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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Erik Olsson

EXPLAINED: Archivist stumbles upon vanishingly rare copy of us independence document | Rare Historical Photos

A rare 1776 printing of the US Declaration of Independence – one of just 11 known to survive and the only copy outside the United States – which has been discovered at The National Archives in Kew, west London (Shivansh Gupta/PA) - (PA Wire)

A volunteer archivist who stumbled upon a “vanishingly rare” copy of the US Declaration of Independence, the only one of its kind outside the US, said he had to keep the discovery a secret from his friends and family.

Michael Scurr, a retired insurance broker, happened upon the US’s founding document on a “boring, old Thursday morning” while volunteering at the National Archives, in Kew, west London.

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