water from them! ...dont laugh it is the oil of the future.
Huh? [devShell.org]
No, Canadian entering the US are not fingerprinted. At least not yet, and from what I have read, its not planned to go in with the mandatory passports when entering the US via plane or boat.
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
out of paranoia.
CSIS couldn't fight their way out of a weathered sopping paper bag, even if they had a pair of scissors.
But you never heard it from me. And if I had held a SECRET clearance in Canada, I'd have to pretend I didn't know what I don't know.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
They probably got one of those poppy quarters from a few years ago and figured the painted on poppy was a listening device. I say produce the coins so the public and Canadian officials can see them or shut up. This has to be one of the most retarded stories I've read in awhile....transmitters in our coins....sheesh!!
That's what they get for using money with mooseheads on them.
How can this work? It is hard to imagine that an RFID antenna could receive a microwave signal inside a solid metal coin, and anything sticking to the outside of a coin would be pretty obvious. Maybe the coin is just two metal faces on a plastic wafer, with the joints hidden in the ridges around the edge. (examines pocket change)
I for one welcome our Canadian Overlord...
Damn you, stupid Americans, in French only!
I pour une bienvenue notre overloard canadien...
BOMB CANADA!
They got oil, water, hot-french lap-dancers, hockey, Tim-Hortons, lumber, beer, health-care, hot-french lap-dancers (again for effect), and comedians galore. They have an extensive nuclear program, yet they have not tested or exploded any nuclear devices which leads one to infer that they may be up to something sinister. Remember 1812, I knew that would wake you up to this northern threat.
Consider yourself informed, write the president, your senator, your congresswoman. We need to take swift action now!
We find out on the day Bush is going to call for more troops in Iraq that Americans in Canada are being tracked... so where do draft dodgers go?
Canada: Tracked via money.
GB: Cameras on every street corner.
France: You're joking, right?
Germany: Considering banning video games.
Japan: Overcrowded. Also risk of attack by giant, squid-like monster.
Sweden: Sweden? Hello? (no answer... get ready for frozen McDonalds and 0 degree NASCAR!)
You comment reminded of when we used to sneak security strips into friend's backpacks. Usually at the school library. Watching them get searched by the librarian was a rare highlight in an otherwise dull day.
Sooo...
Maybe someone is just yanking the chain of some Yanks. Plant them on the change of some folks who might detect them, then watch for the fireworks.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Where can I get one?
Wiggum: What do you got, the whole town's DNA on file? DNA guy: Y'uh huh. If you've ever handled a penny, the government's got your DNA. Why do you think they keep 'em in circulation?
Attempting to track its people in a completely useless way that probably wastes billions of dollars? I bet the DHS is wishing they thought of this first.
Windows is a bonfire, Linux is the sun. Linux only looks smaller if you lack perspective.
Anybody find more info on the claims a certain Slashdotter made about a TREAD act a few months ago? Basically he claimed that all tires sold in the US get tracked with an RFID chip and that tire companies report back to the govt so they know which tires to match to which cars.
Also part of his claim was that there are imbedded RFID readers in certain NY turnpike locatations.
I think it's easy enough to verify those claims, anybody got an RFID detector? Just scan tires and see if any return a code. In the same way I think this report can be easily verified by checking Canadian currency and seeing if it gives off a reading of any kind.
I guess the problem is that RFIDs aren't required to be stupid and simply return a code automatically, more intelligent ones could be made that get power from the inductive field and then silently wait for the right code before they respond. THOSE RFID's would be tough as heck to discover.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
US Currency has a primitive type of RFID in it already responsive to particular microwave bursts, Its the SPECIFIC ANGLES on the metallic letters on the mylar strip that reflect waves back out through the parcel the money is hidden in. The mylar strip that says "twenty" on it woven into the paper. Its to detect currency on citizens walking through security at airports and in luggage. You never read about it anywhere, but in this post (I am a security snitch). But its true. 60 minutes did expose on how 3rd parties are paid to snitch at airports to the FBI for anyone carrying cash. Ed Bradley on 60 minutes years ago tried carrying 5 thousand and was quickly grabbed after using a few hundred dolalrs to buy a ticket. Typically the cash is confiscated. "USA vs 5,120 Dollars" and you have no rights. No RFID was involved on the 60 minutes episode though. Just an airport employee woman watching his wallet. Car Tire RFID in tires enterring canada is more shocking and evil.
:
:
---
TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponders ALREADY!
Spy transmission chips embedded in tires that can be read REMOTELY while driving.
Yup. My brother works on them (since 2001).
The us gov T.R.E.A.D. act (which passed) made it illegal to sell new passenger cars lacking untamperable RFID in the tires allowing efficient scanning of moving cars.
Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.
Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.
Taggant chemical research papers
http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/ ~ota/disk3/1980/8017/801705.PDF
(remove spaces in url from slashcode if needed)
I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].
It is for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.
A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFID chips embedded in the tire).
The governement can then either look back in databases to see wheere and when your car drove, and OCR liscense plates at tool or Customs can
build the database up even better without the feds needing to visit your home to get your RFID GUIDs.
More sinister, it is near impossible to buy tires without the vendor in the USA filliung out federal paperwork of what VIN the recipient car is!
Photos of tracking chips before molded deep into tires!
http://www.sokymat.com/index.php?id=94
PLEASE LOOK AT THAT LINK : Its the same shocking tire material I have been trying to
The coins may have been given in some immoral/illegal situation by Canada's equivalent of the CIA. Perhaps by one posing as a prostitute?
I believe you're implying that a Canadian prostitute is worth less than a dollar. "Here's yer fifty cents change, honey."
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
...a penny for your thoughts.
Judging by the quality of MOAB's i'm surprised this isn't in there as well
sigpending(2)
I see a few benefits This makes it easy to count change at the store. Imagine being able to dump a bottle of change down at the bank and get an instant receipt. Even better imagine being able to dump the coins out of your ash tray into the McDonald's drive through and have it count what it needs and return what it doesn't. This will no doubt speed up the counting of coins. Your ash tray can now count your change for you and let you know that you still only have pennies to your name. With an RFID reader you can know which coworker is hiding change in his or her desk so know who to ask for change to buy a soda. You can search for loose change in your couch without lifting the cushions.
The coins are car wash tokens.
Probably it was a bit of research to establish how widely distributed a crop of coins gets. That's actually interesting/useful info.
Small change is replaced by working out the average loss rate, and setting replacement creation to match. I imagine that by tagging some coins they would add another dimension to their information regarding coin usage/attrition.
Sort of like radio tagging fish to see where they turn up, only without the fish, or the radio tags.
Bad example...
My guess is that it was the Remembrance Day colorized poppy quarter. Not only do they have the strange rough surface in the center, they are also painted red. It is the oddest Canadian coin I have ever come across, anyway.
For the life of me, I can't figure a reason that somebody would do this. Coins change hands quickly and RFID has a pretty limited range.
If you RTFA article closely you'll see that the souce told the press that transmitters were found in coins.
Then (in paragraph 11) reporter notes that the type of transmitter was not disclosed. In paragraph 12 he starts speculating about RFID. The rest of the article (and possibly part of the preceeding section - along with the Slashdot headline) is based on the unfounded assumption that the transmitter IS an RFID-type device.
Which strikes me as totally bogus.
IMHO it's more likely that the "transmitter" found is a remotely-powered area audio bug, like "The Great Seal Bug", the martini fake olive bug, or the "diodes in the wall" bugs. Planted on a person it would bug his conversations and those around him until he spent it - hours or days later. (As you can imagine from the martini-olive bug, which is only useful while the spy is toting the martini, in some situations long-term bugging is an unnecessary bonus.)
Such bugs can be simple: A shaped cavity with a flexible membrane over it is one way to do it - the cavity resonates, giving a strong reflection, while the sound modulates the cavity's effectiveness, AMing the reflection. Another is just to fasten a diode to something that can be vibrated by sound. The diode frequency-doubles the reflected signal or mixes two of them to produce the sum and difference frequencies (sorting the diode's reflection from most ordinary reflections) and the vibration of it along the line between the bug and the monitor phase-modulates the return with the local audio. No fancy circuitry or local power supplies necessary.
I presume this one did involve at least a diode, or some semiconductor circuitry, since it was found in a radio scan - which is often done by looking for the frequency-multiplying and/or frequency mixing effect of diodes / semiconductor junctions. Finding a pure cavity resonator bug - or even identifying what it is when you have it - is a bitch.
Bugging the audio at a conference, or the conversations of a contractor at work on classified projects, would be worth planting a bug on him and having it there for only a few hours. After that, if he "spends" it, so what? (At least until they are noticed and a way found to identify them BEFORE the conversations to be monitored.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
hehehe
Considering all my loonies get thrown to the strippers as tips, (to them not at them :) )
all they would be able to do is track which dancers I've seen recently. So government agencies would therefore have no idea that I go to the peelers.
I think there's something a bit flawed in that logic.
Maybe its just something simple like they added chips to a small sample of coins in order to track them round the mint.
Adding them to any processes after other coins are struck might allow them to see any bottlenecks in the factory line and therefore improve the flow of coins.
