Original US Constitution Found in a Cabinet
A significant piece of U.S. history has been uncovered and is expected to fetch $20 million at auction. In preparation for the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 100 copies of the U.S. Constitution were printed, but only eight were signed by Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress. These signed copies were sent to each state for delegates to review.
One of these signed copies was recently discovered in a North Carolina home, making it the only privately owned signed copy in the country. It’s now up for auction at Brunk Auctioneers, where the opening bid of $1 million has already been met. The document was found by a family that had maintained the Hayes Plantation in Edenton, previously owned by Samuel Johnston, North Carolina’s governor from 1787 to 1789, and the person who ratified the Constitution for the state. The family had held the plantation for seven generations, but while preparing to transfer the property to the state as a historic site, a large-scale cleanout revealed the signed Constitution.
“We wouldn’t be surprised if it sells for $20 million, though it could go higher or lower. Another copy sold for $42.3 million at Sotheby’s,” said Andrew Brunk, CEO of the auction house, in an interview with CBS News. The document is preserved as two sheets containing eight pages, with the famous “We the People” in the top right. A resolution from the Confederation Congress is also attached, explaining the document’s purpose and what state officials should do with it.