GUEST:
This is a cash register we found in an antique store in Ellsworth, Maine. And a few summers ago, we went in and we saw this cash register. It was supposedly the cash register that appeared in a children's book by Robert McCloskey called "One Morning in Maine," which is an old favorite of both my wife's and mine. It seemed to make sense, because we knew that "One Morning in Maine" was a real, a true story set in this area, and we knew that, uh, Condon's General Store, where a cash register like this is pictured in the book, the Condon family had recently gotten rid of quite a few items from their house, and their store had closed. Even if it's not the register from Condon's General Store in the book, it's still, we know that it's from here.

APPRAISER:
It's a National cash register.

GUEST:
Uh-huh.

APPRAISER:
It's around 1900. Why don't you open the book and show us the image?

GUEST:
This is the illustration from "One Morning in Maine" by Robert McCloskey, who wrote and illustrated this book, as well as "Make Way for Ducklings" and "Blueberries for Sal."

APPRAISER:
I have no doubt that's a National cash register.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
The next thing to do is to figure out, is there a way we can tell? Well, why don't we open it up? (cash register dings)

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
It rings. GUEST (laughs): Yeah.

APPRAISER:
The serial number of the register is there. You pull the drawer out, and what people will look for on the bottom: the serial number matches the register. So this drawer was, came with the register, which for collectors is good. It's dated April 10, 1911.

GUEST:
Hm.

APPRAISER:
But it's to the Robinson Company in Houlton, Maine. It doesn't say that this isn't the register, because many were sold secondhand. But what we really wanted to see was the Condon name.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
To say, "Yes, it absolutely was."

GUEST:
I had never taken that drawer out. I would have been afraid to.

APPRAISER:
This beautiful piece of marble...

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
...is actually functional as a counterfeit detector, and I just happen...

GUEST:
What?

APPRAISER:
...to have-- well, back at the turn of the century, silver dollars were a lot of times counterfeited.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
And one of the ways that if somebody-- and I'm not an expert on this-- but if you did it time and time again, if you dropped a silver dollar... (heavy clink) ...it had a certain sound.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
And if you dropped a slug... (lighter clink) ...it sounded differently.

GUEST:
Now, wait, now, let me see if I can tell which one is the real one. (metal pieces clinking) The first one.

APPRAISER:
That's the first one, you got it.

GUEST:
Give it to me.

APPRAISER:
Here you go.

GUEST:
Thank you, you can keep that, that's garbage. APPRAISER (laughs): What did you pay for the register?

GUEST:
About $900.

APPRAISER:
Well, that's about right.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
It's $1,000, $1,200. But I wanted to...

GUEST:
I was, I was convinced that it was worth $35.

APPRAISER:
Let's say that when we pulled this out, rather than seeing Robinson Company...

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
...we saw Condon or it was something else, absolute, that this would be the cash register.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
I would probably double or triple that.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
Because collectors of McCloskey, they're, they're avid.

GUEST:
Really?

APPRAISER:
And they will pay a good amount of money. A first edition of "Make Way for Ducklings" can sell up to $20,000.

GUEST:
Oh, wow. Well, then, I'm glad that we can't make that connection, because I wouldn't want the temptation to sell it.

APPRAISER:
(chuckling)

GUEST:
To any of those other McCloskey-collecting creeps.

APPRAISER:
One of the other things you did bring was a sign. Where did that come from?

GUEST:
Around the time that we got this register-- the same summer, in fact-- we went to an auction on the lawn of the old Condon house. When we arrived, we saw this sign in the yard, same summer, "Jay R. Condon Restaurant, Candy, Tobacco, etc." First of all, we loved the sign. Second of all, it seemed likely that it might be the sign from the general store itself. It was already sold by the time we got there. We felt very disappointed.

APPRAISER:
The sign is definitely a Condon sign. What did you end up paying?

GUEST:
Yeah, when we found it the next summer, we paid $200 for it.

APPRAISER:
That's just about exactly right.

GUEST:
(sighs)

APPRAISER:
But I, but I...

GUEST:
On the money every time.

APPRAISER:
But I would say, for the sign as a sign, I would add, probably double or triple it because it's related to the book. It's not so much a sign collector who would want that, it's someone who's collecting McCloskey, so...

GUEST:
Right. Well, we have no wish to part with it.