HIGH ROLLERS ONLY! Big Profit Treasures | Pawn Stars

Hit the jackpot as rare and risky treasures roll into the shop—from Stephen Stills’ Gibson guitar to prison gambling tokens, Viking treasure, coin counters, and even a bill tied to D.B. Cooper. With stakes this high, every offer is a gamble…and only the boldest deals pay out. See more in this compilation from Pawn Stars.

LANDON: Hey, how’s it going, man?
RICK HARRISON: I’m pretty good. What can I help you with?
Got a piece of rock and roll history for you here.
[music playing] OK.
It’s definitely an old case.
It is.
So this is a 1941 Gibson SJ-200.
It was owned by Stephen Stills of the band Crosby, Stills, & Nash.
That is cool.
I feel like I’m in the movie “Pulp Fiction,” and they open up the briefcase.
[laughs] [music playing] LANDON: I am a guitar collector.
And I bought the guitar in an auction a few months ago.
I was thrilled and a little bit terrified because it was expensive.
But I’m looking to sell it today because that’s kind of my hobby.
I buy and sell guitars, so looking to make a profit here.
RICK HARRISON: I’m sort of amazed.
Everyone who was around in the ’60s knows of Stephen Stills.
He’s a guitar player who played for Buffalo Springfield.
“What It’s Worth,” that was the name of the song.
I mean, literally, it was considered the rebellion hippie anthem of the 1960s.
If you heard the song, you would remember it.
Went on to create Crosby, Stills, & Nash.
He’s still alive.
He’s still playing.
He’s literally an icon.
If he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’d be shocked.
He was actually the first person to be inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was inducted first for Buffalo Springfield, and then for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on the same day.
His music helped literally shape part of a nation.
And you have, like, documentation this was Stephen Stills’s?
I do.
I have the bill of sale.
So when he sold it to the collector that bought it from him, he signed a bill of sale.
And I have that.
So you have the bill of sale on you, or?
It’s in the case here.
So it looks like he had a music studio sell it for him on consignment, from what I can tell.
OK, just typed it up on an envelope.
That’s business.
[laughs] LANDON: It’s very professional.
“Criteria Recording Studios, bill of sale.
This is to verify the sale of a Gibson J-200 guitar, 1940, from the personal collection of Stephen Stills for the amount of $1,200.” And it looks like it’s signed by Stephen Stills.
You know what?
It adds a little bit to it.
It does, I agree. I agree.
To me, that makes it a little bit more authentic because– because if you’re going to fake it, who the hell would do that, you know?
Yeah, I know what you mean.
[music playing] RICK HARRISON: I love this guitar.
It’s really interesting.
But I have to be careful.
So if everything checks out, this thing could be a serious jackpot.
It looks like someone did refinish this at one point.
It doesn’t look like the original lacquer on all of it.
LANDON: I don’t believe it’s been refinished.
I think it’s got a light overspray on it.
And there’s a big difference in value as far as a refinish.
In a refinish, they strip all the– Oh, yeah. LANDON: –finish off, sand it.
OK.
It just looks like there’s been some work done to it.
OK, this is a beautiful pre-war Gibson, which makes it worth money.
[music playing] It belonged to a rock icon, which adds a lot of money.
And I assume you know that. [laughs] I do.
I do.
I would absolutely love to get my hands on this guitar.
It’s beautiful, it’s rare, and it was owned by a rock and roll legend.
But it almost seems too good to be true.
And there’s nothing that worries me more than that.
So what do you want for it?
I’m looking to get $110,000 for it.
Ooh.
That, um, sounds like a lot.
That is a lot.
RICK HARRISON: Tell you the truth, I don’t know if that’s a ridiculous number or a fair one.
Because I know about guitars, but I don’t know everything about guitars.
And they start getting weird when they get this expensive.
You know, there’s just a million and one questions I have to ask.
What are these currently going for?
Just the guitar by itself, what does Stephen Stills add to it?
Was it the guitar that was sitting in the corner of his studio that he never played?
So I’m going to call in my buddy, Jesse.
