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Michael considered fate at 12:28   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

Awhile ago I saw an article about the U.S. gov'ment doing some research into potential espionage devices coming from Canada. More preciously, they were concerned about a few twoonies - the Canadian two-dollar coin.

I didn't think it worth mentioning then but a recent follow up article in today's Globe and Mail is funny enough that I can't help myself:

An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind the U.S. Defence Department's false espionage warning earlier this year, The Associated Press has learned.

The odd-looking — but harmless — "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

And what was this mysterious "poppy coin"? The truly harmless limited run Canadian quarter - until recently not even a threat as a spending vehicle, really, being worth all of fifteen U.S. cents in the late 90's. It's red flower is a poppy - a World War II remembrance symbol - commemorating the many who lost their lives to the war.


The suspected "danger" was in the protective coating covering the red flower. According to a U.S. Army contractor who found the coin in the cup holder of a rental car while traveling in Canada:

"It did not appear to be electronic (analog) in nature or have a power source..

.. Under high power microscope, it appeared to be complex consisting of several layers of clear, but different material, with a wire like mesh suspended on top."

Apparently armed with a high powered microscope, he still had little social awareness and an inability to apply common sense.. or he just didn't know that the poppy has been a symbol of all things death since, oh, the Roman-Greco myths and that King George created Remembrance Day back in 1919.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae

At the end of the day, it probably isn't the strangest thing for an Allied nation to decide to put on a coin.