COREY: What can I help you with?
Well, I found this, and I'm hoping it's worth some money.
That's pretty cool.
This is from the Civil War.
It is interesting.
I mean, at one point, there was people in the Senate
and Congress and stuff that wanted
50% of all males living in the South
to write a written apology for the war.
Really?
Could you imagine what the world would have
been like if they did that.
[laughing]
I have a Southern Orphan Association Certificate.
I found it in my parents' attic in a box
of all old papers and photos.
I think it was, like, from my great-grandparents.
I'm hoping the certificate is worth, like, maybe $500.
What are you looking to do with it?
- Well, sell it. - Sell it?
OK.
Any idea what you're wanting to get out of it?
I'm hoping, like, around $500.
Um-- it very well could be worth $500, I have no idea.
I don't even know if it's real, so.
SHIRLEY: Right. I understand.
When it comes to Southern money, Southern stuff
like this, it's forged a lot.
Oh, really?
I've got a buddy who is really, really good with paper
money stuff like this.
Do you mind if I have him come down and take a look at it?
No, that would be great.
All right, I'll be right back.
Feel free to take a look around the store,
and I'll grab you when he gets here.
OK. Thanks.
They said they were going to call in an expert.
I'm thinking it might be counterfeit,
so I'm kind of nervous.
It's pretty cool, but a lot of Confederate stuff can be fake.
So I called up Peter to come down and check it out.
So Southern Orphan Association Certificate.
Well, this is pretty cool.
This is General Stonewall Jackson,
and he's featured on here.
And this is post-Civil War.
This was during the Reconstruction period.
I didn't notice that was Stonewall Jackson.
- That is. - That dude was gnarly.
Yeah, he was an intense man.
He was, essentially, General Lee's right-hand man.
He passed away from pneumonia.
And many believe that if he didn't pass,
that the war would have drastically changed.
Yeah.
General Lee, for all intents and purposes, was a good guy.
Now, to have the main guy like that,
that guy has got to have the guy that does the dirty work.
And the guy that did the dirty work was Stonewall Jackson.
This guy would go into a town in West Virginia
and he would burn the whole thing down.
Kind of ironic that he would be on this, since he's the one
who burned everything down.
Well, he burned stuff down in the North, not the South.
Yeah, in the South he was the man.
This is a pretty significant time in our history, where
the country, specifically the South,
came together, rebounded, and created opportunity
for the children and the widows of lives
lost during the Civil War.
I'm assuming it was like welfare
or food stamps for Southern orphans and widows.
Well, kind of, sort of.
During the Civil War, about a quarter million soldiers
lost their lives in the South.
So this particular association was actually
designed to fund orphans who didn't have food
or needed to survive somehow.
This isn't a payable certificate.
This, in my opinion, is believed to be a donation receipt.
So it is not currency.
PETER: It is not currency.
OK.
I assumed it was currency.
I assumed it was issued by the United States government.
But essentially, it's a receipt saying that you donated $1.
Correct.
There's not a lot of information on this, surprisingly.
But that's the consensus of the experts in the field.
OK, so obviously this isn't fake.
It is genuine.
There's really no reason to replicate this.
COREY: So what do you think it might be worth?
This is exceptional in quality.
It's the nicest I've seen.
They're not rare, but they're cool.
They have a lot of history.
I would put a retail number of $175.
OK.
I appreciate it, my man. - Anytime, buddy.
I'll see you soon. Good luck.
Thank you.
While the certificate isn't rare, it is cool.
It would be a definitely good buy,
'cause it would cater to pretty much anyone that is a Civil War
relic collector, or just the general public which
find United States history fascinating.
It's not worth what I had hoped it would be.
Yeah, and it's not as cool as I hoped it would be either.
I'd give you about 75 bucks for it.
Really?
COREY: Yeah.
How about $125?
You'd make $50.
I'll give you 100 bucks.
OK. Done.
It's a deal? SHIRLEY: Deal.
All right.
Meet me right over there. - OK.
Thank you.
Knowing what the retail price was, I think the $100 was fair.
This certificate was to help children,
and I'm going to use the $100 I made
to help my own grandchildren.