Original copy of the US Constitution – Credit: Brunk Auctions

An incredible piece of US history has been found, and is expected to bring $20 million at auction.

In the lead-up to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, 100 copies of the US Constitution were printed, but only 8 of them were signed by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, for the official purpose of being brought to each state for the delegates therein to deliberate on.

One of those 8 copies was just discovered inside a house in North Carolina, making it the only privately owned signed copy or the Constitution in the country. It’s now going up for auction at Brunk Auctioneers, and the opening bid of $1 million has already been met.

The family that found the historic document had been stewards of the Hayes Plantation in Edenton, on a property formerly owned by Samuel Johnston, who was North Carolina’s Governor from 1787 to 1789, and was the individual who ratified the document in the state.

They had kept the plantation for 7 generations, but in the process of passing it into the hands of the state to become a historic property, a massive cleanout of generations of items had to be undertaken. It was during this process that the signed copy was found.

“It wouldn’t surprise us for it to go for $20 million dollars, could be less could be more; another copy of the Constitution sold at Sotheby’s for $42.3 million,” said Andrew Brunk, the auction house’s CEO, in an interview with CBS News.

One page of the U.S. Constitution document – Released by Brunk Auctions

The document was preserved pre-cut, so the 8 pages remain on two sheets, with the famous preamble starting with “We The People” located in the top right. Also attached is a resolution from the (Articles of the) Confederation Congress to send the document to the states to ratify, explaining what it is, what’s to be done with it, and what the drafters think the state governors and congresses should do.

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“Let’s hear it for a discovery that gets us thinking about the amazing set of ideas that make us a country,” exclaimed Lauren Brunk in an email to GNN from her boutique auction house in North Carolina.

WATCH the interview from CBS News… For Those Outside the US, Watch HERE…

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