'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison agrees to smash an item with a hammer to make sure it's real
"Pawn Stars" guests are often people who have something valuable in their possession that has been preserved for decades. That's why someone would least expect a seller to ask Rick Harrison to smash the item that they just brought in, with a hammer. But one guest did ask him to do so, as the item to be sold was encased in glass, which needed to be smashed open for authentication purposes.
The item was a business card that belonged to an attorney named John Wesley Harding. Before he became a servant of the law, he was an outlaw. Harding lived in the second half of the 19th century, a time when outlaws were common in the western part of the country, also known as the wild west.
He was said to be a notorious murderer who reportedly killed more than 40 people before being arrested and imprisoned in a Texas prison for 15 years for murder. During his time in jail, he studied for the Bar and was able to clear the examination and become a lawyer after his release. He was then killed by the father of a man whom he had threatened to kill after getting out of jail.
If this card were real, the shop would not have a hard time selling it at all. The only problem was that there was no way of knowing if that was the case. The card seemed to be in great condition, and that felt too good to be true for Harrison. So, he called in one of his most trusted experts: the beard of knowledge, Mark Hall-Patton. He was the administrator of the Clark County Museum.
Hall-Patton believed that the card of the right size for the time period and the addresses were correct. However, there was no way of telling whether it was real or not without taking it out of the glass it was encased in. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to take a hammer and smash it open. Obviously, the guest was not sure about this as the card could get seriously damaged.
Rick Harrison $350 for it, even though it was damaged, if it turned out to be authentic. Corey Harrison got the hammer out and did an excellent job of breaking the glass without damaging the card even a little bit. Hall-Patton still had some doubts about the card being real, but said that he was 80% sure that it was the real deal. He said he’d display it in his museum if he got the chance. That was good enough for Harrison, who acknowledged that there was an element of risk involved.
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'Pawn Stars' host Chumlee buys Roman boxing glove without expert advice — it doesn't end well
'Pawn Stars' host Corey Harrison offers a lot more than what a guest wanted for his WWII jacket
