Let's look at some facts:
The development of the ricin vaccine at UT DALLAS was in the news a few weeks ago.
Two days ago some ricin was found at UT AUSTIN.
The roll of quarters containing the ricin was supposedly laying around for "months".
Ricin is not anywhere near as dangerous as anthrax.
The most likely scenario is that some nutcase student at UT Austin was set off by the news from UT Dallas and decided to play a "prank". The girl who found the ricin was probably a "target of opportunity", i.e, someone who left her room door open.
It doesn't seem likely this was done by any true terrorist.
The culprit evidently removed some quarters from a roll, put in the ricin, put back some of the quarters, and then left it for the female student to find. The fact that it took her weeks or months to find it probably says it was a "geek" who gets a charge out of the anticipation, rather than some boyfriend or mental case or terrorist who would want immediate response.
There's no way the ricin could have come from a bank. Here's a picutre of a "typical" roll of quarters from a bank:
Ed
I forgot to mention that the roll in the picture is filled and closed by a machine, and the name printed on the roll is that of the maker of the machine.
It may be an option to have the bank's name printed on the roll, which could explain why they believe it was from a "non-local bank".
Ed
"The most likely scenario is that some nutcase student at UT Austin was set off by the news from UT Dallas and decided to play a "prank". The girl who found the ricin was probably a "target of opportunity", i.e, someone who left her room door open.
It doesn't seem likely this was done by any true terrorist."
Plausible. However..where did the 'nutcase' student get the ricin? Did he work at the lab or did he manufacture it in his dorm room?(highly unlikely) Either way..we don't need 'nutcases' or terrorists working at bio-defense labs!
EdLake - I just got a $5 roll of dimes from my bank last week and I just
wish they had give me a roll like that. I got the fold-over on the ends kind - no seal. What I'm saying is that your example of a roll is not always the case from a bank.
The rest of it - we can only speculate as you have done.