Any possibility they bundled the money into larger bundles?

A bundle consists of 1,000 notes of the same denomination in ten equal straps of 100 notes each.

Not according to the guy who bundled the money. Larry talked to him, several times. The bundles consisted of groups of $1k to $2k each. Two to three bands per bundle.

Given the description I have from Brian Ingram who talked to his mother, the band-remnants that were still on the bundles were completely ossified and brittle and "rubbed off and turned to dust when touched or rubbed". Keep in mind the Ingrams were trying to clean this money to present it to a bank for reimbursement.

The next question is, what chemical stages had these bands passed through prior to the Ingram's having the money - it is that information which might shed light on the environment the money had been in prior to the Ingrams finding it. And that information is probably going to require lab work to ascertain.

There were no paper straps on any of the bundles - that has been verified by the bank person who wrapped the bundles with two or three bands per bundle. The money was run through a counting machine and then immediately bundled by hand and wrapped with rubber bands.

Since we don't know what the rubber bands looked like when they found the bills. is it possible the money simply out lived the bands? could they have failed several years prior to the find, but stayed attached?

Yes, assuming that the money didn't undergo any great stresses during that time.  I have had numerous instances of where such things as log books in my closet, and kept together with rubber bands, had the bands break but they were still stuck to the log books.  They had to be carefully pulled off the books.

It's just amazing that even the FBI has different stories about the money. one states 4 bundles, Pringle states one bundle of several bundles given to Cooper.

The Photo, I realize it has paper bands on the bundle, but was more curious about the way it was bundled. that would be similar to what Pringle stated.

Read the link to this thread below. anything make sense, or just people guessing?

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Thats a nice blog. Funny. Try:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Since we don't know what the rubber bands looked like when they found the bills. is it possible the money simply out lived the bands? could they have failed several years prior to the find, but stayed attached?

You saw the Feynman video. Bands consist of long molecular chains with sulfur bonds. In a relaxed state the molecules want to kink roll back on themselves at an ambient temperature. In a stretched state stress is placed on the atomic bonds bonding the long chain molecules together. Temperature of the bands goes up. As Feynman says these long chained molecules are constantly being attacked by free atoms around them.

In a relaxed state these molecules want to roll up and segment - see relaxed aged band photo.

In a stretched state in a cool environment the molecules will simply lose all elasticity and dry out (possibly crystalise) but the long chain molecules will break into segments, especially at the sulfur bond points, leaving once intact bands as a series of small broken segments of what were once joined molecular groups.  The presence of ozone, oxygen, uv light, etc all simply speed this process up.

You can see this 'segmentation' happening in the rubber band at rest photo. This is a chemical breakdown due to the forces Feynman outlined, and the band is not even stretched. If the bands never go above 68*F then they will never enter what is called the 'melt transition phase' which is where bands turn 'gooey' as they degenerate chemically. From all descriptions, the Ingram bands never went through that phase probably because they never were at 68*F or above and those bands simply dried out, went through molecular degeneration and segmented into lots of crumbly particles ... all still in a line with some pieces clinging to the fibers in the paper. That is probably what they mean by "bands were still intact". Any idea that those bands were still viable would require strong proof to believe. And again, only a lab analysis will answer these questions.

I think some of these band fragments still exist if somebody wants to turn them over for analysis.

Conclusion: The news from the bands on the Ingram find is that the money was never at 68*F or above during at least the first several years after Cooper had it. That means it was in a cool to cold environment. This is based on the description of the bands by the Ingrams I have.


       

Quote

Conclusion: The news from the bands on the Ingram find is that the money was never at 68*F or above during at least the first several years after Cooper had it. That means it was in a cool to cold environment. This is based on the description of the bands by the Ingrams I have.

Possibly in the bag underwater?

That's a possibility.

On the other hand if analysis showed band pieces melted and sunken into the fibres on a bill that would indicate the money experienced over 68*F some time in its early history and the bands went through a 'gooey' phase and that would be an interesting finding. Let me quickly say Tom found no such evidence that I am aware of. I am not even sure that he found any band particles? We could be talking about this fifty years from today.   

I'm not sure if this matters, but when the money bundles became encased in the sand, the rubber bands were no longer needed to hold them together.  The pressure from the surrounding sand would hold the bundles together and the remnants of the rubber bands would simply be decorations.