German writer Goethe's signature fetches 21,000 euros at auction

The reserve price was only slightly lower, at 20,000 euros, said Matthias Schmitt, chairman of the Historisches Wertpapierhaus, an auction house specializing in historical documents.
The author of works such as "Faust" and "The Sorrows of Young Werther" signed the document in 1795 when he was on a three-member advisory board to a duke.
Among other things, it calls for the revival of copper and silver mining in the central German state of Thuringia.
The document is thought to be one of only about a dozen in existence worldwide