The year 1753 appears on the Liberty Bell’s inscription as the year it was recast.
The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly ordered a large bell in 1751 for the State House in Philadelphia. The bell arrived from London in 1752, but it cracked during an early test. Local founders John Pass and John Stow recast it twice, and the second recasting was completed in 1753.
The inscription includes the biblical phrase “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof,” followed by the names Pass and Stow and the Roman-numeral year MDCCLIII, meaning 1753.
The bell was not originally called the Liberty Bell. That name became popular in the nineteenth century, especially after abolitionist groups adopted the bell as a symbol. Its association with independence is strong, but no contemporary evidence proves that it rang when the Declaration was publicly read in July 1776.