📜 SOLD: Rare Copy of US Constitution Up For Auction In NC, Printed in 1787

A rare copy of the US Constitution sells for $9 million at auction, AP News, Updated 8:11 PM EDT, October 17, 2024
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified was sold for $9 million at an auction Thursday evening in North Carolina.

Brunk Auctions sold the document, the only copy of its type thought to be privately owned, at a private auction. The name of the buyer was not immediately released.

Bidding took just over seven minutes, with bids coming in at $50,000 intervals mostly over the phone. There was a pause at $8.5 million, then another after someone on the phone bid $9 million...
https://apnews.com/article/us-constitution-copy-auction-3f119771b09b604420305e87d0a7b976#:~:text=October%2017%2C%202024-,ASHEVILLE%2C%20N.C.,owned%2C%20at%20a%20private%20auction.
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- 'Rare copy of US constitution up for auction expected to sell for millions,' The Guardian, Oct. 17, 2024. - Document printed in 1787 to be sold in North Carolina, where minimum bid of $1m has already been made
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A rare copy of the US constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified is being auctioned on Thursday evening in North Carolina. Brunk Auctions is selling the copy, the only of its type thought to be in private hands. The minimum bid of $1m has already been made. There is no minimum price that must be reached.

This copy was printed after the constitutional convention finished drafting the proposed framework of the nation’s government in 1787 and sent it to the Congress of the ineffective first American government under the Articles of Confederation, requesting they send it to the states to be ratified by the people. It is one of about 100 copies printed by the secretary of that Congress, Charles Thomson. Just eight are known to still exist and the other seven are publicly owned.

Thomson probably signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, essentially certifying them. What happened to the document up for auction between Thomson’s signature and 2022 is not known. Two years ago, a property was being cleared out in Edenton in eastern North Carolina that was once owned by Samuel Johnston. He was the governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 and oversaw the state convention during his last year in office that ratified the constitution.

The copy was found inside a squat, two-drawer metal filing cabinet with a can of stain on top, in a long-neglected room piled high with old chairs and a dusty bookcase, before the old Johnston house was preserved. The document was a broad sheet that could be folded one time like a book. Along with the constitution on the broad sheet printed front and back is a letter from George Washington asking for ratification. He acknowledged there would have to be compromise and that rights the states enjoyed would have to be given up for the nation’s long-term health...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/17/rare-constitution-auction