
Public Sale Auction House in Hudson, New York had an auction on November 19, 2021. It included a Lincoln & Johnson broadside that sold for $4200. It came out of the basement of an old house that included a real Franklin Pierce newspaper broadside from 1852, but the size (11” x 15”) was wrong, it lacked the border at the bottom, it lacked the printer’s name, there were many irregularities in the printing (parts of letters missing, letters filled in, undulating lines, etc.) More than likely, it was a modern reduction copy of an original. None of the faults that could have produced these defects (missing paper, folds, creases, buckling) were present on the item sold, which appeared perfectly flat. Even the shadow of a vertical crease line did not seem to correspond to an actual crease in the paper. While the true nature of the item was apparent to the buyer upon receipt, he was unable to receive a full refund, but the auctioneer did “ease the pain” by refunding his commission on the sale.