Grand Lodge Jewels Stolen

It appears that the jewels of the Grand Lodge of California have been stolen.

From a posting on the masslodges.org website:

On June 2 the safe in the vault at the Grand Lodge Office was opened, and it was discovered that the briefcase with the Grand Lodge Officers Jewels was missing.
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The jewels are appraised at $107,000, and we have both current digital pictures of them, and an appraisal, which should help.

The email, along with photographs of the jewels in question, can be found here.

The images have been posted in an attempt for a collector to possibly ID these and help in their return. Are jewels like these normally allowed to be seen by the "public"?

More information is available in this news article.

And here's one for the conspiracy buffs:

A Google web search has multiple articles about the theft, but a Google News search turns up nothing. Proof that the Masons control the Media?

(Edited to fix Google links - they looked fine in the preview, but are broken when I post)

[edit on 7/18/2005 by Midnight Watchman]

well as long as we are being paranoid here, i wonder if this has anything to do with the increasing rumors im hearing about a nuke attack on the 9 cities. perhaps they are being safeheld?

(thats probably just hype, but what theory).

There is nothing secret about the jewels. They are used by Grand Lodge officers when opening lodges for business.

All the lodges in CA had a representative (district inspector) come in and speak to us about the jewels. They were apparently under lock and key, but the police don't suspect anyone from the Grand Lodge that normally had access to the jewels. They are estimated to be worth $150k. Interesting...

Originally posted by sebatwerk
They are estimated to be worth $150k. Interesting...

Just curious.

How old are the jewels?

Is the value based on the content of precious metals and stones, or is it based on their heirloom quality also?

Are those or are those not AASR jewels?

I thought this was the jewel for the 14°?





Edit: My mistake...

www.masonicexchange.com...



[edit on 7/18/05 by The Axeman]

I'm not sure about their sentimental value, but I do know that the jewels are large, golden and they do have diamonds and other precious stones in them. There could be anything from 10-15 of these pieces, depending on how many officers they use. I think this is where most of the value comes from, I am not sure how old they actually are.

Originally posted by df1
Is the value based on the content of precious metals and stones, or is it based on their heirloom quality also?

Quality/intracacy of workmanship can affect the price as well. For example, I have a Masonic ring that was my grandfather's, which is only 14k gold, but was appraised at over $1,000 because of the workmanship.


[edit on 7/18/2005 by JustMe74]

OK so I wasn't all wrong... That is very, very similar (if not identical) to the 14° jewel:



The rest of the SR jewels and aprons can be found here.

what leads the police to believe it was someone outside those who had access? as a police officer that would be my first thought. it's just a common sence thought.

Originally posted by umwolves123
what leads the police to believe it was someone outside those who had access? as a police officer that would be my first thought. it's just a common sence thought.

I don't know, but the memo we got at our lodge stated that the police don't think it was an "inside job".

now this is just the police officer in me talking here, i dont know anyone in your lodge and i'm not saying they did. but as a police officer my first thought would be someone who KNEW the combination, someone who KNEW what was in there, and someone who KNEW they had access to it...honestly it would scream inside job to me. it sounds alittle strange honestly. was there anything else missing from the vault at all? or was it just the jewels?

Just the jewels, and the vault was closed. They were last seen by the Grand Tyler, who put the jewels in the safe and closed it. They disappeared in a span of about 3 months I think. Like I said, I don't know why the police dont suspect any insiders. But they sure do know a lot more than we do.