Today in History - June 21 | Spy accidentally spent coin with hidden message inside
Nearly three years to the day after discovering a hollow nickel containing a coded spy message, the FBI arrested their suspect on June 21, 1957.
Three years earlier a hollowed-out coin was left at a dead-drop location for Soviet agent Reino Häyhänen in New York's Central Park.
But Häyhänen mistakenly spent the nickel.
For seven months the coin circulated in the local economy until it was discovered by a newsboy who turned it in to police.
When the nickel was cracked open, a coded message was discovered on a tiny piece of paper.
This left the FBI with a predicament. They knew there was a ring of spies operating in the US, but had no idea where.
Häyhänen pointed US authorities to spymaster Rudolf Abel, who was operating in New York City.
Abel was arrested, tried and jailed.
For years the case went unsolved, until an apparently drunk Häyhänen arrived at the US embassy in Paris and offered to defect.
Embassy staff were dubious until he showed them a hollow coin.
Guam remains a US territory to this day.
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