Posted on 03/28/2012 6:45:48 PM PDT by Clive
MATHESON, ONT. - More than $3 million in coins spilled across a northern Ontario highway when a Brinks tractor-trailer crashed early Wednesday, police said.
The driver and passenger of the tractor-trailer remain in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
At about 4 a.m., the Brinks truck crossed the centre line of Highway 11 and struck a rock face, spilling its cargo of millions in uncirculated Canadian coins. It then caused a chain-reaction of crashes, including a minivan and two other tractor-trailers, one of which left a load of candy strewn on the road, police said.
The crash happened south of Ramore, about 50 km northwest of Kirkland Lake.
Crews are using a one-metre round industrial magnet on a backhoe to pick up the toonies and loonies, Ontario Provincial Police Officer Marc Depatie with the South Porcupine detachment said.
Depatie said the crash is very unusual.
"I walked through the scene where there was more money than I will ever see in my whole life," he said.
Although no security issues have arisen, police and Brinks workers are on scene while crews clean up the coins.
The highway is closed while the clean up continues.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnews.canoe.ca ...
I guess not.
/johnny
Could make a lot of “Wizard of Oz” jokes but won’t.
“loonies and toonies”
Thanks for clarifying. Since a candy truck was also involved in the crash, I thought maybe they were the names of the candy. Had this been in the U.S. or Mexico, there would be very little of candy or coins to pick up.
HEADS!
Kinda like Suan B. Anthony dollars. Almost real money!
The one hundred dollar paper-cotton bills have been phased out and replaced with polymer bills featuring much better anti-counterfeiting characteristics than the paper-cotton bills.
The polymer 50 dollar bill has just been introduced into circulation this past week.
“polymer 50 dollar bill”
Cheaper to make and/or longer lasting than paper I presume.
Wait, I didn’t see the part about greedy motorists ditching their cars in the road to scoop up coins and candy.
Was the weather cold enough to pop the center out of the twonies?
"Cheaper to make and/or longer lasting than paper I presume."
Actually, they are more expensive to produce as they have several anti-forgery features incorporated in the design, but the added expense is more than offset by the longer life of the bill for a net gain in cost savings
The features include transparent sections, numbers visible only using a point source light, dots that glow under UV light, a raised image and a holgraph image.
The new designs also involved working with ATM manufacturers and the banks to ensure that the bills can be properly dispensed by the machines.
Good day to get rid of the penny!
"Good day to get rid of the penny"
I,m not sure that i like that. The penny has practically no purchasing power, but it is still useful as change rather than rounding up to the next nickel. Getting rid of it is another small contributor to inflation.
OTOH, I suppose that there were people like me in the UK when they started to phase out the farthing.
Now even the ha'penny is gone, a victim of decimalization.
Remember the old rhyme:
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old mans hat
If you havent got a penny, a hapenny will do
If you havent got a hapenny then God bless you!
No, I don’t remember that one, but I understand it. :-)
Even in the early 70’s tax was based on ranges, so 5% would apply from 97c to $1.02 at .05c.
(People would give me a hard time about the amount of change they were given.) Now the math is being made easy for the masses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.