RICK HARRISON: It's you again. ERIK: Yeah.
RICK HARRISON: What do you have?
This is a Civil War period math book that has story
problems about killing Yankees.
It says, "If one Confederate soldier can kill 90 Yankees,
how many Yankees can 10 Confederate soldiers kill?"
I think that's still in math books in North Carolina.
[laughter]
[man yelling]
[cannon blast]
[military music]
ERIK: It's really difficult to find this particular book.
There's a handful of them out there.
But I've looked for years, and you
just never see them for sale.
RICK HARRISON: Well, it's cool.
And it's 1864.
It's right there.
Believe it or not, the Southern soldier
was three times more likely to hit a Yankee with a bullet
at a long range as opposed to a Yankee shooting
at a Southerner.
ERIK: 3 to 1, yes, but not 90 to 1.
Right.
[laughter]
RICK HARRISON: They were much better marksmen.
Growing up on a farm, you had to be pretty
good with a rifle, or a lot of nights,
you would have gone hungry.
ERIK: Sure.
To me, it's a little odd that they're printing anything
in 1864 in North Carolina.
This is, like, the peak of the Civil War.
Basically every resource is going to the war
and not to arithmetic books.
It's very fragile because it's printed on Confederate paper.
There weren't many paper mills down South.
A lot of the paper that came in came from England,
and had to get through the blockade.
And of course, by that time, really nothing was
getting through the blockade.
So it's, like, probably about the worst
quality paper there is.
And because of that, you can see there's some pretty
significant restoration done.
RICK HARRISON: I'm gonna open it up here.
"If 1 pound of honey be worth $0.30, how
many cents are 2 pounds worth?"
So obviously, it's a math book, not--
English.
Yeah.
This thing is a pretty rare find.
You have to realize during this time period,
people's lives revolved around the Civil War.
And everything down to their children's school books
reflected that.
I've never seen a school book that looked even close to this.
How much you want for it?
$7,000.
[dramatic sting]
OK, I have no idea.
[laughs]
CHUMLEE: We could always call your dad in to authenticate it.
1864, that's about right.
I think he actually went to school in Raleigh
there for a while.
Could have been his textbook.
RICK HARRISON: I have a friend.
Her name is Rebecca.
She will be able to help me figure out the price.
All right.
I have made some really good deals with Rick in the past.
But lately, he's been kind of lowballing me.
Hopefully this expert will know what she's doing,
and it'll go better than some of the other times.
I see 1864 and North Carolina.
That automatically says-- oh, I see why you called me in here.
The Civil War is one of the most traumatic
and life-changing events in the history of our country.
The South relied on getting books from the North.
And obviously, that had to stop once they seceded.
RICK HARRISON: It has great references to killing
Yankees with bad grammar.
[laughs]
REBECCA ROMNEY: Great.
Scholars, when they read Confederate imprints,
they're always surprised at how harsh the words are.
It's very vitriolic.
Why does it call it an imprint?
REBECCA ROMNEY: Imprint is just anything that's been printed,
essentially. - OK.
Duh.
REBECCA ROMNEY: What we're talking about is--
Even Chum knew that, Rick.
I mean--
Yeah.
One of the cool things about Confederate imprints
is that there's a lot of patriotism
associated with them.
So people are suddenly writing to how we
need to defend our way of life.
And any time someone would publish something like that,
it was considered contributing to the cause.
So this kind of thing, killing Yankees--
oh, yeah, typical.
Have you seen this particular book?
REBECCA ROMNEY: You know, there was a huge amount
printed of this book.
But many, many of the copies were actually destroyed
during Sherman's March.
So it's kind of known for that, that it was destroyed.
It's from Raleigh, which is pretty interesting.
I mean, this is not Richmond.
This is not New Orleans.
It's not a major center.
So that can contribute to the scarcity.
It is kind of unusual that it doesn't come up at the market
very often.
So if this copy were absolutely beautiful,
I would value it at around $2,000.
[dramatic music]
This copy is not beautiful.
Because of the condition, I'd look more around $1,200
or $1,300 for it, which is more than you're going to get
for most Confederate textbooks.
[music playing]
OK, well, I've been offered five times that for that book.
Then you should take that, because that
is not the market value.
Thank you, Rebecca.
You are the best.
REBECCA ROMNEY: Good luck with this one.
Thanks.
[laughter]
With collectibles, things are only worth as
much as people will pay for it.
And so you have to kind of go based on what you
expect as comparable copies.
Well, you guys are a little bit apart on the price there.
ERIK: Yeah, we are.
Well, I don't think we're going to make a deal.
I mean-- - Yeah, I don't think so either.
I really have been offered a lot more than that, so--
If you can get more, then more power to you, man.
All right, man, thanks. RICK HARRISON: Have a good one.
CHUMLEE: All right, good luck with that, man.
All right.
In the rare book world, I could maybe see her coming
up with a price like that.
But in the Confederate artifact world, she's way off.
People who collect Civil War and Confederate,
they like any reference to combat.
And that's what makes this book a lot more valuable.