Letter outlining Britain's first lottery up for auction

Comment #4

time*treat — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:04:12 GMT

Had me at with prizes to be paid in a combination of gold and merchandise .

Comment #3

ThatScaryChick — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:56:03 GMT

Oh wow, that would really be cool to own. But I don't have an extra 20,000 to buy it.

Comment #2

drhymes74 — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:26:37 GMT

3 years to find out if they won? Why couldn't they just check on LotteryPost? LOL

Comment #1

fwlawrence — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:50:08 GMT

Anything about who won the prize and what they did with it? It would be interesting to see if they invested it and now have decendants living off the interest. Probably not though.

Letter outlining Britain's first lottery up for auction

Lottery Post — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:58:59 GMT

The British tradition of national lottery has been traced back to the 16th century when a jackpot of 5,000 was up for grabs and participants had to wait three years to find out if they were winners.

A letter has emerged from Queen Elizabeth I, written in 1566, which gives instructions for collecting money, commanding that persons of 'good trust' be entrusted with the prizes.

The letter was written to Sir John Spencer, advising of 400,000 lots, each costing 10 shillings, with prizes to be p... [ More ]