2 Yen For 32 Million Yen

[Mulboyne]

[2triky]

Dreams come true: dollar bet nabs $2.1m

Andrew Alderson in London
February 25, 2008

IT started with a horse called Isn't That Lucky and ended with one called A Dream Come True - a run of eight winners that turned a 50-pence ($1.06) stake into Britain's first million-pound betting-shop pay-out.

An unnamed small-time gambler, believed to be in his sixties, backed eight horses to win races in a multiple bet called an accumulator at combined odds of nearly 2,800,000-1. If just one had lost, he would not have received a penny.

The man is a regular punter at one of William Hill's betting shops in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. He struck his bet on Friday but did not find out about his giant win until he went to place more small bets on Saturday.

The punter will collect exactly ￡1 million in winnings, William Hill's maximum pay-out on horse racing, which it says has never been reached in a betting shop before.

David Hood, a spokesman for William Hill, said: "It is a staggering bet, and earns him a place in history as the world's first-betting shop millionaire."

The man learnt of his winnings when he walked into a second William Hill shop on Saturday to place some more bets, he then asked the staff to check his earlier ticket. When they told him he had won ￡1 million, "he went visibly pale before saying that he would have to go and tell his wife," another company spokesman said.

Telegraph, London

[Choeki]

I bought a pile of the silver version of that coin from the early Meiji Era for about 2000 yen at Yasukuni Jinja (some of them are even marked "trade dollar" instead of "One Yen" on the front). I even polished one up from the 8th year of Meiji and carry it around in an accessory pocket of my change wallet for S&G's. It's a weird looking coin though, since the dragon on it looks more like a Chinese construct than a Japanese design.

I suppose the gold 2-yen coins got melted down during the war, but considering the condition of the one sold what is stopping the government from simply making a one-off striking using the old minting dies and recently obtained gold to pass it off as an original?