# What happened to the Declaration if Independence?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 4, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220 "2015-07-04T11:39:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220/1 "2015-07-04T11:39:51Z")

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On this, the 239th anniversary of the announcement of the creation of the United States of America, I got to wondering.

What happened to the one sent to George III? Unlike the “engrossed” copy we are all familiar with\* it was signed only by Hancock as the President of the 2nd Continental Congress and Thompson as Secretary.

Was it torn up into little bits? Is it in residing the the UK archives somewhere? Is it hanging in Elizabeth II’s drawing room as a reminder that sometimes what seems bad works out in the end?

\*That wasn’t written up until July 19th. Most of the signing was done in August and into September as various members of CC2 could make it to Philadelphia.

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220/2 "2015-07-04T12:44:13Z")

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Recent thread on same topic: [Declaration of Independence Question - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=747097). It even has the answer to your question courtesy of one of our esteemed professional historians.

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**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220/3 "2015-07-04T14:50:15Z")

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To save some clicking and reading…

> [@](#):
>
> Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase View Post  
> The actual signed document is known as the Engrossed Copy and is in the National Archives.
> 
> There are three Dunlop boardsides in Britain. The one that Parliament has is an acknowledged copy.
> 
> The one you saw can’t be the original if it was exposed to the air. The ink was badly fading on it by 1820. Any copy not sealed in a protective environment would be essentially blank today.

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**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2015, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-declaration-if-independence/724220/4 "2015-07-05T08:14:11Z")

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What kind of ink would be used in 1776 on a document intended for History?

Why would it fade so badly so quickly? Even with the 1820 “wet process” transfer (which lifted some of the ink), wouldn’t even plain old india ink be more stable?