Only 8 of these copies of the U.S. Constitution exist and are up for auction
Only 8 copies of these U.S. Constitutions exist – this one is up for auction 04:35
A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution that had been forgotten in a filing cabinet sold for a hammer price of $9 million on Thursday, Andrew Blank, owner of the auction house managing the sale, confirmed to CBS News.
It was originally scheduled to be auctioned by Blank Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 28, but the sale was postponed due to Hurricane Helen.
Bids were placed in $500,000 increments, and it took just seven minutes to determine the final sale price. Blank said most of the bids (about 10) were made by phone, two were placed online and one buyer attended the auction in North Carolina in person.
Blank said the final price, including buyer’s premium, was $11.07 million and the buyer was anonymous.
“It’s a long way from a filing cabinet in Edenton, North Carolina, to being sold for $11 million,” Blank said.
A copy of the 1787 U.S. Constitution was discovered in a filing cabinet in Edenton, North Carolina.
The approximately 237-year-old document was discovered in a nondescript metal file cabinet at Hayes Farm, a 184-acre farm in Edenton, North Carolina. In 2022, when the land was sold to the state as a public historic site and cleared, a copy of the Constitution was discovered in a filing cabinet.
Take a closer look at the only known privately owned signed instrument of ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Blank Auction/CBS News Philadelphia
Samuel Johnston, governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789, owned the farm and oversaw the state convention that ratified the Constitution.
After a heated debate at the site of what is now Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City, 100 copies of the U.S. Constitution were printed. Congress resolved to send it to the states for ratification.
A small number of those copies are known to still exist, including the one sold on Thursday.
Lucia Suarez Sang contributed to this report.
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