During the Cold War, Russian spies used hollow coins to pass messages to each other in America. One spy accidentally used his hollow coin as actual currency, and it ended up in the general population. The coin was found when it was given to a paperboy, who discovered the message in the hollowed out container when he dropped it and it split open. There was a message written in Russian code, so the boy handed it over to the authorities. The government spent years trying to decode the message, with no luck. Eventually, a Russian spy named Reino Hayhanen defected to America, and in the process of handing over Russian secrets, the spy was asked about the coded message in the hollow coin. The man translated the message, and it turned out to be a Welcome to America, heres the way our operations work message from Russia. The coin was in fact meant for the very spy who decoded the message for the American government.