A 237-year-old ultra-rare copy of the US Constitution has already attracted a $1-million opening bid at an upcoming auction.
The document was discovered in the home of Samuel Johnson in 2022. It is a single copy of about 100 that were made after the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
The document will be sold at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina at a sale that goes live, in-person on September 28.
The copies were sent to the new nation’s Congress (this government didn’t last) for them to send to the states of the US for them to ratify it by some sort of democratic process.
Samuel Johnson was at the time the Governor of North Carolina and chaired the state’s convention to ratify the Constitution.
Samuel Johnson was the sixth governor of North Carolina.
This copy is believed to be the only one of its type still in private hands.
It was found in Edenton when a property that Johnson once owned was cleared out. It sat inside a standard metal filing cabinet. Apparently with a can of wood stain on top of it.
The document also comes with a letter from George Washington recommending it for ratification.
The auction, in Asheville North Carolina, will also sell a first draft of the Articles of Confederation and an account of the North Carolina convention that ratified the constitution.
There is no estimate on the document, but it has already attracted a $1-million opening bid.
Document appraiser Seth Kaller told CNN: “I get calls every week from people who think they have a Declaration of Independence or a Gettysburg Address and most of the time it is just a replica, but every so often something important gets found.
“This is a whole other level of importance.”
The founding documents of the United States are extremely desirable.
Early versions of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States all command huge prices. The autographs of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence are among the most valuable signatures in US collecting.
In 2021 a copy of the Constitution prepared for the Continental Congress realised $43.2 million to become the most valuable document ever sold at auction.
This document is of a type so rare that there are no modern comparisons. The last record of a copy of the constitution sent to the states being sold is from 1891. It made $400.
Earlier this year Sothebys sold a collection of founding documents from the collection of Dr Rodney P Swantko.
These were very fine early printings of these documents, meant to be shared and widely read.
A copy of the Declaration of Independence realised $3.3 million; a United States Constitution made $1 million (exceeding its top estimate of $1 million); a copy of the Bill of Rights realised $1.2 million.
