On this day in 1993, a copy of the first issue of The Canberra Times changed hands for $100 (about $220 today).
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The issue consisted of 16 pages in total and had only cost 3 pence when it was first published in September 3, 1926.
Dawn Waterhouse was the buyer of the issue and was ecstatic when she first laid her eyes on the newspaper.
The condition of the paper was great, as it was only slightly yellowed. The sale was made the Booklore stall at the fifth Canberra Antiquarian Book Fair, St John's Church Hall, Reid.
Waterhouse said: "I'm so excited, I didn't think I'd get one."
She had been an avid reader of The Times her entire life. Waterhouse was born in Queanbeyan in 1923, and moved to the house on Mugga Way that was then known as Calthorpe House.
She said "I've had a fantastic day", when she recalled all the items that were purchased at the fair, including the paper.
As she was showing off the paper, she was very carefully turning the pages so as to not damage it and it showed that the banner The Canberra Times was the same as the one in 1926.
The issue had three politicians on the front page and one of the stories in the paper was about Ainslie cottages selling for $1000 (valued about $46,000 today), with values "generally on the increase".
The paper was only one of the numerous items of early Canberra ephemera Waterhouse bought at the fair.
Barbara Burdon, proprietor of Weekend Gallery Books, said "in America, ephemera has been very popular for a long time, there are lots of things on paper of almost throw-away nature that people might not keep but if they do, they become valuable items of social history".
Sally, Burdon's daughter, said that ephemera collection in Australia were boosted by the formation of an ephemera society that had held a few fairs in Melbourne almost annually.
Ron Winch, treasurer of the Federation of Australian Historical Societies, which sponsored the fair, said it was "the biggest assembly of book-sellers that we've had in Canberra for a fair of this kind".
