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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."
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.
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.
No argument, here. However, the Canadian Dollar is close to reaching parity with the US Dollar.
Canadian Dollar to U.S. Dollar Exchange Rate
That is a commemorative coin marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day, and the 90th anniversary of WWI. The poppy became the symbol of remembrance of our war dead through the poem In Flander's Fields, written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian battlefield doctor in World War One.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
the addition of such a chip must at least triple the value of whatever canadian currency you add it to.
:)
Your joke is out of context, what with a plummeting US dollar and all. I almost feel sorry for you guys, but your sinking dollar made me a lot of money
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
RFID does not require a processor or battery. Consumer RFID devices for
implantation in animals (Pet-ID, HomeAgain) are about the size of a grain
of rice.
Tire is definitely spelled with an i here in Canada.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The coins may have been given in some immoral/illegal situation by Canada's equivalent of the CIA.
That would be CSIS. In which case there's nothing to worry about here; CSIS never does anything right.
Although it doesn't say what kind of coin was involved, I would guess it's almost certainly the two dollar coin. Mainly because I'd guess it's easy to pop out the center part of it that is a different metal. Even if you put plastic in there, the metal frame around it would make it feel pretty similar to a normal coin. There is also an advantage that when you cross the border you can't unload $1 and $2 coins. You can try to pawn off the small change to people who aren't paying attention (a problem in itself for northern states), but no one is going to take the big change - some won't take American dollar coins for that matter. Anyway that means they are more likely to keep the coin at least until they return to Canada.
Also it's better if vending machines reject the coin. If you can't spend it in a soda machine you're going to just keep the coin, and probably try another.
That's funny, Spanky... when *I* was homeless I was FAR more interested in staying fed, getting a job, and getting back to where I was now. So were most of the guys at the shelter.
My question: Did you have a big helping of WhiteBreadNess this morning, or do you watch too much cable?
Assuming you're not limited to RFID limits, in theory how much power could one of these spit out? What distance could they be tracked from?
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
>What I do think however is that in a small percentage of coins they resonate at the same frequency as an RFID which would appear as though they were magical.
The Cryptic Article just says "transmitter" and goes on to speculate that it might be RFID. To look like an RFID without being one, the coin would not only have to resonate but also transmit a 128 bit number. Another problem is that the usual RFID wavelengths are way bigger than a coin.
And yes, RFID in a metal object doesn't make sense. Inside, it's shielded: outside, it's visible.
Maybe you were reaching for humour, but if not, then you're dead wrong. With one exception I can think of, all terrorists in the US, came into the US from overseas using valid passports. Not from Canada.
In times of trouble, the smell of frying onions usually gives confidence and comfort.
Let's face it, if you found a coin in a random pocket, would you suspect that it's a bug?
If you had a pocket-full of US currency and suddently a twonie appeared mixed in? Yeah, I think that could raise some eyebrows...