29-year-old briefly becomes world’s richest after 63 Quadrillion Gift Card receipt in Nottingham
A Nottingham woman who used a £10 voucher to buy a matcha latte was handed a receipt showing a 63 quadrillion gift card balance, briefly making her the "richest woman in the world" on paper and prompting an explanation from the coffee shop.
63 Quadrillion Gift Card appears on 200 Degrees receipt
Sophie Downing received the extraordinary-looking receipt at the 200 Degrees branch in Nottingham after paying for a matcha latte she had been given as a Christmas pressie, using what she believed was a £10 gift card. The receipt suggested a remaining balance of more than £63 quadrillion.
How the till error unfolded
A spokesperson for 200 Degrees described the problem as a "technical administrative error" in which the gift card number, rather than the gift card value, was entered into the wrong part of the till. The spokesperson said the mistaken receipt suggested a much higher balance than was actually on the card.
What Sophie Downing saw and did next
Downing, a 29-year-old business owner who runs the Secret Sugar Club, said the member of staff at the till looked confused and that one person remarked, "I've never seen that before. " She told how she only noticed the huge figure when the receipt was handed over and called the moment "hilarious. " After using the card a second time, she said she would not use it again and was "just enjoying being the richest woman in the world on paper while it lasts. "
Striking comparisons and limits on the balance
One coverage item noted that the notional £63 quadrillion figure would make the cardholder dramatically wealthier than high-profile billionaires: it compared the sum to Elon Musk's net worth, cited as $843. 4 billion (£624b), saying the figure on the till was more than 100, 000 times greater. The same item listed further comparisons — that amount being 22, 500 times the size of the UK economy at about £2. 8 trillion, 2, 700 times the GDP of the United States at $31 trillion (£23 trillion), and more than 670 times the world economy — and contrasted it with the reported value of the asteroid Psyche at £8, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000. The story also noted the quirk that the card could only be spent on coffee and croissants, so the astronomical number could not be used to buy a car or a house.
Shop corrected the record and kept the receipt as a souvenir
The 200 Degrees spokesperson said the customer was charged exactly what she should have been and that after the purchases the gift card held the correct balance. The barista gave the oversized-balance receipt as a souvenir, then provided Downing with a correct receipt showing the true value of the gift card.
Downing said she thought the till had scanned the wrong thing — the barcode appearing to have been read as the balance — and that, while she could have cleared items from the shelf, she did not want to "take the mick. " The episode ended with the customer keeping the corrected paperwork and deciding not to exploit the error.
After the mistaken receipt was issued and the correct receipt provided, there are no further confirmed events tied to the card; the shop has explained the administrative error and the customer retained only the legitimate card value.
