'Spocking': The Weird Way to Ruin Money and Pay Tribute to Leonard Nimoy

Sir Wilfrid Laurier was a prime minister in Canada from 1896 to 1911, and his face is featured on the Canadian $5 bill. Apparently, some feel his face also resembles Leonard Nimoy, the instantly recognizable actor who served as Star Trek's Spock, and who died last week.

Starting a few years back, someone thought it would be funny to take older versions of Canada's $5 banknotes and artfully add some black ink to the profile of Laurier—darkening and extending the eyebrow, sharpening up the tip of the ear, scratching in a dark bowl-shaped helmet full of hair—so that the resulting image looked like Spock. (Another version of this game turned Laurier's mug into Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series.)

Now that Nimoy has passed away, fans of the actor and the highly logical Vulcan he played on TV and the movies are being encouraged to "Spock" their Canadian $5 bills in tribute. The "Spock Your Fives" Facebook page—yes, there is such as thing, founded in 2008—has heralded the "revival" of Spocking Fives. As you'd guess, word of this curious activity has spread on social media, like so:

The parody Twitter account @PMLaurier—yes, there is such a thing—recently wished "Adieu to the great Leonard Nimoy" in a Tweet that showed one of the manipulated bills, noting that he was "Honoured so many Canadians thought we looked alike and would 'Spock' their $5 bills."

As for where and how, exactly, the idea of "Spocking" currency first began, the "Spock Your Fives" Facebook page only has this to say: "The origins of this mysterious tradition are shrouded in secrecy, although it is widely believed to be totally awesome."