The initial description is clumsy and uninteresting. I can't really picture how this was stored, and the lack of description of the attacks was a wasted opportunity. I don't really see what the letter adds (e.g., it's a story thread that's just thrown out and never resolved), whereas more description of the attacks throughout history would've added some depth and mental images.
Including the dollar amount seems silly. Precious metals change in value all the time, and "2,500'<unit>s of silver, or gold and gemstomes equivalent in value" or something like that is a much meatier image. If you want to include the dollar amount, I would put that down in the section where they discover the financial link.
The reuse of decommissioning was… fine. The form was an interesting addition. I don't like the footnote: marking it as a change in policy rather than just a truth in this article's canon feels like an attempt to explain irl site culture in-universe, and I don't really like the stories that leads to (especially if the bar seems low, which having a short form, even if neat, implies). If you just wanted to include a narrative thread about this department being founded, this was a really uninteresting way to do that.
The best ideas in the article were around the temporal/monetary shenanigans. Those were quite good.
No vote.
