Rare copy of US Constitution sells at auction for $41 million

A crowd-funded bid by cryptocurrency enthusiasts to buy a rare copy of the US constitution fell short on Thursday, after the document sold to another buyer at auction for $41 million.

The identity of the winning bidder was not immediately clear, nor was it clear why the cryptocurrency group, called “ConstitutionDAO” was outbid at that price, as their crowd-funding page had amassed more than $47 million.

“Community: We did not win the bid,” ConstitutionDAO said on Twitter, promising its 17,437 contributors a refund minus transaction fees.

The extremely rare official first-edition printed copy of the US Constitution, which was adopted by America’s founding fathers in Philadelphia in 1787, had been estimated by auctioneer Sotheby’s to be worth $15 million to $20 million.

It last sold for $165,000 in 1988, when it was acquired by the late S. Howard Goldman, a New York real estate developer and collector of American autographs, documents and manuscripts.

Sale proceeds will benefit a charitable foundation in the name of his wife, Dorothy Tapper Goldman, to further the public’s understanding of democracy, according to Sotheby’s.

The ConstitutionDAO website had said contributors would become members of the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, or DAO, but would not themselves have had a stake in the document.

The document they missed out on is one of 11 known existing copies - the only one still in private hands - from the official first printing of the final text of the Constitution, as adopted in Philadelphia and submitted to the Continental Congress for review, Sotheby’s said.