The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 12, March 23, 2003, Article 5

BILL OF RIGHTS RECOVERED

  The following is non-numismatic, but we have covered some
  related topics in previous issues.   Apparently the FBI has
  recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights, the first set
  of amendments to the U.S. constitution.  Said to be stolen
  from the North Carolina Statehouse by a Union soldier
  during the Civil War, the document has been missing for
  138 years.  The following excerpts are quoted from two
  different press accounts.  Follow the links to read the full
  stories.

  "The document, one of 14 copies of the Bill of Rights
  commissioned by President George Washington, is worth
  an estimated $30 million, the FBI said.

  "A carpetbagger took it in 1865," said one official.
  "It's really priceless."

  http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/bill.of.rights/index.html

  "Signed in 1789 by the 13 original U.S. colonies, the Bill of
  Rights contains the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution
  and guarantees such rights as freedom of speech, freedom of
  religion and the right to a speedy public trial.

  At the signing, President George Washington provided each
  signatory state an original handwritten copy, and kept a 14th
  copy for the federal government.

  North Carolina's copy was stolen in 1865 by soldiers in General
  William Tecumseh Sherman's army while the Union army
  occupied the Southern state during the Civil War, Easley said."

  "An agent posed as a philanthropist financing the purchase and
  the FBI seized it when the unidentified seller sent it by courier
  for him to examine."

  "The document will be returned to a federal courthouse in
  Raleigh and exhibited to the public."

   http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?&storyID=2414901

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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