(AP) -- COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A copy of South Carolina's official withdrawal from the United States in 1860 sold at auction for $25,000, well above pre-sale estimates. The State of Columbia reported that one of the original 200 copies of the Ordinance of Secession was sold Thursday to an undisclosed bidder by Swann Auction Galleries in New York.
Swann's director of printed and manuscript Americana Rick Stattler would say only that the buyer was a South Carolina collector. Earlier estimates had placed the sales price at $10,000-$15,000. The sales price doesn't include a 20 percent buyer's premium, which takes the total cost to $30,000.
The original ordinance is kept at the South Carolina Archives and History Center in Columbia, but 200 lithograph copies were made at the time so each signer could have one.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