He’s just– this guy knows everything there is to know about guitars.
And maybe we’ll do business, OK?
Hang out.
Sounds good.
I’m a little bit anxious about what Jesse will have to say.
But I’m confident that he’ll get it right.
You do not see these.
It’s the 1941 SJ-200.
It was their highest-end guitar.
They introduced this model in 1938, went to war, and they stopped making ’em.
I mean, this is it.
This is the Holy Grail.
Do you mind if I– Go ahead.
JESSE AMOROSO: This is a really, really cool one.
It’s almost too good to be true.
That’s what I’m looking at, especially looking at the back of it.
JESSE AMOROSO: You can see it’s had a couple of crack repairs and stuff, so it’s kind of par for the course with a guitar this old.
Whoever did it did a really good job– OK.
JESSE AMOROSO: –which is– is everything.
They didn’t gob a ton of finish on it.
It’s actually still pretty thin, which is what helps the character of these guitars sound so good.
And he has some documentation saying that this was owned by Stephen Stills.
Wow.
That’s cool.
That’s really cool.
RICK HARRISON: It’s got to add something, right?
JESSE AMOROSO: Yeah, yeah, it does a lot, actually.
I mean, you don’t see a lot of his stuff around for sale.
Mind if I strum a chord or two on it?
– Go ahead, man. – Yeah, that’s cool.
I just want to hear what it sounds like, man.
It’s not every day you get to play one of these.
[playing notes] At the end of the day, ultimately, they’re meant to be played.
And this one is an exceptional player and sounds amazing.
So what are you worried about on this one?
What’s it worth?
It’s an expensive guitar, man. [laughs] OK.
[laughs] I mean, the guitar on its own is probably worth anywhere between 75 and 90 grand just by itself, without the Stephen Stills thing.
That’s about right.
So what does Stephen Stills add to it?
JESSE AMOROSO: Stephen Stills could add another $20,000, $30,000.
You know, that’s a retail price, you know?
RICK HARRISON: OK, that’s definitely a range.
Yeah, this is it. This is the one.
If you’re going to buy one, this is the only one that’s available.
All right, thanks, man.
I’m going to get this figured out.
JESSE AMOROSO: No problem, man. That’s a cool one.
– You’re the best, man. – Dude.
– Thanks, man. – That’s cool.
– Thanks. – That’s a good one.
LANDON: All right, appreciate it.
See you later. LANDON: See you.
I was looking for a rag, actually, to wipe the drool off the guitar.
Jesse was getting a little bit close there.
RICK HARRISON: I mean, what’s your best price on it?
Well, give me 110.
We’ll make it a deal.
110’s not going to happen.
It’s just not.
I’ll give you 80 grand.
I can do 90.
That’s going to be my– RICK HARRISON: I think you can do 80.
No, I don’t think I can do 80.
I can do 90.
That’s– that’s my line, man.
I’ll give you 85.
I– I cannot go anymore.
I can’t.
I’ve got to have 90.
OK.
Change your mind, call me.
85, man.
All right.
All right, cool, man, let’s– let’s do some paperwork.
You’ll have cash, and I’ll have a guitar I got to sell.
– OK. – [laughs] Well, that was actually higher than my bottom line.
But I try to be a tough negotiator myself.
And I thought it was a fair price.
So with $85,000, I’m going to go buy some more guitars.
COREY: Hey. How’s it going?
ED: Hi.
How you doing?
I wanted to know if you by any chance have any old Nevada Prison tokens for sale?
[music playing] Not at the moment.
ED: OK, let me flip it around.
How would you like to buy some old Nevada Prison tokens?
They’re very hard to find.
COREY: You know what?
I don’t have any plans of going to jail in my life, so– (LAUGHING) OK.
What makes these prison tokens really special is that Nevada had a casino that operated inside the maximum security prison.
To my knowledge, that didn’t happen anywhere else in the United States but Carson City, Nevada.
I’m walking in with $1.41 face value in old Nevada Prison tokens, and I’m hoping to walk away with a lot more than that.
