Copy of U.S. Constitution sent to the states for ratification in 1788 up for auction

A signed copy of the U.S. Constitution, one of 100 sent to the states ahead of their vote to ratify it in 1788, is being sold by Brunk Auctions in Asheville, North Carolina, later this month.

The ratification copy dates to September 1787 when it was printed in New York, and bears the signature of Charles Thomson, who served as secretary of the Continental Congress until the position was abolished following the implementation of the U.S. Constitution, according to the item’s lot page.

The copy being sold is the ninth ratification copy known to have been signed by Thomson and sent to the first 13 U.S. states, per the Brunk Auctions website.

“This is the point of connection between the government and the people. The Preamble — ’we the people’ — this is the moment the government is asking the people to empower them,” Brunk Auctions CEO Andrew Brunk told The Associated Press.

There are eight ratification copies in institutional hands, Brunk Auctions said. The only other time one of the copies reached auction was in 1891, and it is not known if that specific copy is one of the eight held by institutions.

The current and minimum bid for the constitution copy is $1 million, and it will reach the auction block on Sept. 28, the 237th anniversary of the Continental Congress’ vote to start the process of ratifying what would become the U.S. Constitution.

Before heading to auction, the copy was held privately at the historic Hayes Plantation in Edenton, North Carolina, which was once owned by North Carolina Gov. Samuel Johnston, who presided over the state’s ratification convention.

Until its 2022 discovery in an old filing cabinet ahead of the plantation’s sale to the state of North Carolina, the copy stayed at the plantation and with the Wood family who acquired the property in 1865, Brunk Auctions said in a release.

Brunk Auctions has not disclosed the identity of the copy’s seller.