Just an idea, seems more sensible than being used to track a person, because the chips probably had a low detection range, and coins change hands so quickly as other people have pointed out.
It is in Technology Collection Trends in the U.S. Defense Industry 2006, Appendix 2 page 28 of the pdf file at http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/2006trends.pdf
A far more interesting case for slashdot readers is this one on the same page:
A female foreign national seduced an American male translator to give her his password in order to log on to his unclassified network. Upon discovery of this security breach, a computer audit revealed foreign intelligence service viruses throughout the system.
Who wouldn't give up their password in that case?
Im gonna guess that these coins were pennies, since nobody takes the time to ever give exact change, and vending machines dont accept them (usually).
You reminded me of one of our heritage videos.
What, and risk destroying a future Bryan Adams or Celine Dion? We Americans aren't complete monsters!
...sometimes, in order to hurt someone very badly, you have to tell that person terrible lies. - PA
(I'm sure there will be follow-up posts about how the Pentagon only employs the partially intelligent.)
It's a simple matter of complex programming.
This is obviously a terrorist strike directly at the heart of the American intelligence and defense agencies. By placing a few bugging devices in coins and paper money, they trick the government into ordering that no coins or paper money may be carried into any sensitive areas.
From that time forward, our intelligence and defense people are unable to buy coffee or lunch at the cafeteria in the building. Without coffee, our intelligence people are not able to function. And our defense people are unable to see straight enough to hit a target.
Finally!!!! A good reason to invade. Eh!
Damned Canuckistan.
I propose that the Toonie is responsible. Its the only coin with two separate pieces. I believe the Mint produces regular non-tracking Toonies (RNTT) and when needed a trained technician replaces one of the pieces with a tracking device and the coin is then called a regular tracking device Toonie (RTDT). I think - and I can't tell from my initial investigation - but its either the outer piece or the inner one that could contain the transmitter. There's a problem though: I'm broke and do not have any RNTT or RTDT to complete my investigation.
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
"Oh $#@%^&*&..."
"Ah, there is no doubt that Whatshisname up there has coins of mass..."
"Oh $#@%^&*&..."
"Ah, never mind"
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
This would be good for a day at the most for myself. I don't carry change. If I get some I put it in my pocket. Then the next time I'm at home or work I have a change bucket I toss it into. There it may sit for years until I get enough to go cash it in at a bank. Even when I travel, I usually dump the days contents onto the desk at my hotel. It will them end up in my suitcase until I get home.
If you want to track me, follow my debit card. It would be way more effective.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
I'm sorry to a lot of the overly eager Americans who want to find something bad about us Canadians, but this is pure bullshit. Our government has no rights to monitoring citizens and its quite obvious that it's only been Americans who have found these so-called coins. No real hard evidence has been disclosed, and no Canadian citizens have found any of these. Rest assured that Canada's government is incapable of such a tactic let alone legally able.
Let's be clear about a very important point in this article: It does not say that there were RFID tags in the coins. I quote: "...details of the incidents were classified. As a result, the type of transmitter in play -- and its ultimate purpose -- remain a mystery. However, tiny tracking tags, known as RFIDs, are commonly placed in everything..."
Thus, it's only an unimaginative guess that the coins contained RFID. So the second half of the article, where security experts speculate on the purpose and effectiveness of RFID embedded in coins falls just short of making stuff up. It may or may not have anything to do with the actual events.
Don't make us come up there and burn the Whitehouse down for a third time.
It is interesting the preview codeword was DETAINED for this message.
they just needed some way for the canadian merchants to determine the monetary value of each coin.
now they can scan them, and not be so confused
it's loony
That's just loonie.
~~~~~~~~~
dissertus scribendo latine videri volo.
Plastic ones! Considering RFID tags are blockable by a layer of common kitchen tinfoil, even if the chips survived the minting process, the signal would be blocked out completely. This allegation was made by someone with no technical understanding of how RFID even works. (Though I guess another kind of transmitter is theoretically possible if illogical for reasons stated in the article.)
Thanks, US DoD, for coming up with a premise even dumber than hypothetical WMDs! I guess Canada's safe from invasion so long as there's someone with common sense to catch this crap.
Presumably this is being done with the $2 Canadian coin since they are constructed from two pieces and it would be easier to modify the center plug without being noticed.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
Now our economy is sure to drop by a marginal amount because supposedly our coins are bad. I predict a drop in the CDN$ very soon thanks to this rumor.
Cheers, DH.
coins bug you...
Sorry, could not resist, eh.