COREY: They’re pretty rare, considering that you pretty much had to go to prison between the 1930s and ’60s– Right.
COREY: –to be able to have access to them.
Right.
The last thing they wanted you to have in there was cash.
But the funny thing is in Nevada history, to operate a table game, you are not allowed to be a felon.
They somehow had a casino in the prison that was ran exclusively by felons, and it worked.
The guy who was operating the table, he could then take these and go spend them throughout the prison, chewing gum or I’m sure somebody was taking these for toilet wine he was making.
ED: Right.
[toilet flushing] This is just a little documentation.
It just kind of shows what the inside of the casino looked like.
COREY: Wow.
It looks like they actually even got one of the old craps tables out of the Sands.
If you look at, it says Sands on it.
The inmates look like they’re having a good time.
ED: Better than breaking rocks.
Jeez.
The casino at the Nevada State Prison is just legendary.
Where else in the world would a bunch of criminals get to run a legitimate gaming place?
And they got away with it for over three decades.
How much money you want for them?
I’d like to get about $850 for the stack.
I don’t have a doubt in my mind that I could sell them.
I think $850 is just way off, man.
We’re way far apart on what I’m willing to pay.
ED: OK, $900?
[laughs] I was thinking more around the range of 4.
Ooh.
Well, I’m going to need you to do better than $400.
I mean, honestly, these are really tough to find.
This guy right here, there’s probably only five on the planet.
COREY: OK.
And these, I figure are easily $100, $125 each.
COREY: I’ll go 450.
ED: How about 6 and 1/2?
I mean, your shop, being in Nevada, you would have a perfect place because no one else is going to have these.
500 is best I could do, buddy.
Let’s go ahead and do it. COREY: All right, man.
Deal. – All right.
Thank– Meet me over there.
ED (VOICEOVER): I’m walking away today with $500, and I’m going to put this in the vacation fund and take my wife to Maui.
Hey.
How’s it going?
Rick, how are you?
RICK (VOICEOVER): A guy came in with a collection of stuff that he says are Viking origin.
I’m really hoping they’re legit because items from Vikings and the men of the North are really hard to come by.
So I called my friend Laird to help me out with this collection.
This is my Viking friend.
How’s it going?
Nice to meet you.
RICK (VOICEOVER): Laird is the most knowledgeable guy I have ever met when it comes to Viking history and artifacts.
He’s been collecting this stuff for almost 20 years, and some of his items are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
So I’m hoping he can tell me more about these pieces and what they’re worth.
What was the thing with the little hats they’d wear with the horns on it?
The weird hats.
I call them the weird hats, but– Well, the weird hats actually come from Wagner’s operas.
They were an improvisation of what they thought Viking helmets might look like.
They were really thought of as a very barbaric people.
Vikings actually never wore horned helmets.
We know very little about what Viking helmets actually were.
There’s been one or two finds of Viking helmets.
Remember, these are iron items, and they didn’t last long in the ground.
I guess before I proceed, did this all come as part of one collection?
Yeah, it was all together, all one.
If we look at what I’d say is this group of items right here, this is diagnostically Baltic Viking.
SELLER: Baltic Viking– is that not Viking?
Well, I think it’s– the academics would say, technically, it’s not Viking.
These are tribes that were not necessarily as migratory as the Vikings or as warlike.
They were contiguous with the Viking areas, and they traded quite a bit with them.
And they copied their style of garb, their style of decorations.
If you or I were put back in time, and we walked in on these people, they would have looked like Vikings to us.
RICK: OK.
LAIRD LANDMANN: Unfortunately, you see a lot of these types of items on auction sites right now.
Because of that, the value’s very low to negligible on these items.
This particular piece caught my eye.
This is part of a bracelet.
RICK: OK.
It’s a copper alloy.
And so Viking currency, what they would do to trade is they would just cut bits of bronze and silver, and they’d weigh it out.
They– the merchants all carried scales, and that’s how they would transact.
This item is probably worth $50.
OK.
LAIRD LANDMANN: The complete bracelet is obviously larger and more interesting.
