That thingy should be instantly recognizable as a replica red poppy flower. In Canada, as in much of the Commonwealth, paper poppies are worn on their version of Veteran’s Day, a practice begun after WWI, when countless men died in the poppy-strewn fields of Europe.

There are almost 30 million of these coins in circulation in Canada. How anyone could think this was some sort of secret device is beyond me. Usually people don’t hide things by making them bright red and sticking them right in the middle of stuff.

But the US Army contractors leapt to the conclusion that they were under numismatic surveillance.