Brits Find Rare Copy of Declaration of Independence

An original print of the Declaration of Independence has been discovered stashed away in the British National Archives in West London, the Daily Mail reports. One of 26 known surviving copies from the document’s initial print run, it's thought to be worth more than $8 million. The archive doesn’t intend to sell it, but it may lend it out to American museums.

“The Americans are very excited by it,” said a National Archives spokesman. The document was discovered by chance by an American researcher, who found it hidden and forgotten among 18th-century correspondence from US colonists that had been intercepted by the British. “It’s amazing that it has been lying there for so long undetected,” said the spokesman. “It just shows how many documents we have.” (More Declaration of Independence stories.)