Benjamin Franklin used coded joke ‘to thumb his nose at Britain’

Across the Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin established the US Post Office, but in London he used the Royal Mail to insult his British hosts.

A unique letter from Franklin in which he sneakily abused his free post privileges to spread a message of revolutionary zeal has re-emerged on the antiques market for the first time in more than a decade, and is on sale for £180,000.

The letter was sent by Franklin in 1768 while he was working as a colonial agent in London, a representative from the colony of Pennsylvania. The position gave him the right to free post via the free frank privilege and, to obtain it, he simply needed to write “Free B Franklin”.

However, on a handful of occasions, he would invert the first two parts and instead wrote it as “B Free Franklin”, a subtle message of revolutionary zeal in the years before the American War of Independence.

“This was very much in the middle of the growing frustration within the colonies,” said Nathan Raab of the Raab Collection, which is selling the letter on its website. “You start to see the elements of what would become outright revolt.”

The pun has become a symbol in the US, with commemorative stamps made and a Philadelphia post office named after it. There are other instances of this scampish signature, but it is thought that none of them are still attached to a letter actually written by Franklin.

Most have been cut off or separated from the messages to which they were originally affixed. So subtle and easy to miss is Franklin’s pun that there may be some examples lying unnoticed. “A number of them might be in institutions and a small historical society might not even think to look for it,” Raab explained.

The letter is also important. Franklin was sending a series of accounts to a William Trent who was negotiating terms with the Iroquois, a native American group. The consequent Treaty of Fort Stanwix would settle the borders of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.

The letter is on sale for £180,000

While Franklin may have been quietly railing against the British, he was at that point working to expand their empire.

The question remains as to what exactly the rationale was behind Franklin’s use of this signature. It is not known why he wrote it only in certain instances and to certain people and not others, and it is not clear if it was a subtle message of defiance or a rude two fingers to the British, or perhaps both.

“The lore in the United States is that it’s a symbol of defiance in the face of monarchy,” Raab said. “It continues to have some ­impact today: this idea that Franklin, as he was conducting the King’s business, was in fact harbouring some shrouded revolutionary spirit. It has ­become symbolic of this greater spirit.”

One thing is for certain — if the Royal Mail had been as it is today and had spotted Franklin’s punning, it would have charged the recipient.