Fragment of D.B. Cooper Ransom Money Fetches Big Bucks at Auction

By Tim Binnall

A fragment of the ransom money procured by famed skyjacker DB Cooper reportedly sold for around ten times its estimated value at a recent auction. The $20 Federal Reserve note which produced the expensive remnant was among the three bundles of bills discovered back in 1980 by Brian Ingram during a family vacation in Vancouver, Washington. After the FBI confirmed that the money was from the infamous 1971 caper, they turned a portion of the historic loot back over to Ingram and his family, which has since sold select pieces of the ransom money to collectors.

The most recent portion of the iconic cash went up for grabs this past Saturday in a sale conducted by Milestone Auctions. The relatively small remnant of the $20 bill, seen below, features the serial number used by the FBI to confirm that it came courtesy of Cooper's caper. Prior to the sale, the auction house expected the fragment to fetch somewhere between $400 and $600. However, in a testament to the popularity of the legendary cold case, the piece sold for around ten times that price with the final bid coming in at $4,000, which is quite the return on a tiny piece of a twenty-dollar bill.