A North Carolina man found one of only eight remaining ratified copies of the U.S. Constitution in an old filing cabinet. It will soon be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The price starts at $1 million, but it’s likely to sell for a lot more.
The record was found in 2022, and it is being sold by Brunk Auctions, an auction shop in North Carolina.
Brunk Auctions says it is one of only eight known signed copies of the paper that are still around. The auction house said that the sale on September 28 will be the last and only known sale of a document like this since 1891.
Here’s what you need to know.
More about the Constitution and how many copies were made
Charles Thomson, who was Secretary of Congress at the time, signed very few of the 100 copies of the Constitution that were made. After the 13 original colonies’ state governments met on September 28, 1787, Thomson was given the job of sending copies to them.
According to the auction house, that vote and Thomson’s signature are what make this copy of the Constitution an official one signed by the people. On the day that Congress passed the ratification motion 237 years ago, the copy of the Constitution will be put up for auction.
Auctioneer Andrew Brunk said in a statement that James Madison wrote that the Constitution “was nothing more than a draft of a plan, nothing but a dead letter, until life and validity were breathed into it by the voice of the people, speaking through several state conventions.”
As Brunk says, “this simple-looking version is what started breathing life into the Constitution.”
‘Incredibly rare’ copy of the U.S. Constitution found in home
The citizens of North Carolina found the “extremely rare” paper in an old file box in 2022, when they were getting their house ready to sell.
Brunk Auctions says the house was sold to the state so it could be turned into a public historic place. The house is on a 184-acre plantation in the coastal town of Edenton. At the time, Gov. Samuel Johnston bought the land in 1765.
In 1865, it was bought by another family, who lived there until it was sold.
Market decides what Constitution copy is worth today, expert says
Specialist in old documents Seth Kaller said in a statement that the auction is a one-of-a-kind chance to own a “cornerstone of our democracy, especially at this time in our nation’s history.”
Kaller has been involved with the sale of a historical document before. In November 2021, he worked with Sotheby’s to sell a print from the Constitutional Convention for $43.2 million. In 1988, that very same paper was sold for $165,000.
Kaller says that this ratification copy is “rarer and arguably more important.”
“The seller allowed Brunk to sell it without any holds, with a $1,000,000 starting bid,” Kaller said. “What the Constitution is worth to us now will be decided by the market.”
The public will be able to get a sneak peek at the paper on Friday, September 13, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. ET at the Federal Hall National Memorial in New York.