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.
