oddly enough

oddly enough

Man owns $10 silver certificate valued at $500,000

ROYERSFORD, Pa.

A suburban Philadelphia man has perhaps the most valuable ten-spot you’ll ever see.

Thirty-nine-year-old Billy Baeder of Royersford owns a 1933 $10 silver certificate that an auctioneer says is worth at least a half-million dollars.

The bill bears an unusual inscription, “Payable in silver coin to bearer on demand,” and has the serial number A00000001A. It is perhaps the most valuable bill printed since 1929, when bills were shrunk to their current size.

Baeder told Philly.com that his late father, also a collector, bought the bill two dozen years ago for about the price of a compact car.

Matthew Quinn, assistant director of currency for auction house Stack’s Bowers, says the bill “would easily be worth about $500,000 and up.”

Baeder says he’s already turned down a $300,000 offer.

UK town Stilton told it can’t make stilton cheese

LONDON

They make fine cheese in the English village of Stilton.

Just don’t call it stilton.

British authorities said recently that a local pub can’t market its blue-veined cheese as stilton because that name is protected by European Union legislation.

The Bell Inn has been forced to sell its cheese as “Bells Blue” rather than stilton.

The EU rules, based on British government guidelines, say the name can apply only to cheese from the English counties of Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, where it has long been made.

Stilton lies outside that area but became renowned for selling the sharp-tasting cheese in the 18th century.

It gave its name to the product, but historians are divided about whether it traditionally was made there.

A local cheese company asked the government to amend the Protected Designation of Origin rules to include Stilton.

But the food ministry said it only could consider an application from the pub, because it was the maker of the cheese.

“If there were an application from the Bell Inn, we would consider it,” the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

Bell Inn landlord Liam McGivern accused the government of rejecting the application on a technicality and vowed to fight on.

“It’s ridiculous that we can’t make stilton in Stilton,” he said.

Associated Press