1927 Spirit of St. Louis-flown & Inscribed $1 Silver Certificate
GUEST: My father was very interested in Charles Lindbergh, so we have this dollar bill that Charles Lindbergh carried on the Spirit of St. Louis from New York to Paris in 1927. He heard that this bill was going to be sold at an auction in Kirkwood, Missouri. So he went to the auction, and ended up buying it in a fierce battle, I understand, for $225.
APPRAISER: And what year was that?
GUEST: 1972.
APPRAISER: There's some writing on it. On the top here, it says, "To Harry H. Knight from Charles Lindbergh, June 17, 1927." Now, Harry H. Knight and his brother were both part of the nine investors that backed the transatlantic flight. And Harry is credited as being the one who got everyone else interested. And June 17 is the day the Spirit of St. Louis arrived back in St. Louis after that transatlantic flight. We know that he carried this on the plane. He actually has written on here-- it says, "This bill was carried on entire flight. Charles A. Lindbergh." He signed it again. We can't find any other examples of Lindbergh signing, inscribing dollar bills to anyone. So it is both unique, and it's this, uh, fantastic... I think of these things as a witness to history. And on the right side here, he's listed all the cities that the Spirit of St. Louis flew to. Silver certificates were, at the time-- this one dates from 1923-- you could exchange it for a silver dollar. They are a little bit larger than a normal bit of American currency. The flight was on May 20, when it left New York. It arrived in Paris the, late the following night, on the 21st, and sometime at the beginning of June, both the plane and Charles Lindbergh came back to the States. What he did was amazing. No one had done this, he did it on his own. He flew straight-- he had no bathroom breaks, no going to the back of the plane, no sleeping. I think for you and I, Charles Lindbergh was Jimmy Stewart in "The Spirit of St. Louis." I remember watching that film at school on a projector in the gym, and that's who I thought he was-- he was a hero. In 2025, people look at him a little differently. They talk about during World War II and before the war, his sympathies with the German government at the time, the Nazi Party. He was against the U.S. going into the war. He had a secret family in Germany. Is there anything else-- do you remember what your father thought about it? Clearly he fought for it.
GUEST: Oh, he did fight for it, and he treasured it. I mean, this is something that he was very proud of. He didn't get to the age where all the things about Lindbergh became clear.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: So for him, Lindbergh was a hero. And because he was an amateur pilot, he really looked at this as something that drew them together.
APPRAISER: Right-- would you be surprised if I told you that at auction, we would estimate that at $20,000 to $30,000?
GUEST: (chuckling) Very much so, yes, I would. But I wouldn't want to sell it. (laughing)
APPRAISER: No, it-- nor would I. Without the writing, without the inscription, that silver certificate's worth about $20.
$20,000 - $30,000 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
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