Nottingham Coffee Receipt Lists 63 Quadrillion Gift Card Balance, Woman Calls Herself 'Richest on Paper'

Sophie Downing, a 29-year-old Nottingham business owner, was handed a receipt that appeared to show a 63 quadrillion gift card balance after buying a matcha latte with what she believed was a £10 voucher. The surreal error has drawn attention because the tills displayed an astronomical figure while the actual gift card value and charges remained unchanged.

63 Quadrillion Gift Card: Development details

Downing used a gift card she thought was worth roughly a tenner to pay for a matcha latte at a 200 Degrees café in Nottingham; the purchase and subsequent receipt showed an apparent remaining balance of more than £63 quadrillion. A spokesperson for 200 Degrees said a technical administrative error occurred when the gift card number — rather than the gift card value — was entered into the wrong part of the till. That entry generated a receipt suggesting an inflated balance, but the customer was charged exactly what she should have been, and after the purchase the gift card retained its true value. The barista reportedly gave the initial receipt as a souvenir and then issued a correct receipt showing the true balance.

The date and time of the transaction are unclear in the provided context. Downing, who runs the Secret Sugar Club, a hair removal service, said staff appeared confused at the till, with one employee saying, "I've never seen that before. " She sent a photo of the receipt to her partner, who also found the mistake amusing. Downing said, "I'm just enjoying being the richest woman in the world on paper while it lasts. " She treated herself to a second drink using the card and has said she will not take advantage of the error.

Context and escalation

The error traced to a mis-keyed field on the till system that turned a barcode or gift card number into a displayed balance. One account suggested the coffee shop had not acknowledged the mistake, which implied the inflated figure could in theory have remained active on the receipt; the 200 Degrees statement, however, set out the sequence in which a souvenir receipt showed the incorrect amount and a corrected receipt followed. The mismatch between the displayed balance and the card's true value is the cause; the effect was an unusual printed record and local attention rather than a change in the card's spending power.

What makes this notable is the scale of the displayed figure: an apparent balance of more than £63 quadrillion dwarfs ordinary gift-card values and prompted comparisons in public coverage to global fortunes and economies.

Immediate impact

The direct financial impact on Downing was nil: she paid only for the drinks she bought and the gift card retained its true balance. The incident affected staff at the 200 Degrees branch, who expressed confusion at the till readout, and it drew local notice because the printed receipt circulated as a novelty. Downing said she would have preferred a genuine £63 quadrillion gift card to spend at the supermarket, but the card can only be used for items at the coffee shop. She has said she would not exploit the error to clear shelves, adding that "it would be better if it was a different gift card" and that she did not want to "take the mick. "

The episode also inspired numerical comparisons that place the printed figure far beyond household and national metrics: the apparent balance would be more than 100, 000 times the reported $843. 4 billion (£624 billion) net worth attributed to Elon Musk in public discussion, 22, 500 times the size of the UK economy as noted at roughly £2. 8 trillion, 2, 700 times the United States GDP cited at $31 trillion (around £23 trillion), and more than 670 times the total world economy. Even so, commentary pointed out the printed amount is still smaller than some speculative valuations placed on asteroid resources, with the asteroid Psyche quoted at a notional value of £8, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 in the material provided.

Forward outlook

No official timeline for a further technical review was provided in the information available. The immediate corrective action already taken was the issuance of a correct receipt and confirmation that the card's true balance remained intact after the purchase. Downing has said she used the card a second time and thereafter chose not to use it further. Any further operational checks or system changes at 200 Degrees are unclear in the provided context.

For now the effect is limited: a souvenir receipt that briefly labelled a customer the world’s wealthiest on paper, an internal till error traced to an input mistake, and a corrected transaction that left both the café’s accounts and the gift card’s balance as they should be.