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ENGLAND’S FIRST RECORDED STATE LOTTERYEarly lottery tickets are often collected and studies as an adjunct to early paper money. Saturday's Writer’s Almanac marked the anniversary of England’s first state lottery, based on an earlier Smithsonian article. -Editor Elizabeth I held England’s first recorded state lottery on this date in 1569. The queen needed to raise funds to rebuild some harbors and make England more competitive in global trade, so she instituted the lottery for “reparation of the havens and strengths of the Realme and towards such other public good works.” Her lottery was limited to 40,000 entries of 10 shillings each — too steep a price for most commoners. People lined up at the west door of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to buy their tickets. The winner’s name has been lost to us. The prize was 5,000 pounds, part paid in cash and the rest paid in tapestries, plate, and good linen cloth. To sweeten the pot even further, the queen offered all entrants a “get out of jail free card” for all crimes besides murder, treason, piracy, and other felonies. The total jackpot was equal to the number of tickets sold, but the prize wasn’t paid out for three years, so the crown enjoyed an interest-free loan. Government learned a valuable lesson: the lottery — sometimes known as a “voluntary tax” — is a great way to bring in some extra revenue to fill state coffers. As Henry Fielding wrote in his play The Lottery (1732): “A lottery is a taxation upon all the fools in creation; and heaven be praised, it is easily raised, for credulity’s always in fashion.” Curious, I went looking for a surviving example of one of the lottery tickets. Does one exist? An online search turned up some more articles and videos, but the only image with a contemporary connection is a broadside announcing the lottery, found on the site of the British Library. -Editor  This is an advertisement for England’s first ever National Lottery. It was issued in 1567 by Queen Elizabeth I. At this time England was seeking to expand its export markets around the world. The lottery was intended to raise money for the enormous costs of building ships and developing ports. Tickets cost ten shillings each – far too much for the ordinary citizen to afford. The first prize was an amazing £5000... To read the complete article, see:
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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