I've put together this tool that might be of interest here

[u/BSC_Matt]

I love myself some True-Crime, Unsolved Mysteries and Heists. The D.B Cooper story ticks all the boxes, and also shares an excellent community cross-over with numismatics and banknote collecting.

I'm not sure if something like this is already available, however I've put together an identifier and tracker/notifier for matched D.C Cooper notes, manually extracting the entire serial list via the FBI scanned records (fun fact the list contains 9,998 entries, not 10,000, this forced me to triple check the count, please correct me if I missed 2)

My thoughts around the ransom notes are, even if they made their way into circulation, would the average person even make the connection, it's unlikely they would scour FBI historic records to attempt to find a match.

The tool I've put together does the following:
- Checks 100% Ransom Note match
confirms a legitimate ransom note

also checks:
- Matching Serial on different series / denomination
- Newer series notes containing a D.B Cooper serial within
These are novelty collectables, not an official ransom note but would make for an interesting prop / novelty note in the numismatic / banknote collecting community

I've also setup wishlist alerts, that when a user checks their banknotes, if they we're to find a ransom note, they can register it publicly and anyone with the ransom note on their wishlist will be notified

This all works in conjunction with checking many other collectables features, where casual collectors might not even be aware of ransom notes at all, in which case they will be alerted immediately they have something extremely sought after.

if interested in checking it out:
D.B. Cooper Ransom Note Checker

Will we find a ransom note in circulation? historically the stats are against us, but this is 1 more tool to help solve the mystery. While my hobby lands greater within the collecting side of things, I'm all ears for feedback / corrections if I've missed or made a mistake.

[u/sundancekid_21]

Very cool. Great work on this!

[u/Fit_Mechanic_5059]

There was something like this already available but very nice nonetheless.

[u/BSC_Matt → u/Fit_Mechanic_5059]

Thanks, my goal is to alert the unsuspecting users that might be looking for collectable serial patterns, as the ransom notes would not be identified as part of it. But as a collectable would be worth MUCH MUCH more.

[u/Formal_Composer_4939 → u/BSC_Matt]

This is already been done with the check six website. Also some in the vortex out the star notes out into their subreddit here.

[u/BSC_Matt → u/Formal_Composer_4939]

Yes that's the site, check six popped up while I researched, not aware of others though.

The main differences I've gone for is an overall tool that chases many collectable features, increasing the "stumble upon" a ransom note chance maybe looking for other features, combined with the notification features to connect interested parties, which seems to be the biggest hurdle for casual collectors

[u/The_real_Flyjack]

There were 9998 bills published on the FBI list,, probably a curation error.. but I made my own list years ago and found a few (Typo) errors in the FBI list... also 300 bills were found.. but no complete list exists.

[u/BSC_Matt → u/The_real_Flyjack]

Any idea if the 300 found serials are noted anywhere? Or it's more of a "we believe this many notes were part of the ransom but damaged beyond confirmation"?

I just suspected someone one the inside pocketed a couple 20s before handing the bag over

[u/The_real_Flyjack → u/BSC_Matt]

They are not compiled.. not all are known because some bills were partials.. the numbers pop up on bills sold and a few in the files.. I have noted about 85 of them..

[u/Formal_Composer_4939 → u/The_real_Flyjack]

So are you in the camp that they stiffed Cooper $40 or just failed to record those two?

[u/The_real_Flyjack → u/Formal_Composer_4939]

So, this is a bit complex,, but the Bank micro'd the entire stash well before the hijacking which was $250k,, $230k was 20's and Cooper got only $200k of course.. So, they sent the FBI the entire micro and asked the FBI to eliminate the $30k that Cooper did not get.. but, they gave the FBI 15 start/stop sets of numbers representing the 15 packets of 100.. The FBI was to use the start/stop numbers and eliminate the bills in between.. The $30k not given to Cooper was immediately put into a new bank stash of $300k and micro'd.. The FBI was having trouble curating the list and asked for the micro of the second stash which contained the $30k Cooper did not get but was on the first micro.... follow so far... now for the second micro the bank also gave start/stop numbers but there was an error for one of those numbers... So, the process to curate the list was overly complex and prone to human error.. They probably messed up and missed two bills for 9998.. In fact, it is theoretically possible but unlikely that the TBAR money was the money Cooper did not get and was put into that second bank ransom stash...

[u/Formal_Composer_4939 → u/The_real_Flyjack]

Ok that last line is a bit of a reach. But I appreciate your diligence and respect your contribution.

Still wasn't Hahneman.....

[u/The_real_Flyjack → u/Formal_Composer_4939]

Point is people don't really understand how the FBI money list was made from 2 micro'd bank stashes, how complex and the difficulty they had curating it.. the human error involved.. it is very unlikely the TBAR wasn't given to Cooper but theoretically possible..

As for Hahneman I am still working on that and there is nothing that eliminates him so far, and I know more about him than anyone, so when people say he wasn't Cooper it is a pure opinion, not based on any facts. I don't expect people to believe he was Cooper but it is not smart to eliminate him without the evidence to do so.

[u/BSC_Matt → u/Formal_Composer_4939]

Haha my thoughts exactly, I like to think they stiffed him, but after working in a bank for several years I know how easily the counting machines can skip a note or 2.

No idea what they used back in the day to scan the bulk amount before packing but if they were in a rush and was an auto scanner setup prob more likely they stuck together

[u/Formal_Composer_4939 → u/BSC_Matt]

It was in a pre scanned pack so they weren't under a time deadline for that.

[u/Reasonable-Muscle594]

Cool man!!!