Chapter 1138: Gold
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Gold was a soft metal, the purer the softer. Therefore, it often appeared on TV that
people would bite into gold to gauge its purity.
Generally, the naturally occurring metal was an alloy of gold and bra.s.s. Bra.s.s was very
hard, so biting it would not only fail to leave a mark but might even break some teeth.
As the treasure hunters stared, they saw a sharp tooth mark on the metal plate that
Hans had just bitten. The two rows of teeth marks were very neat, and the bite revealed
a more dazzling yellow!
The scene made everyone envious, and the crowd came forward, pus.h.i.+ng and shoving.
G.o.dzilla held up the hydraulic jack and said coldly, “Are your bones harder than iron?”
The treasure hunters were startled. A man who rushed to the front looked up at
G.o.dzilla’s sulky face and said wryly, “No, no, man, you misunderstand me. Look, I have
magnets here.”
“Yeah, my buddy just got a big magnet. You know he can help you identify this thing,”
his partner quickly explained. G.o.dzilla and the hydraulic jack were not a threat to trifle
with.
A magnet was also a crude way to test gold. Gold was not a magnetic metal, so if
something could attract a magnet, it was not gold.
However, pure bra.s.s was not a magnetic metal either, so this was just a crude way of
testing. The treasure hunter was merely trying to find an excuse for himself.
The scavenger took the magnet and turned it in his hands. Then he whipped around
and said, “This is gold, it has no magnetism!”
Someone shouted, “The magnet test is useless, use unglazed ceramics to make sure.
Big Li, Big Fox, unglazed ceramics can test the authenticity of gold.”
Unglazed ceramics would leave a golden trail across gold, and a black trail upon other
metals. This was indeed a reliable method.
Li Du waved casually, indicating that he approved of the idea. There were ceramics in
the warehouse, and someone went to find a plate. Soon, he ran back in high spirits.
Hans, who was crouching inside the car, examined the metal plate carefully. When the
treasure hunter came near, Hans pushed him away and said happily, “No need to test.
This is definitely gold!”
Conrad said in displeasure, “Just because you checked it with your teeth? Is that a
scientific method now?”
The other treasure hunters laughed, and Conrad, feeling that he won the argument,
laughed with equal pleasure.
“Stupid man,” said Hans. “My mouth is one thing, but I also have eyes. They can tell me
things too.”
He asked Li Du to stand on the step and look at it, pointing excitedly at the front of the
metal plate.
Li Du looked and said, “There are a few letters here. FRB-Dallas, I think, followed by
11? What does that mean?”
“FRB-Dallas 11 is short for Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The 11 is the district
number,” exulted Hans.
A few people came running over, avoiding G.o.dzilla. They jumped on the roof of the car
for a better look and said, “Really, that’s FRB-Dallas 11, this is Federal Reserve gold!”
The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States was the world’s most powerful bank,
the world’s largest source of dollars and gold. It was located at 33 Liberty Avenue in
New York.
The bank actually included twelve banks and twenty-five regional branches throughout
the United States. Dallas was the home of bank number 11, known as the 11th Federal
Reserve.
Under Federal Reserve Bank rules, the nation’s gold reserves were distributed among
the vaults of a dozen banks and then deployed by headquarters in New York.
Local gold went first to its regional reserves, where it was stored as bullion and stamped
with the regional reserve code.
For example, FBR-Dallas (11) referred to gold belonging to the Federal Reserve area
no. 11, which belongs to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“This is definitely real gold, district 11 federal reserve gold ingots pressed into a gold
plate. I’m not wrong, this has to be it,” said Hans optimistically.
Conrad laughed. “Who would be so foolish as to press gold bars from the Federal
Reserve into gold plates? And in the border area, too? This is so funny…”
As he said this, something seemed to strike him, and he suddenly shut his mouth, his
eyes glazing over.
“G.o.d,” said a treasure hunter, “This is the gold that was stolen from the Dallas bank on
the plane, right? D. B Cooper gold?”
As soon as he said it, many people spoke at once,
“Is the sign FRB-Dallas 11? That’s the gold that was stolen from the plane in Dallas,
right?”
“Oh my G.o.d, we have witnessed a legend! It’s true, it’s the gold!”
“Quickly, weigh it, Li. D.B Cooper had taken one hundred and twenty kilograms of gold!”
Puzzled, Li Du looked at Hans and asked, “What are they so excited about? What is
that D.B Cooper gold?”
Hans excitedly grabbed Li Du’s his collar and asked, “D.B Cooper gold, the great gold
robbery of the seventies! You don’t know about it?”
Li Du pushed him aside and said, “That was before I was even born! I don’t know what
happened in America then.”
Hans exclaimed, “Well, you should have read about it! It’s still on the FBI’s website, and
the topic gets TV coverage every now and then.”
“Anyway, I don’t know anything about it. Are you going to tell me anything or not?” said
Li Du impatiently.
Hans said, holding up his hand, “Don’t be angry, bro, don’t be angry. I will tell you now if
you really don’t know. Of course, it’s a really long story…”
“Speak already!”
“OK, OK,” Hans licked his lips. “It happened in 1971, when the Dallas bank transferred a
s.h.i.+pment of gold to Los Angeles.”
“You know, that was at the peak of the cold war, when the country was allocating a lot
of resources to defense and military, so you had to be frugal in other places, like banks.”
“Now the bank usually transferred gold using a special plane, but at that time it had not
done so. At that time they took advantage of a civil flight going to the same destination
to deliver it.”
“So, a guy named D.B Cooper got on the plane, and when the plane was halfway up, he
took out his suitcase and pulled out a bomb…”
“Big Fox, it didn’t happen that way. Let me tell Big Li about it,” said one of the treasure
hunters. “The man was not called D.B Cooper. That was a nonsense name created by
the media. His name was Dan Cooper, and I’m sure of it because my grandfather was
one of the hostages on the plane!”