The dragon head terminals are really an attempt to copy Viking jewelry that was being made in Sweden at the time, around the 10th century.
And this item would probably be worth about $175 to $200.
All right.
And this stuff?
LAIRD LANDMANN: This stuff, this is– based on its size, it’s certainly not a Viking spear.
It’s an arrowhead of some sort.
It could date from any time.
RICK: OK.
LAIRD LANDMANN: I’d have to defer on that.
It’s not worth a lot, but it’s certainly outside of my range of expertise.
RICK: And the bracelet?
The bracelet is– it appears to be Viking gold.
SELLER: So you’re saying this is legit Viking gold, the magical gold?
RICK: [laughs] Well, I can’t endorse any magic to it, but I would say it would appear from its form and how it’s manufactured, these pleated wires, to be very traditional Viking.
Obviously, it would appear to be the star of this group of items.
Auction estimates on it would be something between 6,000 to 8,000 British pounds, which would be– and I’ll leave it to you to translate.
Please translate, my fine friend.
6,000 pounds would be right around– $9,400.
[bleep] [laughs] SELLER (VOICEOVER): Man, I knew it was worth something.
He quoted the bracelet at over $9,000.
And I think that’s great because I only thought I was going to get a grand out of it.
So it looks like I hit the jackpot.
RICK: Well, thanks for coming in, man.
I really appreciate it.
If you want to see some real exciting stuff, I’ve got a couple swords that I’d be happy to bring by the shop and show you.
Oh, bring them by. I’ll take a look.
LAIRD LANDMANN: Terrific.
Hey, appreciate you, buddy.
No problem.
All right.
My pleasure.
All right.
RICK: I’m going to show you what I want.
OK, these right here, I want to give you $150 for it.
Mm, I was thinking more along the lines of about $400.
You heard what the guy told you.
RICK: I know what he told me, but I don’t have a lot of customers going, hey, dude, you got some Viking jewelry?
I’ll go $200 on it.
SELLER: If you can do that, you can do a $300.
RICK: I’ll tell you what.
I’ll do $250.
You sure that’s the best you can do?
RICK: Keep them then.
[laughs] $250.
All right.
All right, we’ve got a deal. $250.
Now, this right here– [laughs] RICK: –I was thinking right around $6,000.
I was thinking around $8,000.
OK, playing it simple, I’ll give you $7,000.
I will not give any more.
That is what I will give you.
It is a more than fair price.
SELLER: 75?
RICK: No, $7,000, OK?
I mean– You’re a hard guy to pull.
I’m not a hard guy to deal with.
You’re the one who walked in here wanting $1,000 for all of it, and you’re walking out of here with $7,250.
[laughs] OK.
Well, for the magical gold, we’ll have to settle at that, buddy.
RICK: OK. All right.
OK.
I’m going to box this stuff up, and I will meet you right over there at the pawn counter. SELLER: OK.
SELLER (VOICEOVER): $7,200?
[bleep] I’m gone.
Hit the jackpot.
Straight to the bank.
Let’s get it on.
[cash register chiming] Rick, I said I’d come back with some more intriguing Viking items.
All right? – Come around.
Come around. Put them right here.
RICK (VOICEOVER): Moments like these remind me of how much I love my job.
Most people, especially here in the United States, never get to see a real Viking sword in person, but Laird is willing to let me look at two of them that he has in his collection.
And to a history nerd like me, there’s nothing cooler.
LAIRD LANDMANN: What I’ve got here for you is some classic Viking swords.
RICK: Cool.
We’ve got one that’s classic from the pre-Christian era, decorated with silver and copper and yellow, which is– it’s rare for it to survive because a lot of times, the Vikings, when they put their dead into the graves, they burn them first, and they often burn the items with them.
So silver, copper often just melted right off, and you’re just left with the iron.
RICK: Can I?
LAIRD LANDMANN: Yes, certainly.
RICK: All right.
This was a lot of work, a lot of skill.
We’re talking, what, like 880?
LAIRD LANDMANN: That one’s probably closer to 950.
OK.
But still, I mean, there wasn’t a whole lot of technology, and most people don’t realize how difficult iron is to work with.
And what we don’t realize is that it took a lot of effort to turn iron into steel, so you get the carbon in to make the edge actually hard.
This one is a special item because it’s after the conversion to Christianity.
It’s around 1050 AD.
This sword actually was published in an article that studied the carbon content of steel in a number of swords.
There’s about 8/10 of a percent, which we don’t think of as high today, but back then, very, very high.
And this one is actually inscribed.
And what you can see– I’m not going to stab you, but this one has the name Meeso, and then it’s followed by the Latin phrase “me fecund,” which simply means “Meeso made me.” RICK: OK, that is definitely cool.
LAIRD LANDMANN (VOICEOVER): When you think about a Viking sword and what it meant to the owner, it was a signal of differentiation in wealth and power within the Viking society.
We can almost think about it today like the difference between a gentleman driving a Dodge Neon and a gentleman driving a Mercedes S-Class.
These are pretty damn amazing.
So you’re looking to maybe sell these things?
I haven’t actually sold a sword from the collection since probably 2006.
The prices tend to be pretty high because they don’t come up that often.
They’re both something in the $35,000 to $40,000 range.
OK.
It’s a great piece of history.
It really is, but out of my league for most of my customers.
You wouldn’t sell me one for, like, half that?
[laughter] I’d love to be able to do that, but I don’t think I could ever replace it.
I understand.
Hopefully, you’ll go broke one day though, man.
I’m working on it.
I’m working on it.
[laughs] All right, man.
Well, thanks for showing it to me.
Thank you, Rick.
Good to see you.
LAIRD LANDMANN (VOICEOVER): Rick’s quite a business man.
Sometime in the future, it’s always possible that Rick could pry one out of my hands.
But for now, I’m pretty resolute.
RICK: What can I help you with?
Well, I’ve got a World War II book that was authored and also autographed by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
RICK: Wow, really?
He was in charge of the biggest military operation in the history of the world ever, which is pretty amazing to me.
I’m assuming it’s not a comedy?
So far, I’ve gotten through part of it, no comedy.
[laughter] RANDY: I came to the pawnshop today to try and sell my Dwight D. Eisenhower book autographed by Eisenhower.
I purchased the book at an estate sale.
I would like to sell the book because I’ve got my eye on a Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford autograph.
RICK: Crusade in Europe, I like the title.
Did you know much about it?
Yeah, it follows him through his campaign in Europe from start to finish and his exploits of what happened during the war.
Here’s a note from President Roosevelt appointing Ike to Command of Operation Overlord.
Storming the beaches at Normandy.
RICK: OK, Eisenhower, I think is my dad’s favorite president because as far as my dad is concerned, basically, if you were a lifer in the military, you were all right.
And if you didn’t spend your entire life in the military, you’re not.
[laughter] During World War II, Eisenhower was basically in charge of all the fighting in Europe.
He was the guy in charge of planning the Normandy invasion.
Hearing about D-day from him would be completely different than reading it from a textbook.
So it’s signed by him?
Yes.
RICK: To– Well, I guess that’s Pamela Bird?
Best wishes, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
RANDY: It really becomes Eisenhower’s rookie card because at the time he signed this, he wasn’t president yet.
He was president of Columbia University, so it’s before he became president of the United States.
Yeah.
All right, so how much were you looking to get out of it?
I’m looking for $1,000.
Maybe.
Let me call up a friend.
She’s an expert in rare books.
She’ll probably know the signature, and if this is a first edition, and all that fun stuff.
So, let me get her down here.
If everything is legit, we’ll talk money.
All right, thanks.
I feel fairly confident about it.
I certainly hope that there is a big payday at the end of this that we can come to an agreement, and I can sell the book.
Rebecca, how’s it going?
Good.
I hear you have an Eisenhower for me?
The guys usually call me down here because they don’t know a lot about books.
“Crusade in Europe.” This is all about World War II, specifically the European front.
Eisenhower was involved in this from pretty much the beginning.
He was the person who contained the Divas, and that includes people like Patton, who didn’t want to listen to anyone.
