Is The Canadian Spy Coin Still Around?

Since we talks about foreign exchange currencies on this blog, how about a little caper with international intrigue. Between October of 2005 and January of 2006, handfuls of coins were found placed on various contractors from the U.S. that had high security clearances with the U.S. government. These coins were placed as contractors traveled through Canada, and the government was quick to warn people about the threat of Canadian coins with RF transmitters hidden inside of them.

These coins eventually became known as the Canadian spy coins. And this is definitely an event that ranks very high in privacy invasion, and often begs the question, what will happen next? This technology is entirely possible, so no one wants to be presumptuous to think that these tactics don’t actually exist and are quite possible in use today.

It doesn’t specify in the report who is responsible for tracking the contractors or why they might have been looking for them, which is obviously classified information, given the nature of the work that the contractors are involved in. These coins, if they were legitimate, can actually be used for tracking devices and as a GPS of sorts for those who carry the coins. The CIA even has an Eisenhower silver dollar-looking container that is used to hold messages or film without detection, since it is just pocket change, after all.

Come back for the next post were we will discuss what happened to these coins and talks about if they are still around today.