• pedz@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    This reminds me that ths US Defense Department issued a warning about the painted quarters because they thought it was spying tech.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alleged-canadian-spy-coin-deemed-harmless/

    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.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I wonder if this is indirectly admitting that they either considered or do spy via coins. Every accusation is an admission and all…

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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      9 hours ago

      Americans are so wierdly ass backwards about currency tech.

      Making bills out of not cotton? Fuck you

      Making bills of different values different colours or sizes? Fuck you

      Adding brail or addition security like hard to copy windows and holographic images? Fuck you

      Coins coming in different styles? Fuck you

      Coins above a 50 cent piece? Fuck you (unless it’s a collectable).

      • Nautalax@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Funnily you very rarely see the Sacagawea dollar coins in circulation the US (albeit more than the $2 billion) but we ship a massive number of those dollar coins overseas to Ecuador which officially uses USD. Incredibly common since many expenses there are in the couple dollars sort of range and you barely see $1 bills at all since many people refuse to accept worn-out bills.

      • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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        8 hours ago

        Nah, I’m all for cotton for money bills. While they don’t last very long, it’s better than more plastic shit 100% of the time.

        • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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          8 hours ago

          As someone who had to fix the bank machines during both cotton and polymer, you are 100% crazy. Cotton notes are nasty and wasteful.

          • yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de
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            8 hours ago

            You could view cotton notes as providing job opportunities :P

            But still: I’d rather waste five times as many cotton notes than have even more plastic going around and being lost. At least lost cotton decays, whereas lost plastic will just stay around forever.

            • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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              5 hours ago

              You ever have to clean anything that works with cotton bills? All that oil and dirt on your grubby hands is in those bills. Polymer bills don’t absorb anything and unlike other plastics they do get collected and recycled (you know since they are money). And the dies and chemicals needed to make those cotton bills? Yeah not good.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        US money is counterfeit at such high levels, no one wants to bring in anti-counterfeit measures like other countries because an audit would bring bad news.