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  • [banjo music playing]

  • [gunshot]

  • [train horn sounding]

  • [coins jingling]

  • RICK: OK, so what do we got here?

  • I have a letter from John Quincy Adams.

  • - John Quincy Adams, huh? - Yes.

  • RICK: 1822-- he was Secretary of State then?

  • Yes, and he was president in 1824.

  • Well, he was elected in 2004, and then there

  • was no inauguration till March because they didn't want

  • to travel in the winter time.

  • [laughter]

  • I found it in a box of items that I got from my uncle

  • when my uncle passed away.

  • I'd like to get $6,000 for it.

  • I would drop down to $5,000, but that would

  • probably be the least I'd take.

  • RICK: So what is this letter about?

  • This letter actually pertains to a census that was taken.

  • And they included 16- to 18-year-old undocumented

  • immigrants who were here.

  • And they had to go back and fix it to the proper census.

  • So basically we have here John Quincy Adams being

  • Secretary of State, sending a letter saying,

  • you did the census wrong.

  • Redo it. TED: Right.

  • OK. Interesting.

  • Yeah.

  • A letter signed by the president--

  • the content is so important. TED: Right.

  • If you had a letter by Abraham Lincoln talking about freeing

  • the slaves, that is worth a lot more

  • than Abraham Lincoln complaining that his bathroom doesn't work.

  • [laughs] Do you understand what I'm saying?

  • Yeah. RICK: Yeah.

  • The content does matter.

  • So things like this are always scary to me

  • because it was just common, common

  • practice to have your secretary sign everything for you.

  • You're a busy guy.

  • Yeah.

  • Or this was back in the 1800s.

  • The president might have been drunk.

  • [laughs] But the paper looks right.

  • The ink looks right.

  • Have you checked this out at all?

  • I have.

  • I've done some background of my own over the internet.

  • I did match up his signatures and things like that.

  • I'm assuming you want to sell it.

  • Yes.

  • I was looking for $6,000.

  • This is actually great shape.

  • You're lucky because this has obviously been under glass

  • for a very, very long time.

  • Do you mind if I call someone in?

  • Yeah, no, if it's gonna help us.

  • I'd like to make sure it's real too.

  • All right.

  • I'm gonna call him up.

  • Hang out a few months.

  • Maybe buy something. TED: OK.

  • I've got some cool stuff.

  • [laughs]

  • There's a lot of history behind this guy.

  • I mean, he's pretty much groomed to be

  • the President of the United States at some point in time.

  • This guy really stood out, you know.

  • OK, so is it his signature?

  • Did he write the letter?

  • And what's it worth?

  • And we'd would look at a few things.

  • First thing I'm gonna do is look at the signature

  • under magnification.

  • I want to look at the ink.

  • And I can see this is using a quill.

  • This overlapping on here, especially right in this area,

  • you know, we know this is live ink.

  • And what I did bring along today are several examples.

  • It's really flowing.

  • It's a very beautiful signature.

  • Here's one example.

  • And we see some similarities tying in here.

  • And what I want to do on this one especially

  • is look at his last name.

  • And I'm starting to see the same thing over and over again.

  • TED: Because that's actually abbreviated.

  • And this just makes sense where

  • he would do an abbreviation of this as well.

  • And everything matches up pretty well here.

  • From everything I can tell, we're

  • talking about a piece signed by the sixth President

  • of the United States, which is kind of cool.

  • All right, the letter itself, you have a lighter ink.

  • You have a darker ink on here in two different pressures.

  • In this case on here, and this is pretty simple,

  • and it's something that, you know, I've studied a lot,

  • this isn't his writing.

  • Could have been written by his secretary.

  • Back then they called it semi-proxy.

  • And do you think that just because the differential

  • between the--

  • Well, I mean, there's several factors-- obviously, the ink.

  • But also just the style of writing is not his.

  • So what's it worth?

  • If it was three years later, a handwritten letter by him

  • could go for $5,000 to $10,000 as a sitting president.

  • But this is Secretary of State.

  • It's a little less significant.

  • Stuff like this typically runs at about $1,600.

  • They don't go for much more than that.

  • Thanks, man. STEVE GRAD: Thanks.

  • Good to see you. TED: Thank you.

  • STEVE GRAD: Good luck.

  • Thanks.

  • John Quincy Adams is a collectible autograph,

  • you know, mostly just for presidential collectors.

  • I mean, is he desirable?

  • Yeah, to an extent, but not as much as like Abraham

  • Lincoln or George Washington.

  • OK, so, if it was written in his hand,

  • we'd have a whole lot of money.

  • But we don't.

  • TED: I think the whole thing was written by him.

  • All right.

  • Just that there's a discrepancy in the signature

  • and the letter itself, which is the way he signed things.

  • OK, well, you know what?

  • You're always free to have it checked out or somebody else.

  • TED: All right.

  • RICK: I could give you like $1,000.

  • Yeah, for that, I think I'm gonna go ahead and keep it.

  • I'll keep it and [inaudible] save it for my kids

  • or do something else with it, so.

  • RICK: OK.

  • Sorry we couldn't make a deal, man.

  • Thank you.

  • It's not his handwriting?

  • You got to be kidding me.

  • I'm going to try and go ahead and legitimize it 100%

  • and see if I get some more opinions on it.

[banjo music playing]

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Pawn Stars: Rick Worries about a Letter Signed by John Quincy Adams (Season 10) | History

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2020 年 03 月 23 日
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