3601 West Sahara Avenue (Promenade Suite)
Las Vegas, Nevada 89102-5822
1-800-GALLERY (1-800-425-5379) or (702) 364-1000
Fax: (702) 364-1285
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST) Monday - Friday
International Callers: (702) 364-1000

There are four variables that define value in historical documents:
1.	Content
2.	Condition
3.	Rarity
4.	Demand
1.	Content: When the content of a document is directly linked to the deed for which the individual is known, or when its content gives insight into his persona.
2.	Condition: Is a key factor. A document in better condition will be more valuable than a comparable one in poor condition. Documents done en masse and signed by the same person are subject to price differentiation where condition is concerned. For example, compare two military appointments or land grants signed by a particular president. Rarity may take precedence over condition in certain situations.
3.	Rarity: Rarity means that there are not a lot of documents where a particular personality is concerned, and/or the content of what you want of that personality is very scarce.
4.	Demand and Investment Grade Material: Demand means that there are certain personalities more sought after than others: History makers as presidents are very much in demand. Your military and aviation heroes are in demand, so too are founding fathers. There are personalities in every category that are in demand and usually they address a very important investment question: Who in 5, 10 and 100 years from now is going to be in our history books? This question tests who is most investment worthy in historical documents, and usually the investment worthy individuals are the individuals most in demand because they are classics.

We’re going to answer that by giving you two shocking facts:
1.	The National Archives was established in 1932. Its doors were opened in 1935. Our country was born in 1776. So there were a lot of years for documents to be floating around.
2.	Prior to the National Archives was the Library of Congress as a repository for historical documents, but that was established in 1800.Therefore, we had from 1776 to 1800 to have documents floating around. This means that for 24 years, some very significant pieces of history were in private hands. The bottom line is that our government came very late in realizing the need for preserving and procuring our nation’s history. Much of this has to do with the fact of our being a democracy and because the organization of democracy works on a decentralized level. By virtue of working on a decentralized basis, preserving and curating U.S. history was not filtered through to the top as a national priority.
The preconception of most Americans that our documents are locked up comes from the European historical experience which is much longer-lived than American history. Europe was organized by monarchies. Monarchy implies the centralization of power and information and, therefore, it follows that Europe's significant documents were maintained by the governments.