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Istockphoto deactivated two of my Canadian coin shots for copyright issues this morning. I thought coins were okay to shoot? Are they going to delete my US coin shots as well? Just curious.

They shouldn't have British coins and notes either.  SS deleted them a long time ago.

I think you need ask the queen for a model release. 

Certainly not surprising. Especially after claiming last fall they own the copyright to the phrase "one cent". Here is a snippet:

The Royal Canadian Mint, a corporation of the federal government, has now demanded that the City of Toronto pay $47,680 for the public education campaign. Included in this amount is a request for $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign website address (www.onecentnow.ca) and the campaign email address ([email protected]), and an additional $10,000 for the use of the words "one cent" in the campaign phone number (416-ONECENT). The remaining $27,680 has been assessed against the City for the use of the image of the Canadian penny in printed materials such as pins and posters. (The Mint has come to this amount by taking the total number of materials printed divided by the approximate population of Toronto, and then using a percentage of that number to arrive at a dollar figure.)

My understanding was that British notes were subject to copyright, whereas coins were not. I'm not aware that this had changed, but I can't seem to find it in writing anywhere.

By the way, I just had a picture of a medical bag with a red cross on a white background rejected for copyright violation on IS which seemed rather strange, they certainly appear to be very cautious at the moment.

If you check the Royal Mint website you'll find the info about coins, they're not copyrighted and can be used in commercial adverts as long as they're represented in a way that doesn't inflict with the conditions as written on the site.

Thanks for pointing this out, it was news to me,  but a quick search on google brought up a whole load of information including the case of Johnson & Johnson suing the American Red Cross society for using the Red Cross for commercial purposes.