‘Vanishingly rare’ copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives

A volunteer at Britain's National Archives has uncovered one of only eleven surviving copies of the Declaration of Independence — and the only known copy outside the United States. According to The Guardian, Michael Scurr was cataloguing eighteenth-century Royal Navy documents when he recognized the unmistakable opening: 'In Congress, July fourth, seventeen seventy-six. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America.' The priceless document had been seized from an American privateer ship centuries ago and had remained uncatalogued in the British archives.

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