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Book signed by George Washington goes for $138K at auction

Will George Washington's status as a slave owner be the cause of the country's first president to one day be removed from the front of the $1 bill? Will George Washington's status as a slave owner be the cause of the country's first president to one day be removed from the front of the $1 bill?

By Associated Press January 30, 2018 1 min read

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A book signed by George Washington that made its way from the Founding Father’s personal library to a now-deceased Tennessee man has sold for $138,000 at an auction.

A Case Antiques vice president, Sarah Drury, tells WBIR-TV an anonymous phone bidder purchased the leather-bound copy of Volume 1 of the Massachusetts Magazine during Saturday’s auction in Knoxville.

Washington gave the book to his biographer and former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. The book last belonged to a Chattanooga man who died in 2017.

It was offered for a preliminary catalog estimate of $28,000 to $32,000. The same bidder also purchased a copy of Marshall’s biography of Washington for $21,600.

Drury said 4,500 registered bidders from more than 50 countries bid on the nearly 900 items up for auction.