For someone who wants a piece of American history, or at least American myth, a piece of Plymouth Rock is coming up for sale on eBay.

The sale begins Thursday and runs through Thanksgiving, the Boston Globe reported.

The seller, from Orleans on Cape Cod told the newspaper that his piece of the rock came originally from a director of the Pilgrim Society. It comes with a business card from that director and the inscription “A bit of Plymouth Rock taken from the original about 1858.”

The rock has had a mixed history. It was first identified as the landing place 1714, almost 100 years after the fact, by a 90-year-old man who had known some of the original settlers.

The rock broke into two pieces when the Sons of Liberty tried to drag it up to the Liberty Pole. Pieces were given to the Smithsonian and to the Pilgrim Hall Museum and removed by souvenir hunters.

Peggy Baker, executive director of the Pilgrim Hall Museum, said it’s hard to say what it might fetch at auction.

“It’s like anything that’s a memento,” she said. “They’re worth what somebody’s willing to pay for them.”

Posted: 11|15|05 at 10:45 am. Filed under: Auction News.