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CANADIAN SPY COINS MAY BE BOGUS,
BUT ONCE THERE WAS A U.S. NICKEL . . .

A condensed version of this, under a different headline, appears on page 102 of the May 28, 2007 issue of Coin World.

A popular axiom tells us "money talks." Well, that glib remark would be especially true if the money is a coin containing a transmitter to track the movements of the person possessing the coin.

In a scenario that raised a specter equal to the jaw-dropping shenanigans in a James Bond film, or the best Cold War' thrillers churned out by Jon Le Carre, Len Deighton, and others in the espionage novel genre, the so-called "Canadian Spy Coin" (aka the "Poppy" Quarter) has been debunked.

Alex Reeves, managing chief of communications for the Monnaie Royale Canadienne (Royal Canadian Mint) told this Coin World writer. His department had recently received several inquiries about the true nature of the coins. So much so, that a communications staffer was assigned to field all such inquiries.

"It's just a normal coin," Christine Aquino, an associate in the communications department, said in an exclusive interview.

"We produced some 30-million of these quarters commencing in October, 2004. Perhaps what fueled the alarm and wild speculation about these coins is the fact they were the first circulating color coins in the world."

The otherwise silver-colored quarters central reverse device is the red image of Canada's flower of remembrance, the poppy, inlaid over a maple leaf. The coins were issued to commemorate the more than 117,000 Canadians who have died in the nation's military conflicts. The poppy is also associated with remembering the war dead in The United States, France, Britain, Canada, and other Commonwealth countries (see origin at bottom).

Bret Evans, editor of Canadian Coin News explained that technicians at the RCM said a coating was applied to the red poppy center in an effort to make the color last longer. There was also speculation that the coating, which is said to only be visible under ultraviolet or black light lighting, was an experiment to deter counterfeiting.

Misunderstandin gs, confusion and concern about the coins began earlier this year when Americans working, visiting, and traveling in Canada came across the coins for the first time and were not familiar with what they were. As word of the "strange" coins quickly spread among the visitors, a number of alarming, but unconfirmed, stories were reported back to the U.S., including the belief that the coated red poppy center

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