Presidential diamonds

At Kamaaina Loan, we like to say we never know what will come over the counter next. But we have never had a First Lady’s diamond tiara yet. The famous Rick Harrison at Gold and Silver Pawn has beaten us to it.

The TV pawn superstar obtained a diamond tiara once worn by the wife of President McKinley.

He has offered to sell it at his price, $43,000, to the McKinley Museum in Ohio. Presidential museums and libraries are not tax-supported but depend on donations by (usually) supporters who backed the man in office.

That’s why money is being raised for a Barack Obama library — with Hawaii and Chicago expected to compete for the location — right now. But it is only in fairly recent times that  big political money has flowed into presidential libraries. There is nobody around now who backed McKinley, who was shot in 1900.

So the Ohio museum seems a bit dubious about whether it can come up with the $43,000.