Rediscovered U.S. Constitution Copy Fetches $9 Million After Century-Long Obscurity

In 1787, delegates from the newly formed United States met with the intention to revise the Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1777. They ultimately created an entirely new document: the Constitution. One hundred copies were printed and sent to the 13 states for ratification. Today, eight of these copies are known to survive, and until recently, none were thought to be in private collections. That changed in 2022 when a previously unknown copy was discovered in a file cabinet. That copy sold for $9 million recently at Brunk Auctions in Asheville, N.C.

The historic document was found in a North Carolina home file cabinet.

Brunk Auctions

The copy, called the Printed Archetype of the Constitution, was found in a file cabinet at Hayes Plantation. The plantation was once the home of Samuel Johnston, State Senator of North Carolina, who presided over the state’s ratification of the Constitution. Adding to its value, the copy was signed by Charles Thomson, secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 until its end in 1789. Thomson is believed to have signed two copies for each of the 13 states.

The signature on the fourth page by the then-secretary of Congress, Charles Thomson, adds to the document’s value.

Brunk Auctions

This is the first time since 1891 that a copy of the Constitution sent to the states for ratification was sold at auction. At that time, the sale price was $400. The record price paid for a copy of the Constitution is $43.2 million by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin in 2021.

A 19th-century German copy after Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s 1851 version of Washington Crossing the Delaware sold for $250,000.

Brunk Auctions

The Brunk auction was initially scheduled for Sept. 28 but had to be postponed to Oct. 17 because of Hurricane Helene. Other lots in the auction included a first draft of the Articles of Confederation from July 12, 1776, that sold for $1 million and a 19th-century German copy after Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s 1851 version of Washington Crossing the Delaware that sold for $250,000. Leutze’s original work sold for $45 million in 2022.

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