Pre-Revolution newspaper donated to New Jersey Goodwill

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Workers at a New Jersey Goodwill store made an unusual discovery among donations -- a 1774 newspaper from the lead-up to the American Revolution.

Heather Randall, the E-commerce manager for Goodwill of Southern New Jersey and Greater Philadelphia, said she and her team, who are tasked with finding the high-value items among the donations to the thrift shop, said the framed Dec. 28, 1774, edition of the Pennsylvania Journal and Weekly Advertiser was found at a donation center in Woodbury during the spring.

"We weren't 100 percent sure of what we had," Randall told NJ.com. "We took the time to do some research on it to substantiate and appraise it."

The newspaper, which features an article decrying the Boston Port Bill, a British response to the Boston Tea Party, was verified as authentic by appraisers at Cohasco Inc., of Yonkers, N.Y.

Appraiser Robert Snyder said there are only three other copies of that day's newspaper known to still exist.

"The others are at Illinois State University, the University of Chicago and Yale," Snyder said.

Goodwill initially attempted to auction the newspaper, but after failing to attract bids officials decided to hold onto the item for a time. Randall said officials suspect the newspaper, valued at about $18,000, could go up in value as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches.