> 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
Received on Mon Apr 03 2000 - 09:17:14 BST