The E-Sylum:  Volume 11, Number 8, February 24, 2008, Article 38

PCGS CERTIFIES BRIAN INGRAM'S D.B. COOPER LOOT

[One popular E-Sylum topic (with your Editor, anyway) is
the mystery of the ransom loot of airline hijacker "D.B.
Cooper".  The serial numbers of Cooper's ransom cash are
known but to date only a few have been found.  The finder
of these notes, Brian Ingram, had them certified by PCGS
and they were on display at the recent Long Beach show.
I stumbled upon the PCGS press release too late to publish
it in time for the show but wanted to reprint it here.
Did anyone view the exhibit?  Does anyone know how and
where the certified notes will be sold?  What do you think
they're worth in today's market? -Editor]

Nearly two dozen $20 denomination notes from the infamous
1971 “D.B. Cooper” skyjacking have been certified by PCGS
Currency on behalf of the owner who found them a
quarter-century ago.

The bills belong to Brian Ingram, 36, of Mena, Arkansas
who was eight years old in 1980 when he found the only
ransom cash ever recovered from the infamous skyjacking.

“Even though the notes were damaged from apparently being
in the Columbia River for years, we were able to match
serial numbers with those on the FBI’s list of the $200,000
in $20 bills the skyjacker had when he jumped from the
jetliner. There was even a Series 1963A star note,” said
Laura A. Kessler, Vice President of PCGS Currency
(www.PCGSCurrency.com) of Newport Beach, California,
who headed the certification team.

Ingram personally brought the notes to California for
certification and will attend the opening of the Long
Beach Expo on Thursday, February 14.

“I was eight years old and on vacation with my parents
on February 10, 1980, when I found about $5,800 of the
ransom money along the banks of the Columbia River near
Vancouver, Washington,” Ingram recalled.

“We were going to make a fire along the river bank. I was
on my hands and knees smoothing out the sand with my right
arm, and I uncovered three bundles of money just below the
surface. My uncle thought we should throw it in the fire.”

His family turned the money over to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation. Eventually, the FBI returned 25 bills
to them along with dozens of fragments that contained
little or no trace of serial numbers. Most of the notes
have lightly written initials of FBI agents who inventoried
and examined the items soon after they were discovered
by Ingram.

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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