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A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution forgotten inside a filing cabinet sold on Thursday for a $9 million hammer price, Andrew Brunk, the owner of the auction house managing the sale, confirmed to CBS News.
Originally scheduled to be auctioned on Sept. 28 in Asheville, North Carolina by Brunk Auctions the sale was delayed due to Hurricane Helene.
It took just seven minutes to clinch the final sale price – with bids coming in at $500,000 intervals. Most bids – roughly 10 – were placed over the phone, two bids were online, and one buyer was at the North Carolina auction in person, said Brunk.
Brunk said the final price including the buyer’s premium was $11,070,000 – and the buyer remained anonymous.
“To go from a filing cabinet in Edenton, North Carolina to being sold for $11 million is quite a journey,” said Brunk.
Brunk Auctions
The nearly 237-year-old document was found in a nondescript squat metal filing cabinet at Hayes Farm, an 184-acre plantation in Edenton, North Carolina. In 2022, when the property was cleared out after being sold to the state to be converted into a public historic site a copy of the constitution was found in the filing cabinet.
Brunk Auctions/CBS News Philadelphia
Samuel Johnston, the governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 owned the farm – and oversaw the state convention that ratified the Constitution.
One hundred of the U.S. Constitution were printed after a heated debate at the site of what today is the Federal Hall National Memorial in New York City. Congress resolved to send it to the states for ratification.
A handful of those copies are known to still be in existence – including the one sold on Thursday.
contributed to this report.
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