[laughter] REBECCA: Or General Montgomery, who was the same way on the British side.
It’s pretty common, any historical event like this, one of the major generals or participants will write a memoir about it.
But they’re not common signed.
I have the same book in the signed limited edition.
RICK: OK.
REBECCA: What we’re going to do is look at the two signatures.
One thing that we have to worry about is that Eisenhower actually had an auto pen, so there is the possibility in this time period that he could actually have the auto pen sign for him.
The nice thing about this, though, is you have this full inscription here.
And since you’ve got a uniformity of ink with the inscription and the signature, we know it’s not auto pen.
RICK: Great.
REBECCA: But the other thing that you might worry about with Eisenhower is actually that it could be secretarial.
So from what I can tell here and here– it’s real.
RICK: Sweet.
Oh, that’s great.
Awesome.
OK, so is this like a first editions, it’s a second edition?
It is the first edition.
RICK: How do you tell?
How do you tell?
REBECCA: It depends on the book.
With this book, it’s pretty simple.
You’re just looking at the copyright date here, and you don’t have any extra mention of printings.
RANDY: OK, awesome.
So this is first.
REBECCA: It is the first edition, and it is signed.
These are all good things.
RICK: So what’s it worth?
Well, one thing I can tell you just looking at it, it does not have the dust jacket.
RANDY: It does not.
REBECCA: This was originally issued with a dust jacket, so it’s not considered complete.
RANDY: Oh, all right.
REBECCA: If it had the dust jacket, $3,000.
RICK: OK.
Without the jacket, this book is worth– $1,500.
RANDY: Half price because of that?
That’s right.
A book is a collectible.
It needs to be complete as it was originally issued.
That means if it had a dust jacket, it needs to retain the dust jacket.
If it was an original binding, it should stay in that binding.
You’re losing a huge part of its value.
How much you want for it now?
Well, she said $1,500.
I’m thinking around $1,000.
That gives you a little room.
I’m thinking more like 800 bucks.
How about the difference, $900?
[music playing] RANDY: Does it have Eisenhower’s signature?
We know that.
RICK: Know.
We’re still talking about a lot of money for a book.
But it’s an Eisenhower book.
$850.
No, I’ve got to stay with 9.
It’s really unique.
[music playing] You know what?
I’ll go with the 9. I’ll go with the 9.
RANDY: All right, we got a deal. – All right.
Thanks.
I’ll meet you right upfront.
This was a total no brainer, a book written and signed by a five-star general who later became president?
I just hit the jackpot.
[music playing] Whoa, let me come check this thing out.
OK.
Well, what do you have here?
It’s a coin counter.
Cha-ching.
[coins jingling] PHILIP: I have a 1956 coin counter that I’m hoping to sell it today.
I thought it was unique.
It’s pretty cool.
I’ve never seen one before.
And it works.
I want to try to sell it for 175.
That’s pretty cool.
So coin counters have been around since sometime in the 1800s, but they were manually powered.
Well, I see right here Standard Johnson Company.
That would be JM Johnson.
He actually invented it around the early 1900s.
He was a– basically a money counter at a bank.
So he would manually put them in and count them, and he didn’t want to do that anymore.
He wanted his job to be easier.
Can’t blame the guy.
No.
So he basically came up with this idea to take the coin counter that he uses and put a motor on it, and this is what he came up with to do all the work for him.
PHILIP: Lot smarter.
That’s my hero.
So it’s in pretty rough shape, and that’s to be expected with something like this because this was probably used, you know, 10, 20-plus years.
So you got a crack right here.
You got a lot of chipping.
It even seems to be missing, like, a tray or something to catch the coins in.
This is really cool, though.
Do you know if it still works?
Yes, it does work.
I’d like to test it out before we talk about anything else.
I got a plug right here.
Let’s hope it goes good.
[imitates being electrocuted] Just joking.
So you probably need to put something here to catch it.
It’s not going to be the first mess I’ve ever made.
OK.
All right, well, the numbers are moving.
Let’s make sure it’s still going.
