Historic document Copy of the US Constitution sold at auction for 9 million dollars
A long-lost copy of the US Constitution has been auctioned off in North Carolina. The auction fetched nine million dollars.
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- A rare copy of the US Constitution from 1787 has been sold for nine million dollars at an auction in North Carolina.
- Bidding was in 500,000 dollar increments.
- The document was discovered two years ago on an estate in North Carolina that once belonged to Governor Samuel Johnston, who was involved in the ratification of the constitution.
After a good seven minutes, it was all over - and the historic document from 1787 changed hands: Brunk Auctions put a long-lost copy of the US Constitution under the hammer in the US state of North Carolina on Thursday evening.
As reported by CNN, the valuable document was auctioned off for nine million dollars. Bids came in in 500,000 dollar increments, most of them by telephone. Finally, there was a brief pause at eight and a half million dollars, but then someone was brave enough to bid even more.
The historic document was printed 237 years ago. Once it had been put together by the Constitutional Convention, it was sent to the states for ratification.
According to CNN, there are said to have been around 100 such copies, which were printed by the Secretary of Congress at the time, Charles Thomson. The Secretary of Congress probably signed two copies for each of the original 13 states.
Today, only eight remain. Seven are in public ownership and the copy now being auctioned was the only one in private hands. The name of the new owner is not known. So it is a real rarity.
Rare auction of constitutional history
However, the sensation was discovered two years ago, as reported by CNN. Nobody really knows which route the document took between Thomson signing it and 2022, when it was discovered.
In any case, the copy turned up when a property in Edenton in eastern North Carolina was cleared two years earlier. The house once belonged to Samuel Johnston, who had been governor of the state from 1787 to 1789. He was involved in the ratification of the constitution.
The sensational auction was one for the history books, as it is rare for such a piece of constitutional history to come under the hammer.
In 2021, one of only 14 remaining copies of the US Constitution - issued to the Continental Congress and the delegates to the Constitutional Convention - was auctioned off by New York auction house Sotheby's for 43.2 million dollars. This was a record.
