Exeter Broadside of Declaration of Independence Sells for $3.6 Million at Auction

A July 1776 Exeter Broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence sold for $3,646,443 at Goldin auction house on July 8, 2026. The hammer price reached $2.9 million before a 22 percent buyer’s premium, with bidding that opened at $1.5 million at 8 a.m. and closed near 10:30 p.m.

George E. Norcross III placed the winning bid on behalf of his family. Bidding on the document had already reached $1.2 million across five bids by July 2. washingtontimes.com reported that the auction house described the broadside as one of only ten known copies until Britain’s National Archives announced an eleventh copy on July 3.

The newly found copy was located among papers of a Royal Navy captain who captured an American privateer ship in 1776. The document was printed by Robert Luist Fowle in Exeter, New Hampshire, and posted in taverns and public halls after the Declaration’s adoption.

Lexie and Alex Norcross stated the family is “deeply honored to become the stewards of such an extraordinary piece” of the nation’s history.

Norcross previously paid a record $4 million in 2021 for a rare engraving of the Declaration commissioned by John Quincy Adams. Ken Goldin stated the Exeter copy is the most significant item his company has handled in its 14-year history. The same auction also produced other sales, including a framed signed fair copy of the Einstein-Szilard letter for $640,500 and a baseball from the 1989 film “Field of Dreams” for $123,220.