'Pawn Stars' guest walks in with Albert Einstein's rare handwritten note but failed to strike a deal
A diverse range of items from collectible action figures to vintage swords and guns hidden in furniture have appeared on "Pawn Stars" over the years. Once in a while, America's most famous pawn shop also sees something that has immense historical significance. Among them, "handwritten math" from Albert Einstein himself stands out. The owner of the item, Justin, walked into the shop with no proof but a piece of laminated paper and asked for $18,000. Harrison's expert authenticated the item, but he cut the price drastically, which led to the owner walking out of the shop without a deal.
In the episode, Justin showed the piece of math to Harrison, and the pawn shop boss immediately started 'geeking out. "I did some research, and I found out it was one of the rarest things that you can get," Justin told Harrison. Looking at the note, Harrison estimated that it was pre-1929, as it had the 'cosmological constant'. "He (Einstein) had to come up with this whole massive, crazy equation called the cosmological constant sort for the theory of relativity. Then Hubble came out in 1929 and found out that the universe is expanding and not stagnant, so he didn't need the entire equation for the cosmological constant, and therefore that went away, and the symbol has not been used since the 1920s," Harrison explained.
After learning that Justin was looking for $18,000, Harrison noted that the document wasn't signed, so he needed an expert to authenticate it. Upon walking in, the expert noted that similar items of the Nobel Prize winner had sold for upwards of $50,000 as they are rare to come by. He then closely looked at the handwritten piece to check for its authenticity. "I basically want to do is just kind of go over the ink itself, looking for the fountain pen. As we know, fountain pen was pre-World War two, and after World War two, there was a lot of ballpoint pens," he explained. He then noted that the piece was written in a fountain pen, and the handwriting also matched that of Einstein. "I'm familiar with this type of piece, so I have no problem with its authenticity," he told Harrison. Coming to the appraisal, the expert estimated that the item could be worth about $5,000, which was significantly less than the owner's asking price.
As soon as the expert walked out, Rick started the negotiations. He offered Justin, who was still recovering from the low appraisal, $3,000 for the piece. The owner noted that anything he saw on the market was in the range of $15,000 to $18,000, so he couldn't go that low. He countered with an ask of $14,000. "It's not going to take much space in the shop," he reasoned. Harrison told him that it was going to take up space, as he would need to frame it with a picture of Einstein and put it up on a wall. In the end, they couldn't agree on the value, and the deal fell apart.
"Obviously, a deal's not gonna be made because we're really far apart," the pawn shop owner said, and Justin walked away.
