Rare First Edition of US Constitution Set to Go Up for Auction

A rare first edition copy of the U.S. Constitution is set to go up for auction next month, marking the first time in 125 years that this particular manuscript has gone to public sale, CBS News reported.

Sotheby's announced Tuesday that the historic document will be put up for auction during a live sale on Dec. 13, in New York City.

The document is one of only two such copies that are in private hands. 

The manuscript is one of only 13 total copies known to exist, Sotheby's said. The other 11 are in public government collections. Approximately 500 original copies of the Constitution were printed for delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Fox News reported.

Sotheby's estimates it will sell for anywhere between $20 and $30 million.

Last year, Sotheby's auctioned off the only other privately held copy of the first edition of the Constitution for $43.2 million to Chicago hedge-fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin, who loaned it to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Fox News reported.

"The unprecedented sale result we achieved for the Constitution last November was a truly unique and inspired moment – one that signifies not only the extreme rarity of first printing copies of the Constitution available for private ownership, but also the enduring importance and influence of the Constitution as the ultimate expression of the democratic principles that inform our daily lives more than 200 years since it was first written," Richard Austin, global head of books and manuscripts for Sotheby's, said in a statement.

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