The Admiral Yamamoto Tanto From Pawn Stars Is Worth More Than You Think

Rick Harrison had it right when he said that he thought the tanto was worth more than $2,000. It’s worth $10,000, at the very least. According to Yamasaki, if it actually belonged to Admiral Yamamoto, it’s worth around $20,000.

It’s a bit hard to backtrack this and see the cost considering that Admiral Yamamoto would have had only one of these in his collection, not hundreds. That means there’s not one on the market right now, and there doesn’t seem to be a history of it being sold online. The customer could very well have had the real deal. 

On Christie’s, there’s a listing from way back in 2008 for a tanto that reportedly came from Yamamoto’s window, but there’s no type of verification or authentication with the piece. The actual handle of the tanto is missing, so only the silver blade was being sold. The price was listed at $20,000 even without the handle, and the listing closed — evidently after selling at that price — on March 17, 2008. An estimate listed beside the “realized” price notes that the handle-less tanto is actually worth between $5,000 and $8,000. A full tanto would certainly be worth and be sold for more, so the one featured on Pawn Stars probably is worth between $10,000 and $20,000.