'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison offers $8,500 for rare bank note — then the guest rejected his offer
Anyone who has watched "Pawn Stars" long enough knows that it's hard to convince Rick Harrison to spend a significant amount of money, even on rare collectibles. But on one occasion, when Harrison forked up $8,500 for a rare Mormon Bank Note, the seller named Nolan just wasn't interested. While the pawn shop boss covered all his bases, Nolan chose to keep the item as the appraisal and the offer were not what he had expected.
Nolan walked into the shop with a $5 bill from the Kirtland Safety Society Bank, which Harrison noted was the first Mormon bank. "Yeah, you have Joseph Smith’s signature on it. Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon Church, and Brigham Young, who took over the church after Smith died," the seller explained. Harrison noted that the item was interesting as it was printed in 1832.
"Joseph Smith, who founded the Mormon Church, they weren’t exactly starting their own country, but it was almost like that. The church was doing stuff that normally governments would do. They created church-run stores and church-run schools. So they wanted to get a national charter for a bank, but the U.S. government said no, denied their application. So they just said, screw it, we’ll open up our own bank," Harrison explained.
He then noted that while the currency was first issued and signed by Smith, years later, the church moved from Ohio to Salt Lake City, where the bills were reissued. This is why the $5 bill had two different signatures from Smith and Brigham Young in different ink.
Harrison then asked the seller for the price, and when Nolan told him he was looking for $20,000, Harrison wasted no time calling in his expert, Ben, to authenticate the bill. After one look at the bill, the expert immediately noted that it was remarkable. After talking a bit about the currency's origin, Ben went on to say, "The first issue in 1837 is very common. The reissue of 1849 is extremely rare. They only issued 135 examples with Brigham Young’s signature. I’m surprised! In this condition, it’s remarkable". Coming to the appraisal, Ben told Harrison that the bill was 100% authentic and it could be worth $12,000, which was quite less than what Nolan had asked for.
After the expert left, Harrison got straight down to the negotiations. "Okay, so, he thinks it’s worth $12,000. I mean, I’ll give you $8,000 for it," he told the seller. However, Nolan noted that it was considerably lower than what he was expecting to get, requesting Harrison to raise his offer a bit. Noting that he could sell it pretty quickly, Harrison went up to $8,500 and stood firm. But it wasn't enough for Nolan to make a deal. "I don’t think I can do that. I think I’d rather take my chances elsewhere," he told the pawn shop boss.
In the end, Harrison noted that it was a cool piece of history, and it would have been nice to have it in the shop. "All right, if you change your mind, come back and see me," he said to the guest in the end.
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