01.13.01
clue=Can anybody identify that coin?  It looks like one of the Medicis or like one in a museum in
Florence but I don't  have access to a coin catalog here.  It might have been in Milan but the point is
it looks like a Medici coin or medallion they had on display in one of those two places.  Did the
webmaster write 5:50 on the thing or was it in the original?  It really looks more something past 50 and
it isn't 5 yet, kind of like 452 or 453.  If it is 453, then Florence is almost for sure connected with
this.
name=xoxox

01.28.01
email=jessica@augustsson.net
clue=A question...Why does the time 4:53 refer to Florence?  I'm intrigued!

email=jessica@augustsson.net
clue=The leitmotiv is another biblical quote.  It's from Luke Chapter 12:

47 - And that servant who knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 

48 - But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For
everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of
him they will ask the more. 

clue=Oh, forgot to mention...

You're note on the black object there asks ever-so-politely if it's a translator, but I was thinking it
might be an encryption device.  Anybody else know anything more about that subject?
name=Jessica Augustsson

I would guess that it is an encryption device.  Look at what you have:

Device {hebrew/stamp (code?)}device to transpose scale.

Add to that the fact that on your device for transposing scale you have time and 
money. 

If it is an encryption device then I see :
Encryption device{cyphertext} time transposed to money.

name:  Bob

clue:  A bit more on the Leitmotiv: It's a variation on a quote associated with JFK, though I can't remember in which speech 
he
used it. The following is from a letter sent in to US News after they mentioned the quote:

President John F. Kennedy based the words "For of those to whom much is given, much is required," on a quotation from the 
Gospel of
St. Luke 12:48. Jesus said: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one trusted with much, 
much
more will be expected."

 More about Beethoven, the date 11/28/1817, 23 bars, and B minor: 

In December of 1999, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned off a manuscript of a piece of music (Allegretto in B minor for
string quartet) composed by Beethoven and dated November 28, 1817.  The composition had never been published before.  

The piece, a short movement of 23 bars, was discovered among the papers of the Molesworth St Aubyn family in Cornwall. 

"When I saw it, I knew it was Beethoven's hand but I couldn't put it in the context of Beethoven's work," said Stephen Roe, head of
books and manuscripts at Sotheby's auction house. 

The manuscript was acquired by the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, who bid the most money ever paid for a single sheet of a Ludwig van
Beethoven manuscript:  £166,500.  

Here is the Sotheby's press release for the manuscript:  http://www.shareholder.com/bid/news/19991007-11261.cfm

And here is the BBC online news site where you can hear the first recorded performance of the piece: 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/467734.stm
 

Curious about xoxox...who would catch you that matters except for perhaps those placing the ads, or their "enemies"?  And
why the blatant clue-giving regarding P2, because there was nothing remotely obvious in this ad relating the time/number 453 to
Florence.  We may be good researchers, and most of us aren't on the dumb side, but mind readers, probably less likely.  ;)

In any case, Brian, that long analysis I sent on Propaganda Due might be better placed here. (With a link from the Dec. 2002
page...?)

Link supplied by the webmaster appears is dead but co ordinates appear to be Monte Carlo according to
multimap:

RE: possible translation device. I forget which date but there was a comment about "calibrate the rotors..."
and a 3 letter code.

To me that says Enigma device (has 3 rotors that can be set to any lette of the alphabet)

The depicted machine is an Enigma machine.

The verse in Hebrew is Bereishit 27:22 "The voice is Yaakov's voice, and the hands are Esav's hands." 
27 is the same as 27 on the poststamp ?

what does xoxox mean?

"Kisses and hugs," if that's what "xoxox" is supposed to mean, exaggerates the business about P2. The Italian Parliament
published a list of members' names in 1981, including Marras's, ten years before this ad. Books had been written in English about
the entire affair by then. And it didn't exactly fly under the conspiracists' radar.

I don't think the Bretton Woods Conference/System is a coincidence at all. I think it is definitely a reference to the well known economic arrangements set up at the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944 in BW, HH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Monetary_and_Financial_Conference

I've been trying to hunt down this medal for the longest time, with a
few close matches. 

This one of Cromwell:
http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=118095&AucID=99&Lot=1328

and this one of Luther:
http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=535609&AucID=389&Lot=1327

xoxoxo's theory that you can find this medal in a museum is plausible, but i
believe it would be much easier to find this medal in this book:
http://cgi.ebay.com/COINS-AND-MEDALS-OF-MARTIN-LUTHER-AND-THE-REFORMATION_W0QQit
emZ230258797598QQihZ013QQcategoryZ548QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trk
sidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

And believe me if i had the money i'd buy it right now.

Please allow me to submit a clue for the January 15th, 2000 delivery. I have
identified the coin. I'm currently narrowing down to a more specific type and
will soon be ready to post my findings.

The device pictured on the left in the announcement is a Matrix Interpreter, a 5-language handheld translator:

http://i.imgur.com/YhDuWzG.jpg

(bhance's comment: nice find! I have been wondering about that device for years and years. )

 Is the device in question a form of stenography machine? Thoughts?

The device on the left is a handheld interpreter, specifically the Matrix brand handheld speaking interpreter MkII model TP8002