When crises happen, publishers can be creative… Ben Franklin & the Stamp Act…

August 24, 2026 by · Leave a Comment 

Occasionally, a newspaper just doesn’t look like a newspaper. When crises happen, some newspaper publishers can be creative and angry, resulting in “newspapers” that are quite unusual. Here is one.

Looking very much like a broadside (although it is four pages), an issue we purchased many years ago is simply headed: “REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES”, having no date, no city of publication, and no issue number.

With some investigation, we learned that this is actually the November 14, 1765 issue of the famous “Pennsylvania Gazette” printed by Ben Franklin and David Hall. The hated Stamp Act took effect on Nov. 1, 1765. Therefore the paper was suspended and in its place a broadside entitled “No Stamped Paper to be had” was printed for Nov. 7, and this four page issue titled: “Remarkable Occurrences” was created for Nov. 14. The regular title and numbering were resumed with the Nov. 21 issue but without the imprint. No name of publisher appeared until the Feb. 6, 1766 issue printed by David Hall, as the partnership with Franklin had been dissolved.

Never, previously, have we ever handled either of these two issues.

The entire front page is taken up with Stamp Act content. Page 2 has content from Europe, and pages 3 and 4 have content with datelines from Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, and New York with again, much of the content related to the Stamp Act.

This is treasured as one of the more intriguing newspapers in our inventory, and is even more notable with its connection to the Stamp Act.

Filed under: Colonial, Noteworthy Issues, The 1500's - 1700's, The Collectible Community
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