Heritage Auctions Unveils Sweeping 250th Anniversary Auction Celebrating the American Experience June 25

From a legendary 1776 Continental Dollar to the sixth-floor JFK assassination window, Liberty & Legacy presents 250 years of American history through surviving artifacts DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (May 26, 2026) — As the United States prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of its founding, Heritage Auctions will present an extraordinary series of landmark sales celebrating the people, artifacts and moments that shaped the American story. Headlining the celebration is Liberty & Legacy: Celebrating 250 Years of the American Spirit— a sweeping auction taking place June 25 featuring 94 foundational documents, iconic relics, presidential artifacts, wartime archives, early Americana and objects connected to defining moments in the nation’s development. From the birth of the republic to the emergence of the United States as a global power, the sale offers an unparalleled material narrative of the American experience. The auction highlights an extraordinary 1776 Continental Dollar struck in silver, one of only four known examples and among the most important coins associated with the birth of the United States. Originating from the legendary Henry Warshaw Collection, the Continental Dollar occupies a singular place in American numismatic history and is widely believed to have been designed by Benjamin Franklin himself. Bearing the motto “Mind Your Business” and interlocking rings representing the colonies, the coin stands among the earliest expressions of the new nation’s identity and ideals, symbolizing independence, unity and the aspirations of a fledgling republic determined to establish itself on the world stage. “This is not simply a collection of historic artifacts. It is the story of America told through the objects that survived its most defining moments,” says Joe Maddalena, Executive Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “Collectors and historians can follow the evolution of the nation itself — from revolution and independence to expansion, conflict, innovation, politics and modern leadership.” Among the highlights of Liberty & Legacy is a remarkable selection from the Steven Lomazow, M.D. Collection of American Periodicals, including the first appearances of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights in magazine format. The collection also features early engravings by Paul Revere and a rare printing of Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner” published while the War of 1812 still raged. Additional Revolutionary-era treasures include personal effects belonging to Declaration signer William Ellery, among them his 1776 Continental Congress credentials, spectacles and 1776 letter in Independence — intimate relics from one of the men who helped forge the nation. The auction also includes rare coinage and currency that helped define the economic foundations of the early United States, reflecting the emergence of a uniquely American financial identity in the years surrounding independence. Among the sale’s most intimate and emotionally resonant relics are original locks of hair belonging to George and Martha Washington, deeply personal artifacts connected to the nation’s first presidential family and the generation that established the American republic. The auction also includes one of the most important diplomatic documents of the early republic: a 1783 ship’s passport signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and John Jay in the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris. Issued during the fragile earliest days of American independence, the document symbolizes the United States taking its first steps onto the world stage as a sovereign nation. Equally compelling is a deeply personal and philosophical handwritten letter from America’s first president. In George Washington’s final letter to Thomas Paine, Washington writes, “No one can feel a greater interest in the happiness of mankind than I do,” while discussing Paine’s landmark Rights of Man. The letter reflects the intellectual and political ideals that animated the founding generation and continue to resonate nearly 250 years later. Also captivating is the intact archive of Confederate spy Absalom Grimes — a daring operative who escaped capture six times and received three death sentences during the course of the Civil War. Preserved together, the archive offers a rare firsthand window into espionage, survival and divided loyalties during one of the nation’s most turbulent eras. Spanning the full breadth of American history, the auction extends into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with iconic artifacts tied to defining moments and figures. Among them is a contemporary working manuscript draft of the 1845 Texas Constitution, capturing the historic moment Texas entered the Union and forever altered the trajectory of the American Southwest. Another standout is Theodore Roosevelt’s African Safari flag, signed and presented to legendary guide and expedition leader “Ju-Ju Major” Edgar M. Ringer and documented to have been used during Roosevelt’s famed 1909-1910 African expedition. Conducted under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution shortly after Roosevelt left the White House, the ambitious journey became one of the defining adventures of his post-presidency and captured the imagination of the American public. Traveling across British East Africa and the Belgian Congo, Roosevelt and his party collected thousands of zoological specimens for scientific study while cementing Roosevelt’s image as an explorer, naturalist and embodiment of rugged American individualism. The flag reflects both Roosevelt’s adventurous spirit and his enduring larger-than-life presence in American culture. Another of the auction’s most historically significant artifacts is the actual sixth-floor window from the Texas School Book Depository through which Lee Harvey Oswald fired during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. As a silent witness to one of the defining moments of the twentieth century, the window remains one of the most consequential and emotionally resonant artifacts connected to the Kennedy assassination and modern American history. Removed from the Depository in the 1960s and carefully preserved for posterity, the window stands today as a somber reminder of the tragedy that forever changed the nation and the course of American history. Among the most remarkable artifacts of the modern presidency is the presidential seat from Marine One, used aboard the helicopter fleet transporting American presidents from 1975 through 2014. Utilized across four decades of administrations, the seat stands as a tangible artifact of executive power and modern presidential history. “These auctions tell the story of America through objects that survived moments we too often only read about in textbooks,” says Maddalena. “What Heritage has assembled is nothing less than a museum-caliber survey of American history at the moment the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary.” Images and information about all lots in the auction, as well as public viewing information, can be found here. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,750,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Christina Rees, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1341 or Christina Rees@HA.com