Hello Aaron
On 03-Apr-00, you wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if someone stole this
model just to get enough
public awareness and hype behind it to make a killing selling their own
legitimate unit...can you imagine what a basic Enigma *could* bring on
eBay now, since people all over the world know how rare and priceless they
are now? (And how much they're worth: $100K!)
We'll probably find out soon enough...
Cheers,
Aaron
On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Hans Franke wrote:
>> An Enigma machine used by the Nazis to send coded messages during World
War
>> Two, has been stolen from the code-cracking
Station X at Bletchley Park,
>> Buckinghamshire. The machine, worth about ?100,000, is one of only
three
in
>> the world. It was brought to the UK after the
war.
>
>> I bet it was somebody on this list who grabbed it! Fess up! ;-)
>
> Pssst.
>
>> I see it as another sign of how serious our hobby is becoming. Its
valued
at 100,000 pounds! I wonder what it will fetch on
ebay? ;-)
Well, I don't know what configuration the Enigma in question had,
but for a basic 3 or even 4 wheel type with no extensions etc.
a real price is between 10 and 20 thausand Marks (~5-10 kUSD,
3 to 6 kGBP). Last I've seen on a German auction was a setup
a 3 wheel machine, one add on box (realy rare) and a set of
3 additional wheels (exchange for code change). The lot was
sold at 21 kDM (~10kUSD, ~6kGBP), and thats way below the
named 100kGBP (~300kDM, ~150kUSD). Well, again a hyped up
price. Of course, with the usual ignorants, eBay may rocket
the price somewhat near the mentioned sum.
And for the rarity, again it depends on the Enigma type,
and especialy on the type of the add on boxes and even more
what additional wheeles are available - as with computer
collections, the additional stuff is more worth than the
basic unit. For example, the Lorenz SZ42 is maybe priceless,
since only two remaining units are known. But dozends of
basic enigmas are still alife, and several are displayed
in museums around the world.
So, just forget about the media hype.
Servus
Hans
--
VCF Europa am 29./30. April 2000 in Muenchen
http://www.vintage.org/vcfe
http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe
Maybe all they wanted is secure internet encryption and didn't like PGP . .
.
I can just imagine -- an enigma tied into a net server somehwere.
Gary Hildebrand