LOS ANGELES, CA.- One of the scarcest and most important documents in the history of the United States: the very first printing of the reward poster for the capture of John Wilkes Booth and two other conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Auctions for $166,375.

The poster was issued by the War Department in Washington, D.C. on April 20, 1865, five days after President Lincoln passed and six days before Booth was killed.

This broadside reward poster is the very first printing and also the rarest of the three iterations printed by the War Department, with some estimates of fewer than five existing today. It is much scarcer than the second printing, which has three woodcut frames at top for photographs of the conspirators. That second printing poster has recently sold several times in excess of $200,000.

The poster originates from the Philadelphia area, passed down through the same family until its auction here; it has never been sold or auctioned before. The poster was originally displayed on a tree.

Auction owner Nate Sanders said, “President Lincoln’s assassination was a turning point in American history, triggering the ultimate what-if question of how racial reconciliation might have been different if he had lived. This poster viscerally brings you back to the days after he was killed - the shock of the murder, and the anxiety of the assassin still out there on the loose. It was an incredibly tense few days and this poster is one of the few mementos that have survived from it."

Bidding began at $100,000.