Rare copy of US constitution up for auction expected to sell for millions

A rare copy of the US constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified is being auctioned 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’s 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 likely signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, essentially certifying them.

The document was found in a property once owned by Samuel Johnston, the governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789. Photograph: Jeffrey Collins/AP

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 will have to be compromise and that rights the states enjoyed will have to be given up for the nation’s long-term health.

Auction officials are not sure what the document might go for because there is so little to compare it to. The last time a copy of theconstitution that was sent to the states sold, it was for $400 in 1891. In 2021, Sotheby’s of New York sold one of only 14 remaining copies of the constitution printed for the continental Congress and delegates to the constitutional convention for $43.2m, a record for a book or document.

Other items up for auction in Asheville include a 1776 first draft of the articles of confederation and a 1788 journal of the convention of North Carolina at Hillsborough where representatives spent two weeks debating if ratifying the constitution would put too much power with the nation instead of the states.

The auction was originally set for 28 September, but the auction house delayed it after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage through Asheville and the rest of the North Carolina mountains.