national treasures

No One Wants to Buy George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

One Dollar Bill — Image by © Gregor Schuster/Corbis Photo: ? Gregor Schuster/Corbis

A 1789 document signed by George Washington that proclaims Thanksgiving a national holiday failed to find a buyer at auction on Thursday. Christie’s expected it to sell for $8 million to $12 million, though it was last sold at auction for $3,800 in 1977 (just under $15,000 today). Last year, Washington’s annotated copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights sold for a record $9.8 million, but unlike that document, the Thanksgiving proclamation doesn’t have a map to the Freemasons’ treasure on the back. 

Washington Thanksgiving Proclamation Didn’t Sell