Dusty Declaration of Independence Original Found

Document valued at over $8 million

By EMILY FELDMAN

Updated 4:53 PM EDT, Fri, Jul 3, 2009

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London's National Archives will hang on to the rare document, though they're willing to loan it to their kin across the pond.

An American made the discovery of a lifetime while digging through documents at London's National Archives.

The antiquarian book seller stumbled across an original, poster-sized copy of the Declaration of Independence, while doing unrelated research. The document valued at over $8 million had been sitting on the shelves undetected for years. It had been hidden within a pile of 18th century documents written by American colonists.

"It is likely that only around 200 of these were ever printed," Edward Hampshire, a colonial expert at the Archives told the Daily Mail. "So uncovering a new one nearly 250 years later is extremely rare, especially one in such good condition."

The copies printed by John Dunlap 233 years ago this Saturday were distributed throughout the American colonies to be read aloud to the public. Today, only 26 copies remain, including this latest discovery. Two copies are already on display at the National Archives, and a copy found at a flea market in 1989 eventually sold for about $8 million at auction.

Unfortunately for the book seller, the finders-keepers rule does not apply in this situation. London's National Archives will keep the document, though they say they won't hog it.

"We do often loan out our key documents and I'm sure if an American institution wanted to borrow it, we would consider lending it to them," a spokesperson for the Archives told the Mail.

While it's not clear exactly how the British got their hands on America's birth certificate, experts say it may have been captured by the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary War.

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and 54 other founding fathers contributed to the document, which bears the famous phrase, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." The well-known statement has been used time and time again to strike down social injustices and pave the way for freedom.

While the American Revolutionary War against Britain raged on for 8 years after the 1776 document was signed, the Declaration of independence established many modern democratic principles and paved the way for U.S. sovereignty.