George Washington
Signed until 1799, so the supply is fixed — nothing new is being added to this market.
Recorded sales
| Date | What sold | Certified | Price | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-08 | 1776 signed letter to Colonel Daniel Hitchcock about raising the new army | Beckett PSA/DNA and JSA | $109,800 | auction result |
| 2024-02-17 | 1794 three-language ship's pass countersigned by Edmund Randolph Multi-signed | PSA/DNA | $18,300 | auction result |
| 2025-05-03 | Signed soldier's discharge dated 8 June 1783 | PSA/DNA Auto 6 | $15,250 | auction result |
| 2025-10-19 | Signed cut | PSA/DNA Auto Mint 9 | $14,043 | auction result |
| 2026-07-08 | 1783 soldier's discharge countersigned by Jonathan Trumbull Jr. described as the subject of a notable fraud case Multi-signed | Beckett | $13,446 | auction result |
| 2026-07-08 | 1786 Society of the Cincinnati diploma countersigned by Henry Knox Multi-signed | Beckett | $11,590 | auction result |
| 2026-07-08 | Signed cut | PSA/DNA Auto EX 5 | $10,980 | auction result |
By certification level
These are 7 results this index has recorded from Heritage Auctions between 2024 and 2026, not every sale that happened. They under-represent inexpensive items, which sell constantly and are reported rarely, and they exclude private sales this index has no record of. Read them as documented evidence rather than as a complete market.
About this signature
- Status
- Signed until 1799supply is fixed
- Note
- Even a clipped signature costs five figures; the words beside it cost far more
- On this index
- 0 listedno sales recorded yet
What does a signed George Washington item cost?
More than almost anyone else on this index at the bottom of the market. Even a signature clipped from a document, with nothing else on it, has sold here for over ten thousand dollars. The seven certified results recorded run from about eleven thousand to nearly one hundred and ten thousand, and all of them are paper: cut signatures, military discharges, a ship's pass, a Society of the Cincinnati diploma and a wartime letter. He died in 1799, so every genuine example was signed with a quill more than two centuries ago.
Why did one letter sell for eight times a signature?
Because of what it says. A signed letter of 12 November 1776 to Colonel Daniel Hitchcock about raising a new army, written as most of his men's enlistments ran out at the end of 1776, made $109,800. His bare signature, cut from a document, made $14,043 at the top grade recorded here. The name is the same; the letter is a piece of the war. The same pattern appears across this index: on Roger Maris's page and Vince Lombardi's, items tied to a specific moment sell at large multiples of the plain signature.
Does the autograph grade matter on a Washington signature?
Much less than you might expect. Two cut signatures recorded here carry PSA/DNA autograph grades of 9 and 5, and the 9 made only about a quarter more, $14,043 against $10,980. At this level buyers are paying for the name and its authenticity far more than for how crisply it was written. Several of the documents here also carry a second signature: Henry Knox on a Society of the Cincinnati diploma, Jonathan Trumbull Jr. on a soldier's discharge, and Edmund Randolph on a ship's pass. Official countersignatures were routine, and those documents are kept apart from the comparisons on this page.
Signatures are reproduced more often than most buyers realise, by outright forgery and also by machines and assistants signing on somebody’s behalf. Every item on this page has been examined by PSA/DNA, JSA, Beckett, SGC or CGC, and this index carries nothing else. That is a deliberate restriction, and the investigation that created the modern authentication industry is worth reading, along with what a certificate actually claims.