'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison pays a fortune for torn $20 bill — says he might keep it for himself
"Pawn Stars" boss Rick Harrison even allows valuable artifacts to slip out of his hands if he can't buy them at a low price to make a hefty profit. But beyond its face value, he considered a rare $20 bill worth nearly a hundred times more. It was one of the bills that the infamous D.B. Cooper once stole, and when Rick Harrison came across a PCGS-graded shred of the currency note, he agreed to pay $1,600 for it.
In the episode, the seller, Mike, brought the rare bill to Harrison's table with a wide smile. With the old man beside him, Harrison could barely control his excitement after he learned that the bill was among the load of cash that D.B. Cooper stole. "D.B. Cooper, he jumped out of a 727 in November of 1971 with $200,000. The only hijacking was never solved. This is one of the Holy Grails," Harrison noted immediately.
Harrison then geeked out about the great heist and asked Mike if he thought Cooper was still alive. When the seller said he didn't think so, Harrison said, "I don't think he's alive either. It was 1971, there was a plane, and he gave the steward a note saying he had a bomb. He demanded a parachute and $200,000 in cash. They landed, gave him what he wanted, and took off, and he jumped out, but he also jumped out in the middle of a storm at 10,000 feet, where the windshield was like 70° below zero. This is one of the craziest Unsolved Mysteries ever."
He then noted that the bill could be significant as it was authenticated by the PCGS, and it was determined to be from the lot of Cooper, as it matched the serial numbers. "The FBI agent who was cataloging all the pieces of the bills and I got a certificate of authenticity," Mike shared. Harrison then noted that the PCGS was the gold standard when it comes to currency, so he asked for the price without calling in an expert.
Mike then told the pawn shop boss that he wanted $2,000 for the bill, since larger fragments of similar bills were sold for much more. "There's also the possibility that they find the other," he reasoned. However, Harrison wasn't convinced, and he made the starting offer of just $1,000. After Mike came down to $1,800, Harrison countered with $1,500. With the negotiation reaching a stalemate, 'Old Man Harrison' jumped in, asking Mike to make a deal at $1,600, and the seller accepted.
"I feel like I just hit the jackpot! In all my years of doing this, I've never seen anything like this in the shop," Harrison exclaimed in the end. He added that every collector around the country would want to get the bill, but he may just keep it for himself.
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