For conservative activists nostalgic for the morning-in-America days of the early 1980s, thsi might be the ultimate souvenir: A British auction house this week is selling a vial of President Ronald Reagan’s blood drawn at one of the most pivotal moments of the Great Communicator’s life.

Or so it claims, NBC4 reports. The blood is being offered by PFCauctions.com, which claims the vial was filled with Reagan’s blood by doctors treating the president following his 1981 assassination attempt.

In fact, all that’s left inside the vial are a few dried specks of presidential ichor. But the auction house is confident that the labeling on the vial says it all. Written in purple ink on a three-inch label affixed to the container is the notation “REAGAN RONALD 940029 THOR / 610892572 AARON PRESIDENTIAL / SUITE 3/30/81 M 2/02/11 JAP.” Reagan’s patient number at George Washington University was 940029, “THOR” refers to thoracic surgery and “AARON” to Dr. Benjamin L. Aaron, the chief cardiovascular surgeon at the time.

The vial came to the auction house by way of a person who says his mother worked at a medical laboratory where Reagan’s blood was analyzed following the assassination attempt. In a letter provided with the auction page, the person writes:

These articles have actually been in my family’s possession since 03/30/1981, the day that President Reagan was shot in Washington D.C. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, my mother worked for Bio Science Laboratories in Columbia, Maryland. Her laboratory was the laboratory contracted by Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well as the George Washington University Hospital to handle blood testing as well as other types of testing. Her lab did the blood work and testing for President Reagan. The test tube and the lab slip that I have are for his blood work to be tested for lead on [Monday] 03/30/1981. The testing was completed and the test tube was sitting on my mother’s desk. At the end of the week, she asked the director of her laboratory if she could keep the paper work and the test tube. The director of the lab told her no problem and really never gave it a second thought. It has been in my family ever since. My mother passed away back in November last year [2010] and my father passed away in January 2009. Prior to their passing, they knew that it was the only thing that I wanted with regards to their personal property or money that they accumulated over the years.

Wait, this is a little scary. Is this person alleging that Bio Science Laboratories once let its employees walk off with medical equipment containing DNA fragments of patients at area hospitals, let a lone a VIP?

Dr. Joseph Giordano, who was the head of GWU’s trauma unit in 1981, told NBC4 the whole action is shameful. “You don’t go selling people’s specimens or bodily fluids,” he said. “You have no permission to do that. It’s unethical.”

But in the letter accompanying the vial, the seller claims Reagan wouldn’t mind the auction a bit. “I was a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that President Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it,” he writes.

But the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation says otherwise. In a statement to Reuters, John Heubusch, the foundation’s executive director, called the auction “a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase.”

The auction ends Thursday, and the leading bid right now is $9,890. The chance to clone the 40th president could be yours for low five figures.