Gizmodo: coins

Hollow Spy Coins Are Perfect Metaphor of Current Economy

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Back in the good old days of the Cold War, spies didn't have encrypted cellphones or digital thingamajigs to do their thing, so they did their spy business with classic spy stuff like spy camera-pens, spy shoe transmitters, spy bacon strips, and messages encoded on their spy underpants. Or these Hollow Spy Coins, which were used by the CIA and the KGB to hide poison or microfilms. Now you can buy them to store whatever is small enough to fit in them, like discarded nail bits. The coins are still in use by modern spies, however: Last year, the US Department of Defense cautioned its American contractors about hollow Canadian coins containing radio transmitters.

The Canadian coins were found by US defense contractors working on secret projects on three occasions between October 2005 and January 2006. Apparently, these were used to track movements of people carrying them. According to the experts, the coin transmitters could have been planted by China, Russia, or even France, not the Canadians, who actually said they didn't have a clue these existed.

These ones are harmless, however, and come in a variety of US and Soviet denominations, and you can even buy a Hollow Steel Spy Bolt and a Dead Drop Spike.

The hollow Dead Drop Spike was stamped into the ground by one spy, so it could be picked by another later. This one is made from a solid block of aluminum 3/4 inches in diameter.

Full dollars, quarters, nickles, or kopeks, you can buy them from $40 to $70. [Spy Coins via Uncrate, MSNBC]

Pocket Coin Screwdrivers Pass FAA Screening

Jason Chen — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 20:55:45 EST

Although not as long or stabby as real screwdrivers, these pocket coin screwdrivers go many places where real ones cannot (when's the last time you stuck a flat-head into your pants without getting a dirty look from your wife?). However, with these coin screwers, you can both screw in and out on the go with nothing but a pocketful of jingling to make anyone the wiser. A set of twelve can be yours for $8.50, which is the perfect price for stealthily unscrewing the train seat in front of you for subsequent laughs. [Leevalley via Book of Joe via Make]

Adding to Collection of Keyboard Puns: Save Key Piggybank

Charlie White — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:07:03 EST

As a part of our continuing series on useful objects patterned after keyboard keys, our next candidate is this little play on words, a coin bank that looks like a Save button. Ironically, at $9.75 it just about costs more than the amount of coins it can hold.

Now if someone will make a trash can that looks like a Delete key, a remote car starter that looks like a start button and place a keyboard-like Home key on a GPS navigator, we could decorate our surroundings for total geekdom. – Charlie White

Product Page [Totally Funky]