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A new variety of Canada’s $2 coin may have you sifting through your change jar.
Court records obtained by La Presse earlier this week found that Canada Border Services Agency seized 26,000 allegedly fake toonies dated 2012 in January from a Quebec man who paid a nickel apiece for them on an online marketplace. That’s the largest such seizure in Canada, according to the newspaper.
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But over the years, Canadian authorities have seized tens of thousands more counterfeit toonies, many of them forged in China.
Very likely, more have slipped through our busy borders, one expert says.
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“Canada customs (are) busy. They can’t examine every package that comes in, and that’s an issue,” James Wang, a marketing and behavioural science professor at the University of British Columbia, told Global News recently.
Jean-François Généreux faces criminal charges including possessing and importing the fake currency and providing false information in a customs declaration, and is set to appear in court on Dec. 4 following the seizure in Quebec.
Police seized 12,049 toonies in Mirabel Airport intended for Généreux from China that were labeled ‘metal badges.’ A subsequent search of his home in the city of Sorel-Tracy uncovered an additional 14,581 Canadian $2 coins and 91 U.S. $50 bills, according to CTV.
CBSA officers reportedly checked import records and found two additional shipments of ‘metal badges’ being imported by Généreux in a single month.
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The coins in Généreux’s possession were a new design lacking the noticeable tells of previous counterfeits. But by taking a closer look at the details, many other flaws are obvious.
Mike Marshall, a counterfeit coin expert from Trenton, Ont., shared some tips with Global on how to spot the new two-bit toonies.
For example, the toonies seized in Quebec have security features not yet introduced in the actual 2012 coin, such as a maple leaf symbol over the Queen’s bust. The Queen’s nose itself being too long and pointy could be another sign of a deceitful coin.
The reverse side on the new fakes also says CANADA where it should say DOLLAR. And the ‘2012’ written on the obverse side is written in a curve when it should appear as a straight line.
A previous counterfeit, featuring a misshapen polar bear toe, “continue(s) to be a major problem with coins being found across a wide geographic area and they are plentiful,” Brent Mackie, a coin collector from Kitchener, Ont., told Canadian Coin News.
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