Copy of US Constitution From 1787 to Be Sold at Auction

A copy of the U.S. Constitution from 1787 will be sold at auction later this month.

Earlier this month, Brunk Auctions listed the item on their website with a starting and minimum bid of $1,000,000. At the top of the first page of the document are the familiar words, though in regular type rather than the iconic sweeping Gothic script: “WE, the People …”

People will have a chance to bid on the item at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, on September 28. The item is believed to be the only type in private hands.

While the minimum bid will be starting at $1,000,000, there is no minimum price for the item that must be reached during the auction.

According to Brunk Auctions, the copy of the Constitution from 1787 is just one of 100 copies that were previously printed in New York by John McLean for Dunlap and Claypoole of Philadelphia.

“Of the 100 archetype Constitutions originally printed by McLean, only a fraction were signed by Charles Thomson, the Secretary of the Congress. Until now, only eight or nine of those signed copies were known to have survived the ages,” a description of the item on the Brunk Auctions website says. “The only prior auction appearance of a signed ratification copy of the Constitution was in 1891. We don’t know if that copy still survives, and if it does, whether it is now among the eight known institutional copies.”

While speaking with The Associated Press (AP), auctioneer Andrew Brunk said, “This is the point of connection between the government and the people. The Preamble—’we the people’—this is the moment the government is asking the people to empower them.”

The history of the document between Thomson’s signature and its appearance at auction in 2022 remains unclear.

Two years ago, a property in Edenton, eastern North Carolina, once owned by Samuel Johnston was being cleared out. Johnston, who served as North Carolina’s governor from 1787 to 1789, presided over the state convention that ratified the Constitution during his final year in office.

The copy was discovered in a two-drawer metal filing cabinet that was topped with a can of stain in a long-neglected room filled with old chairs and a dusty bookcase. The document, a broad sheet, was designed to fold once like a book.

“I get calls every week from people who think they have a Declaration of Independence or a Gettysburg Address and most of the time it is just a replica, but every so often something important gets found,” Seth Kaller, a historical document appraiser and collector, told the AP.

He added, “This is a whole other level of importance.”

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.