[coins clanging] Oh, they’re moving.
Is it working?
Oh yeah, it’s working.
It’s moving big time, all of them.
You know what this reminds me of, right?
What?
It reminds me of the casinos in the ’90s.
Cling, cling, cling, cling, ching.
All right, well, it definitely works.
What are you looking to do with it?
I’m looking to sell it.
And how much are you looking for?
1– at least 175.
OK.
It’s– it’s definitely missing the tray, which if someone’s going to pay a few hundred dollars for this, they’re going to want it to be complete.
Would you take 50 bucks for it?
What about 100?
You know, that’s just a– it’s a little high for me because it’s not exactly taking up a little bit of real estate, you know?
I could do maybe 65.
75.
I could do 65.
That’s top dollar for me.
I can’t pay a dime more.
OK, I’ll do 65.
All right, it’s a deal.
Now if only I could invent electronic brooms to clean all this mess up for me.
Let’s go do some paperwork.
OK.
PHILIP: So I sold it for $65.
I hope they don’t try to pay me in coins because it’s going to take me a long time to count it now.
RICK: Hey, how can I help you?
Check this out.
[music playing] RICK: You have a piece of a $20 bill.
MIKE: It is a piece of a $20 bill from the DB Cooper hijacking.
He jumped out of a 727 in November of 1971 with $200,000.
RICK: This is cool.
The only hijacking never solved.
This is one of the holy grails.
MIKE: I came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my $20 note from the DB Cooper hijacking.
I’ve had the note for a while, and I could really use the money.
I’m hoping to get $2,000 for it today, and the least I would take is probably about $1,800.
Do you know a lot about DB Cooper?
MIKE: I do.
RICK: Do you think he’s still alive?
MIKE: I do not.
RICK: OK.
I don’t think he’s alive, either.
It was 1971.
There was a plane flight.
He gave the stewardess a note saying he had a bomb, and he demanded a parachute and $200,000 in cash.
They landed, gave him what he wanted, took back off, and he jumped out.
Exactly.
RICK: But he also jumped out in the middle of a storm at 10,000 feet where the windchill was like 70 degrees below zero.
It’s the only unsolved hijacking in world history.
No trace of DB Cooper has ever been found.
And he could be sitting on a beach someplace.
RICK: They don’t even know his real name, because back then, you didn’t need to show a driver’s license when you bought an airline ticket.
RICHARD: Nobody knows exactly what happened.
It’ll go down in history for hundreds of years.
RICK: This is one of the craziest unsolved mysteries ever.
This guy is a legend.
And despite a serious investigation by the FBI that’s still going on, he’s never been identified or located.
So how did they actually determine that this was part of the money from DB Cooper?
MIKE: Well, they had the serial numbers from all of the money.
And even though this bill doesn’t have a serial number on it, it was found with the bills that did have the serial number on it.
The initials that are on this bill are actually the FBI agent who was cataloging all the pieces of the bills, and I’ve got a certificate of authenticity.
RICK: All right, and PCGS is more or less the gold standard when it comes to this stuff, so it’s all legit.
How much do you want?
MIKE: I really want $2,000.
Some of the larger fragments go for way more money than that.
RICK: But there’s also the possibility that they find the other $194,000 and the price of this will go to nothing.
I’m thinking like $1,000.
No, I really got to get more than that.
I was thinking that $1,800 was gonna be my lowest.
RICK: God, it’s just a weird market.
This is one of those things you just can’t look up in a book.
How about $1,500?
MIKE: It is a really rare thing.
I really got to have $1,700.
RICHARD: Rick, go ahead and split it at $1,600.
MIKE: $1,600’s a little low.
RICHARD: No, it’s not.
That’s what we can pay.
[music playing] All right, deal. RICK: All right.
You have a deal.
I’ll meet you right up front.
Thank you much, sir.
Thank you.
RICK: I feel like I just hit the jackpot.
Of all my years of doing this, I’ve never seen anything like this in the shop, ever.
Collectors will be lining up around the block for this thing.
But to be honest, I kind of want to keep it for myself.
[laughs]