Although, given the poor state of the money, it might have been too much for a non-expert to distinguish strapping vs currency.
And then the evidence was severely compromised when they washed it off at home (leading to the rounded edges, since all fragile edges were washed off?)
Correct?
That strikes me as unlikely given that the pictures I have seen with paper-strap-bound packets has the paper strap in the middle and a rubber band affixed near each edge. This deteriorated rubber band was in the middle apparently fused directly to the bill in front and the bill in the back.
Okay. But all you're saying, is that if rubber bands secured Cooper money "somehow" there's no documentation of how they were secured.
There's lots of ways the rubber bands could have been on the Cooper money when it was delivered to cooper. Well there's probably just 4 reasonable variants.
Anyone saying they know, is just guessing. You could list a priority order, based on some assessment of issues around packaging the money that night.
For example, you could start with something saying "Why were any rubber bands used at all?"
And then decide, based on an assumption as to goal, how the rubber band(s) were oriented.
It's almost for sure, that the money was not stored in the bank vault solely with rubber bands, since they would deteriorate in the vault relatively quickly.
interesting to note there were 1934 and 1950 bills in the group delivered to Cooper. Made me wonder how long the money was in the bank vault. Probably varying amounts of time.
Poll