The oversized Liberty Bell replica presented to the United States by Queen Elizabeth II in 1976 was called the Bicentennial Bell.
The bell was cast in Britain by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the same historic foundry associated with the original Liberty Bell. It was made six times larger than the Philadelphia original and weighed 12,000 pounds. The British monarch presented it to the United States during the Bicentennial observances.
The gift connected the 1976 celebration with the older Liberty Bell, one of Philadelphia’s best-known symbols of American independence. The replica was housed in a tower intended for the original bell, at the former visitor center on South Third Street in Philadelphia.
The Bicentennial Bell is not the Liberty Bell itself. The original bell was cast in 1752 and is famous for its crack, while the 1976 replica was created specifically for the 200th-anniversary celebrations. That distinction explains why both bells appear in accounts of Philadelphia’s Bicentennial events.