Bank of Canada gets nerdy to celebrate anniversary

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada may not be known for its humor but it marked the nation's 150th anniversary with a bit of whimsy, embedding a computer code in its website that lets users unlock a digital celebration. Though Governor Stephen Poloz unveiled a commemorative C$10 banknote at a live ceremony last week, the central bank's Web team had a nerdier take on the event. The team programmed the Konami code, a sequence of keystrokes used by gamers, onto a bank webpage announcing the banknote. Enter the code on the page and your screen is showered with tiny C$10 bills as a tinny rendition of Canada's national anthem plays. "The response so far has been exceptional," the bank's spokewoman Josianne Menard said in an email. The webpage http://www.bankofcanada.ca/banknotes/banknote150/ allows users to inspect the purple banknote front and back, but it is the entry of Konami code keystrokes - up up down down left right left right b a - that brings the announcement to life. The code was first used in early generation computer games to allow players to cheat and unlock special in-game features. (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; Editing by Jim Finkle and Andrew Hay)