The old adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” also doubles as the ultimate collector’s fantasy.
Every garage sale, thrift store or dollar bin is an opportunity to find a diamond in the rough.
Usually that dream is applied to a rare sports card or work of art ... but the most incredible, real-life example occurred for a type of item few people even know could be collected: The Declaration of Independence.
As we celebrate America’s birthday, let’s take a look back at the one of the most remarkable — and profitable — collectible finds in history.
One day in 1989, a man was visiting a flea market in Pennsylvania and paid $4 for a painting. He had no interest in the painting itself, but purchased it instead because he liked the frame.
After buying the painting, he removed it from its frame only to find what experts would later call an "unspeakably fresh copy" of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, it was the storage in the frame that preserved it all these years.
Now, you may be saying to yourself: How could you collect the Declaration of Independence? Isn’t it displayed at the National Archives in Washington D.C.? Did Nic Cage steal it?
You would be mostly right (about the National Archives part, not Cage). But that is not the copy. It is a copy. An important one (the engrossed copy), but not the only, nor the earliest.
On the evening of July 4, 1776, Continental Congress printer John Dunlap began production on the first published copies of the Declaration of Independence. Experts disagree on exactly how many broadsides he produced (estimates range from 200 to 1,000).
These copies were used to spread the word around the colonies, sent off as messages of America’s independence from the crown. Some were pinned up in town squares, others used to read aloud to the townspeople. Many local printers in the colonies produced their own broadside copies using the Dunlaps as a reference.
The “Dunlap Broadside” printing is the most valuable of the multiple printings identified. Today, around 26 examples remain extant, with nearly all in public institutions.
As you might have guessed by now, the copy found in that picture frame at the flea market was, indeed, a Dunlap Broadside.
Just two years after it was bought for $4, it was sold at Sotheby’s for $2,420,000, establishing a record at the time for any printed piece of American history. Donald Scheer, president of Visual Equities Inc., a fine arts investment company, was the buyer.
"We thought we would add historical documents to our portfolio," Scheer told reporters. “We were prepared to pay considerably more."
Then, in 2000, it was sold to a group including Norman Lear for $8.14 million. That sale marks the last time one of the coveted Dunlaps sold publicly.
Lear would take the Declaration on tour, educating the public on its significance and exhibiting the rare document around the country.
So, the next time you go hunting for treasure at a flea market, make sure to check behind the picture frame. You might just find American history.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible content.