Spy cases are always filled with intrigue and mystery, but the Hollow Nickel Case proved to be a particularly odd version. The FBI investigation grew out of the discovery of a container disguised as a US nickel, containing a coded message. On June 22, 1953, fourteen-year-old Jimmy Bozart, a newspaper boy was collecting for the Brooklyn Eagle, at an apartment building at 3403 Foster Avenue in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. One man paid him with a nickel, but it felt too light to Bozart. Curious, he dropped it on the ground, to see how it sounded, and it popped open. Inside was a microfilm containing a series of numbers. Knowing this could be big, Bozart to his friend who was the daughter of a New York City Police Department officer. They told her dad, and he told a detective who, in two days, told an FBI agent about the strange nickel.
After agent Louis Hahn of the FBI obtained the nickel and the microfilm, the agency tried to find out where the nickel had come from and what the numbers meant. “The coin had a 1948-dated obverse (the heads side) with the usual copper-nickel composition, but the reverse was minted sometime between October 1942 and the end of 1945, based on the copper-silver alloys used during this period. On the microfilm, there were five digits together in each number, 21 sets of five in seven columns and another 20 sets in three columns, making a total of 207 sets of five digits. There was no key for the numbers.” The FBI tried for nearly four years to find the origin of the nickel and the meaning of the numbers.
Finally, when KGB agent Reino Häyhänen (a.k.a. Eugene Nicolai Mäki) chose to defect in May 1957. With information received through that defection, the FBI was able to link the nickel to the KGB. That, in itself, should be something to make everyone cringe. Häyhänen had been operating in the US for some time, but when he was recalled to Moscow for good, he knew that he did not want to go. As he was on his way back to Russia, he defected on a stop in Paris.
Amazingly, the nickel was an item that Häyhänen had collected from a dead-drop. The amazing, and truly unbelievable part is that Häyhänen accidentally spent the nickel before opening it. I suppose he could have somehow not realized that it was the special nickel he was spending, but it seems odd, nevertheless. Once he was caught, Häyhänen gave the FBI the information needed to crack the cipher. The deciphered message in the nickel turned out to be a message to Häyhänen from the KGB in Moscow, welcoming him to the United States and instructing him on getting set up. The Translation is as follows (Translation was in all caps).
“1. WE CONGRATULATE YOU ON A SAFE ARRIVAL. WE CONFIRM THE RECEIPT OF YOUR LETTER TO THE ADDRESS `V REPEAT V’ AND THE READING OF LETTER NUMBER 1.
2. FOR ORGANIZATION OF COVER, WE GAVE INSTRUCTIONS TO TRANSMIT TO YOU THREE THOUSAND IN LOCAL (CURRENCY). CONSULT WITH US PRIOR TO INVESTING IT IN ANY KIND OF BUSINESS, ADVISING THE CHARACTER OF THIS BUSINESS.
3. ACCORDING TO YOUR REQUEST, WE WILL TRANSMIT THE FORMULA FOR THE PREPARATION OF SOFT FILM AND NEWS SEPARATELY, TOGETHER WITH (YOUR) MOTHER’S LETTER.
4. IT IS TOO EARLY TO SEND YOU THE GAMMAS. ENCIPHER SHORT LETTERS, BUT THE LONGER ONES MAKE WITH INSERTIONS. ALL THE DATA ABOUT YOURSELF, PLACE OF WORK, ADDRESS, ETC., MUST NOT BE TRANSMITTED IN ONE CIPHER MESSAGE. TRANSMIT INSERTIONS SEPARATELY.
5. THE PACKAGE WAS DELIVERED TO YOUR WIFE PERSONALLY. EVERYTHING IS ALL RIGHT WITH THE FAMILY. WE WISH YOU SUCCESS. GREETINGS FROM THE COMRADES. NUMBER 1, 3RD OF DECEMBER.”
Häyhänen, code name “Vic” told the FBI about a number of Soviet operatives in North America. These included “Vitali G Pavlov, a former Soviet embassy official in Ottawa; Aleksandr Mikhailovich Korotkov; and U.S. Army Sergeant Roy Rhodes, code name ‘Quebec,’ who had once worked in the garage of the U.S. embassy in Moscow. The Soviets were able to get to Rhodes because they had ‘compromising materials’ about him.” 
In addition, and more importantly, Häyhänen helped the FBI uncover the identity of his two main contacts in New York: Mikhail Nikolaevich Svirin (a former United Nations employee) and William August Fisher, whose code name was “Mark.” Svirin had returned to the Soviet Union in October 1956 and was not available for questioning or arrest, but Fisher was still working in the United States, principally seeking information on the U.S. atomic program and U.S. Navy submarine information. With Häyhänen help, they eventually found information on the espionage activities of William August Fisher, who used the code name of Rudolf Ivanovich Abel.
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