What I got here is something that's probably
worth over a million dollars that the federal government
could be paying to you. RICK: OK?
You sound like a salesman.
Let's go ahead.
GEORGE: It's a US-Mexican war promissory note
with compounded interest over the last 160 years.
The United States promises to pay Mr. D--
GEORGE: It's either Nuts or Huts.
I haven't been able to figure it out.
RICK: It looks like Nuts.
I'm really hoping that's an H and not an N.
GEORGE: The reason why I came into the pawn shop here today
was to sell my US-Mexican war a promissory note from 1847.
My dad had purchased an old colonial house
and it was found in a cigar box.
I'm looking at getting about $6,000.
Half of it is going to go to a ring for my wife
because she never had a diamond ring when we got married.
And the other half's gonna go to me.
RICK: It's really interesting.
I mean, the neat thing is it's during the Mexican-American
War.
It's sort of sad-- this country--
most people don't even know that we went to war with Mexico.
The entire West was owned by Mexico,
but they really didn't occupy it.
And we actually offered to buy it off them.
They said, no.
And then I'm sure the Mexican's said the American's shot.
We said the Mexican's shot.
Next thing you know, we ended up having a war break out.
The Mexican-American War started over
a dispute on what was the boundary
between Texas and Mexico.
And what a lot of people don't realize about this war--
it shaped the United States.
So how much were you looking to get out of this?
GEORGE: Well, if the-- if we go the interest route, let's
split it in half.
I'll take half.
If it doesn't have the interest, how about 6 grand?
RICK: I'm intrigued by this right
here because I know that any bond issued
by the US government, after we had a constitution,
are still payable.
You can present them to the government.
They still have to pay you for them.
When the interest ends, I don't know.
Or if they actually are redeemable.
Let me just call somebody up who will know.
OK. RICK: OK?
Let me get down here.
He will look at this, and he can probably
answer every question we got.
And then he'll just go on for like another half hour
about this stuff.
This is a promissory note.
I know about these.
RICK: I mean, the neat thing is it's
during the Mexican-American War.
MARK HALL-PATTON: Well that's kind of understandable.
One of the things about the Mexican-American War
in American history is that we didn't
have enough money in the treasury to fight the war.
So we had to take out loans from our own people.
We had borrow the money in order to fight the war.
We didn't want to go to war.
Polk didn't want to go to war.
He was the president at that time.
And there was a big controversy over whether the Nueces
River or the Rio Grande was the southern border.
So we went to war, and actually took Mexico.
Now the treaty that Polk agreed to was they
would give back Mexico to the Mexican government,
but we would buy the Southwest for $15 million.
So the war was a very important war in our history.
See?
I told you he'd just keep on talking.
Is this a valid US note here?
Let me take a closer look here.
It says promises to pay one year after date to Mr. D Nuts.
RICK: Sorry.
MARK HALL-PATTON: So, order $500 with interest
at the rate of 5 and 2/5 per centum.
So they could have turned this in,
and it would have been worth one year of interest.
Right. RICK: Interest for one year.
It doesn't accrue for infinity?
MARK HALL-PATTON: No.
They were smart enough to figure out, you know,
if somebody sticks this in a box in the attic,
and somebody finds it 170 years from now,
we don't want to pay for it.
OK.
Is this note redeemable?
MARK HALL-PATTON: No.
And it's not an original.
OK?
MARK HALL-PATTON: This is a copy of the promissory note.
You look at the writing here and the signatures-- the signatures
were done by the same person who wrote this.
And you would not see that if it was an original note
because each of the signatories would have
individually signed the note.
Well it makes sense because, you know,
if you're going to send off your paperwork,
you need to make a copy of it.
And back then, they didn't have--
you couldn't scan it and print it out.
You know-- or if you use a copy machine, you--
if you made a copy, you wrote out a copy.
And that's exactly what we've got here.
- Thanks for busting my bubble. - Sorry about that.
- Thank you. - Good to meet you.
Thank you. - Pleasure.
MARK HALL-PATTON: Even if it was an authentic promissory note
from the Mexican War period, as I understand the law,
you could not turn it in today.
It is no longer valid.
The final ones were called in in 1869.
And then after that, they were invalidated.
They were demonetized.
Unfortunately, there's no historical significance here.
If this was paperwork that was signed by a general that
was doing something in the war-- if it was anything like that,
it would be worth money.
So I'd be willing to offer you basically nothing.
Looks like Mama's not getting her diamond ring.
Nope.
Looks like no private jet, dude. All right.
All right.
RICK: Thanks for coming in, though.
Thank you.
I think I'm going to keep on researching this because even
though it may not be worth something today,
I'm sure I can find a buyer for it eventually.