GUEST: This is a Civil War draft wheel. And this was in a museum in Marengo, Illinois, that was run by a local undertaker from, like, the early 1900s into the 1940s. And it got passed along by the family, and they were finally moving out of the area, and I purchased it from them.

APPRAISER: How long ago did you acquire it?

GUEST: Uh, in 2017.

APPRAISER: Got it.

GUEST: And what it was used for was, um, in 1863, the U.S. Congress passed the Enrollment Act. And as a result of that, every congressional district in the United States had a provost marshal's office. And this drum was used to draft people into the Union Army.

APPRAISER: And you also have some cards here that were part of the drum, right?

GUEST: Yes. The provost marshal went around and he would register all the people that are eligible to go into the army. And that's what those cards are.

It has their name and then the sub-district within that congressional district.

APPRAISER: So the number here represents the sub-district?

GUEST: Yes, sir.

APPRAISER: I think it's interesting about these cards is that a couple of them have actually the age of the potential draftee on them. This gentleman was 30 years old. This person here was 23 at the time.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: The Civil War was really the first U.S. attempt at initiating a formal draft. Some folks during the Civil War when the draft came up, often referred to it as, a rich man's war, poor man's fight. Because if you had some money and you were drafted, you could pay a fee and get out of it. I think at the time it was, like, $300. So there was some issue with the draft, and there were riots in New York. Lincoln had to pull troops from the Gettysburg battle in order to quell these riots. But what's interesting about what you brought today, is that it shows us how they were trying to be as egalitarian as possible. First of all, it's a 12-sided box that rotates and it's mostly glass, except for the panel where you open it up. And I think that was an attempt to say, "Hey, we're trying to make this so that you can see that it's a fair situation." That said, once your name was pulled, if you had the money, you could also get out of it. So it was a complicated time. We look at the box, what's unique about it is that it was most certainly handmade, uh, for the, the provost's office there. Almost like a, like a bingo setup. This was a situation where you weren't lucky to get pulled.

GUEST: Exactly. It's not a game you want to win.

APPRAISER: And we flash forward to the Vietnam War and now we're televising it. So it's really a moment in time in America where we see, uh, you know, the... this initiation of the draft. That said, it's an unusual thing. I mean, have you ever seen others?

GUEST: I've seen several in museums.

APPRAISER: And the others you've seen, how similar are they?

GUEST: Uh, they're quite different.

APPRAISER: Right, exactly.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Leading to believe that the concept was initiated by someone. And then they basically let them build it however they felt was the best way forward. What did you pay for it back in the day?

GUEST: About $500.

APPRAISER: And it came with all the cards?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It can be tricky to value a thing like this. And part of it will be based on the connection to Illinois. Were there a specific regiment that served very conspicuously, that came out of that area and that could tie this box to them? But as is, after a bit of, uh, back and forth and some research, I, I would say, conservatively, for insurance purposes, I would say you're in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

GUEST: Oh, excellent.

APPRAISER: It's one thing to say the draft. It's one thing to have a poster, it's another thing to see the names in a barrel, right?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: That's, that really brings it home.