D.B. Cooper $20 Ransom Note Sells for $134,200, More Than Half the Original Ransom
A $20 bill from the ransom paid to D.B. Cooper during his infamous 1971 hijacking has sold for $134,200 at Heritage Auctions, meaning one surviving piece of the ransom is now worth more than half of the entire $200,000 Cooper received before disappearing.
The partial 1969 $20 Federal Reserve Note, serial number L32796069A, sold to an internet bidder on October 9 as part of Heritage’s GACC U.S. Currency Signature Auction. PCGS Banknote has certified the note as genuine, with its identifying tag stating that it is D.B. Cooper loot recovered from the banks of the Columbia River and that its serial numbers match the FBI’s list of ransom bills.
The $134,200 result creates an unusual comparison more than half a century after the hijacking. Cooper demanded $200,000 in 1971, consisting of 10,000 $20 bills. One damaged $20 fragment from that haul has now sold for 6,710 times its original face value and, by itself, brought more than half of the amount Cooper took that night.
The bill’s story begins with the November 24, 1971 hijacking of a Northwest Orient flight traveling between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. After receiving the ransom, Cooper parachuted from the aircraft and vanished. Heritage describes the case as the only unsolved air piracy criminal case in American aviation history. For years, none of the ransom money was known to have resurfaced. That changed on February 10, 1980, when eight-year-old Brian Ingram was preparing a sandy spot for a campfire during a family outing along the Columbia River in Washington. He uncovered three deteriorated bundles of $20 bills totaling $5,800. Despite years of exposure to the elements, the money was still held together in bundles with rubber bands.
The FBI confirmed that the recovered cash was part of Cooper’s ransom. According to Heritage, the find consisted of two groups of 100 $20 bills and another group of 90. The recovered money was eventually divided between Ingram and Northwest Orient’s insurer, Royal Globe Insurance, while the FBI retained 14 examples as evidence in 1986.
Not all surviving Cooper fragments are equally desirable. Heritage notes that collectors particularly seek examples retaining enough of their serial numbers to make the connection to the FBI ransom list readily identifiable, and the bill sold Thursday preserves nearly all of both serial numbers. It also retains much of Andrew Jackson’s portrait, the Treasury and Federal Reserve District seals, the series designation, obligation clause and the printed signature of Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy.
The surviving fragment measures approximately 4.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches high. Heritage said it may be the largest D.B. Cooper ransom note the auction house has offered, or at least a very close second.
Its provenance also extends beyond the PCGS holder. The lot included a copy of Richard T. Tosaw’s 1984 book “D.B. Cooper Dead or Alive? The True Story of the Legendary Skyjacker.” Tosaw wrote inside the book that he had placed the $20 bill inside it for shipment and told the recipient that they were now the owner of “one of the Cooper bills.” The book reproduces the FBI’s list of all 10,000 ransom serial numbers, including L32796069A.