According to The Globe and Mail, this is all bullcrap actually.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
If this is the case I'm putting Canada on my list of next holiday destinations. Any place where prostitutes accept coins is ALRIGHT by me!!
http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID =196802844&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb
Recently in the US it has become illegal to melt down the coinage. Reason: The metal content of the coins has become more valuable than the face value of the coin. What with the continuing rise in commodity prices (or the return of inflation (or the imminent collapse in the value of some currencies)) the primary reason for this microchipping of coins and notes (and this Canadian experiment) might just be authentication of the currency. As reported elsewhere: http://www.prisonplanet.com/022904rfidtagsexplode. html & http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011219S0016
Of course, there are surveillance "benefits" too.
Paul Beardsell
"For the life of me, I can't figure a reason that somebody would do this. Coins change hands quickly and RFID has a pretty limited range."
Saves following them around looking for a chance to knock 'em off!-))
... nothing to see here. Move along.
http://outcampaign.org/
From the article: Transit security official Mark Russell said the coin "a unique electronic signature" that only TTC turnstiles can recognize.
That's probably it. Someone got the new subway tokens to take home because they look so cool and got freaked out.
This data might not really be useful for anything, but Canadian government officials are great at coming up with stupid projects to waste tax dollars just so their department can get a bigger budget.
Don't make us kick your asses and then burn down the Whitehouse. Again.
On a more serious note, who says that the coins were bugged *BY* CSIS? Perhaps a third party was interested in diverting attention...
... I've had my suspicions that the USA has been doing for a few years.
I caught the Mountain Wumpus! He gave me his treasure chest ($100) to let him go free again.
Great, now there's going to be a slashdot article about how the US is planning to invade Canada..thanks
Sorry if this is a redundant reply, but I didn't see any mention of the obvious.
;)
For craps sake people, its so they can track the travel patterns of coins so they have an idea of how currency works. It's a brilliant idea in my opinion because there's no way to conclusively say who's carrying the coins at any given time, but they CAN read when each coin passes through certain checkpoints around the city.
I'll add a little tangent here, but imagine if they had spy cameras around the city too? Then they could see you somewhere, check what coins your carrying, and use the videos to find out where you're exchanging money, and follow your change.
Personally, I only use change for the bus and Tim Hortons
The Toronto Transit Commision (TTC) just issued new subway tokens with some sort of RFID capability, so this must be it. It's a subway token, not a coin.
A passive RFID tag of the size that could be put in a coin would have a range of a few of inches max. If any of the 'coin' was still made of metal, the damping effect it would kill it stone dead - just wouldn't be detectable. If it wasn't metal, the lack of weight would make it immediately obvious.
I small BS....
I personally find the Breast Cancer Ribbon quarter stranger, as they changed the colourising process from the poppy one. The colours no longer wear off as quickly with use, but it now feels like someone's stuck a sticker or something to it.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
The antenna could be no larger than at most an inch (with a toonie) or even a half-inch, which leaves very little to radiate with. Most likely it would be more effective to encase the radio in copper and then slide that into the hollowed out coin, using the copper casing as a radiator.
As the article said, miniaturization is not an issue with the electronics. all the Logic, transmitter, etc. could be hard-wired into a tiny bit of silicon (never underestimate the resources of an intelligence agency, eh.).
That is just a n00b's ideal coin bug, but I am sure someone out there might have more to add.
Some more interesting ideas than an RFID in a coin:
A microphone, some solid state memory, and radio that would burst the recording on command.
Someone could walk by you on the street and leach all of the audio recorded in a day in just a minute!
Or a coin with a gieger counter and an RFID (or radio on command) that's capable of reporting the time and intensity of the last few large events.
Plant these on people who you suspect of working on nukes or dirty bombs.
Better yet (not sure how possible), add a geo-satelite locator to it and then it can record the time and place of any radiation.
I've never heard of an american that take coins... specially canadian ones!
So say we all
This can only be a bad propaganda attempt at best. Bugging a coin is only useful to track *the coin.* And if ANYONE was gonna bug Canadian coins, it would be the U.S., the undisputed kings of paranoia. :) Recognize that TPTB are probably off the scale in coke-induced paranoia just because they can be.
M .20070110.wspycoin0110/BNStory/National/home
Plus, here's the follow-up story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGA
Keep moving. Nothing to see here....
Drat! I've been found out! My Canadian hate mongering is no longer secret! Burn in hell Canada! Down with the leaf! Hippies, the lot of ya!
errr, yeah.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
We will make it up in volume.
-Venture Capitalist
The Toronto Transit Commission just added RFID chips to their new transit tokens to prevent counterfeiting. It is possible that these are the coins in question.
On Friday the 19th, the LA Times printed a correction that says this was an unfounded rumor among the gov't employees that somehow was taken seriously.