One of only eight surviving ratified copies of the U.S. Constitution discovered in an old filing cabinet in North Carolina soon will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The starting price is $1 million but it’s expected to go for much more than that.
Brunk Auctions , a North Carolina-based auction house, is facilitating the sale of the document, which was found in 2022.
It is only one of eight known surviving signed ratification copies of the document, according to Brunk Auctions. And the sale, which is set to take place on Sept. 28, is the last and only other recorded sale of a similar document since 1891, the auction house said.
Here’s what you need to know.
More about the Constitution and how many copies were made
Only a fraction of the 100 copies of the Constitution were signed by then-Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson. Thomson was tasked with sending the copies to state legislatures in the 13 original colonies after the Confederation Congress met on Sept. 28, 1787.
It is that resolution, along with Thomson’s signature, that makes the present copy an official ratified edition of the Constitution, according to the auction house. The copy of the Constitution will be auctioned on the 237th anniversary of the day Congress passed the ratification resolution.