RICK: Hey, how can I help you?
I have a letter written by Franklin
Delano Roosevelt in 1922.
[music playing]
Cool, let me see it.
Isn't it amazing how presidents usually write like doctors?
[laughter]
SETH: We got the letter from my wife's grandfather.
He was a prominent attorney in New York state.
And I suspect the letter was in his law firm.
And I think the letter is valued at about $15,000.
I'd like to sell this letter because my oldest son is
getting ready to go to college.
And it would be a great opportunity
to offset some of the costs.
RICK: Do you mind if I read it?
SETH: Please.
Sucks getting old.
SETH: Tell me about it.
"Dear Al, would you have a talk with my old friend Robert
Pratter?
He has an insurance matter which has already been well
taken care of by Mr. Butler"--
scribble, scribble, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yeah.
So basically, it's a letter he's writing
to some guy named Al hoping he takes
care of some insurance matters.
Yes.
RICK: OK.
It's written in '22.
He did get polio in '21.
He's paralyzed from the waist down at this point.
And it is on his personal letterhead.
SETH: Right.
RICK: Another great thing is his full signature.
SETH: Right. - OK.
You don't always get his full signature.
You get initials with Roosevelt.
FDR memorabilia is incredibly popular,
because he's linked to so many historical moments
that shaped our country.
It's definitely interesting, but I just need more information.
So how much do you want to get out of it?
SETH: $15,000.
$15,000.
I've seen other letters on the same letterhead
and stationery go for substantially more money.
So I feel that's a fair price for it.
OK.
It is really cool.
But I have my doubts.
My big concern over this is this is
right after he was struck down by polio and became paralyzed.
I would really assume he had a secretary
doing everything for him.
I suspect not, only because it's on his own letterhead.
And the-- the penmanship matches across the whole letter
and then into the signature.
Do you mind if I have someone look at it?
I have a friend.
She deals in documents like this.
OK. Great.
I'm going to go give her a jingle.
Great.
Thank you.
I'm confident that the letter was written by FDR himself.
We've seen similar letters online that show
exactly the same penmanship.
[ding]
July 1922.
At this point, he has retired from being Assistant
Secretary of the Navy.
SETH: Right.
REBECCA ROMNEY: He just had a failed run for vice president.
SETH: Right
He with James Cox ran against Warren G. Harding in 1920
and lost.
SETH: Right.
And then it was just the summer before
that he contracted polio.
And actually, I believe it was during the Boy Scout Jamboree
that he participated in.
Well, it-- it seems possible.
I mean, a lot of kids there and there was no vaccine.
REBECCA ROMNEY: Yeah.
So what are your concerns?
I know that most of his life he had secretaries.
And I just assume that, especially
at this time when he's not feeling well,
they were all dictated letters.
Right.
Well, at this time, I mean, he certainly did have secretaries.
And he had many secretaries throughout his life
who would sign his name.
All right.
So whip out the apparatus.
[laughs]
The apparati?
The optic.
RICK: [laughs] OK.
Here what I have is essentially
a dossier of different secretaries
who signed FDR's name over the years.
You can see how many different secretaries there were.
See all of these?
These are proxy signatures from the 1930s.
And what we really need to compare it to
is the signatures of Roosevelt's own handwriting from about 1921
to 1923.
The D in Franklin D. Roosevelt tends to be pretty different.
And you can see here it almost looks like an N or even a W.
And I'll--
I'll highlight this here so you can see that a little bit more.
And then the other thing is specifically the angle
that we see in that cross bar on the F.
That's an angle that's often changed by secretaries.
You can see these angles here are the same.
RICK: So you think it's legit?
[suspenseful music playing]
REBECCA ROMNEY: Yes.
OK.
Sweet.
Now, what do you think it's worth?
Collectors love the presidents.
If you follow the presidents, you're following
American history step by step.
If it were done while he was president,
there are only a couple dozen surviving letters
while he was president on his letterhead
completely in his handwriting.
I would actually say that this is probably worth about--
$1,500.
That's a little disappointing.
You know, I had hoped to get something
close to about $15,000.
$15,000 would be completely viable.
But it's really not too special.
He's not talking about his failed vice
presidential bid, for example.
Or he's not talking about running
for governor himself, which he does a little bit later.
He had much more time in 1922 to do
a handwritten letter than he would have,
say, when he was president in 1941.
That's when you get into those amazing values like $15,000.
But as it is, the content is pretty so-so.
Right.
OK.
Thanks.
You're the best.
I was sorry to disappoint him.
But with the content and the year,
it just wasn't going to go that high.
It's some insurance matter.
It's Mr. A go talk to Mr. B, and that's all we've got.
RICK: How much do you want now?
Well, she said it's only worth $1,500.
So it's really worth more to me than even the $1,500.
So I don't know if I would want to sell it now.
RICK: OK.
You know, because you're not going to offer me $15,000.
No.
I'm going to offer you like $800.
Right.
So for $800, I'd rather just keep it in our family.
All right.
Sorry for the bad news.
Thanks for your time.
No problem.
[upbeat music playing]
It's still a great letter.
It was written by a great president.
And it's something that we can pass down
from generation to generation.