ASHEVILLE, North Carolina: A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified was sold for $9 million at an auction Thursday evening in North Carolina.
Brunk Auctions sold the document, the only copy of its type thought to be privately owned, at a private auction. The name of the buyer was not immediately released. Bidding took just over seven minutes, with bids coming in at $500,000 intervals mostly over the phone.
There was a pause at $8.5 million, then another after someone on the phone bid $9 million. "Just another second or two.
Savor it a little bit selling here at nine million,” said auctioneer and auction house owner Andrew Brunk. Brunk was thankful. The auction was originally set for September 28 but was delayed after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage throughout Asheville and western North Carolina.
"It's a privilege to have it here. It's been quite a ride,” Brunk said. The copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the proposed framework of the nation’s government in 1787 and sent it to the Congress of the ineffective first American government under the Articles of Confederation, requesting it be sent to the states to be ratified by the people.
It’s one of about 100 copies printed by the secretary of that Congress, Charles Thomson. Just eight are known to still exist and the other seven are publicly owned. Thomson likely signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, e.