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‘Pawn Stars’ Customer Brought Deadly WWII Mortar to Get Appraised

All sorts of things come into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Pawn Stars. Military items are very popular on the show due to their high-interest value. A very unique item came into the shop all the way from Japan.

A customer came strolling in with what looked like a large metal tube, it turns out it was a WWII-era Japanese knee mortar. These mortars were revolutionary at the time, making the work of launching explosives easy and mobile. Around 100,000 were made and they inflicted a lot of damage. It simplified weaponry that has been used for hundreds of years.

Check out the video below.

While Rick Harrison seemed to know some information about the item, he didn’t know everything. He asked questions about where he got it from and a very important question. Is it decommissioned? Of course, the weapon had been demilitarized with a hole bored in the side and a metal bar welded in the barrel. Knowing it was safe, Harrison got his expert to come in.

When the expert arrived, he was excited. It isn’t often someone on Pawn Stars gets this into an item. He authenticated it and gave some history on it. One part of the job is checking for the serial number. After he authenticated it, with an early production number, he gave a value. So, it turns out, these pieces are somewhat common. While some traders put them up for $5000 or more, this one is worth about $2000.

First of all, everyone knows the Pawn Stars are not paying full price. After a quick negotiation, the two parties agreed on $1250 for the knee mortar. Money in the customer’s pocket and a new cool item for the shop. It all works out.

‘Pawn Stars’ Puzzled By Mysterious Rock

When this Pawn Stars customer came in with a big rock weighing 40 pounds, Rick Harrison was not sure what to think of it. The rock was flat. While Harrison thought it was dinosaur poop, she confirmed that it was not. She even had the rock x-rayed! It is not magnetic. During the whole segment, Rick didn’t seem that impressed.

However, he sent for his expert. The beloved Mark Hall-Patton. After looking at the rock for a bit, he came to a conclusion. This rock was a concretion. Basically, when water gets in a void and over millions of years, a different rock forms inside of that rock. Perhaps a fossil would be in the center of it if you broke it open.

To put it simply, the rock is not valuable and not really of any value. So, the Pawn Stars passed on the rock. Rick just didn’t want anything to do with it.