A rare copy of the United States Constitution, printed 237 years ago and sent to the states for ratification, was sold for $9 million in a private auction organized by Brunk Auctions in North Carolina. This particular copy is considered the only one of its kind in private hands, and the identity of the buyer has not been revealed.

The auction lasted just over seven minutes, with bids increasing in $500,000 increments, most of which were made over the phone. Auctioneer Andrew Brunk highlighted the excitement of the moment and expressed gratitude for the interest in the document, which was originally scheduled to be auctioned on September 28 but was postponed due to damage caused by Hurricane Helene in Asheville.

Photo: Jeffrey Collins/AP.

The sold copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the framework for the national government. It is one of the 100 copies printed by Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress at the time; of these, only eight still exist, with the other seven being publicly owned. The fate of the document from the time of its signing until its discovery in 2022 remains a mystery.

You may also be interested in its Spanish version: Venden copia de la Constitución de Estados Unidos por US$ 9 millones

The document was found in a property in Edenton, North Carolina, that belonged to Samuel Johnston, a governor who oversaw the ratification of the Constitution. It was discovered in a metal filing cabinet, accompanied by a letter from George Washington requesting ratification, which acknowledged the need for compromises for the nation’s welfare.

In addition to the Constitution, the auction featured other historical documents, such as a draft of the Articles of Confederation from 1776, which sold for $1 million, and a diary from the North Carolina Convention of 1788, which fetched $85,000. Auction organizers had no clear precedents for estimating the value of the Constitution, recalling that the last time a similar copy was sold was in 1891 for only $400. In 2021, one of the 14 remaining copies sold for a record $43.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York.