Rare copy of Constitution will go up for bids this week

Brunk Auctions of Asheville, N.C., will put the recently discovered document up for bids on Sept. 28, starting at $1 million with expectations to go significantly higher.

The document is one of about eight known copies of a draft of the Constitution that was sent to states to be ratified by the people. It was discovered two years ago in a metal filing cabinet when a property that once belonged to North Carolina’s governor during the late 1780s was being cleared out. The draft came with a letter from George Washington asking that it be ratified.

This copy of the Constitution is a bit different than the ones that hit the auction block in 2021, when a crypto collective calling itself ConstitutionDAO announced it would be bidding on a Sotheby’s auction for a historic first printing of the Constitution via crowdfunding.

The group raised $40 million, but was outbid by hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who topped the bids at $43.2 million.

That document was printed for the Continental Congress and its delegates. This latest one was sent to the states and is less grandiose in appearance. For instance, the words “We the People” are in the same typeface as the rest of the document, rather than the flowing script people are so used to seeing.

The last time a copy of the Constitution like the one Brunk Auctions is offering went up for bids, it sold for just $400. That was in 1891, however. After Griffin’s jaw-dropping 2021 purchase price, which topped Sotheby’s forecast for $15 million-$20 million, and another subsequent auction, the sky’s the limit for collectors these days.