Oh, Those Silly Royals!

Somewhat recently, a 535-year-old forgotten debt was rediscovered by the administration of the New College of Oxford. Turns out that on July 18, 1461, King Edward IV of England borrowed what in today's money would be $384 from the college. He paid back $160 of it, but $224 was left outstanding. In 1996, the college administrator wrote to the Queen of England and told her that he figured the royal family owed the college some dough. He wrote that, assuming an interest rate of 4% per year, the college was due the tidy sum of $290 billion.

The administrator didn't really expect the Queen to fork over that much money, so he cut her a break and told her that he would compromise with an interest rate of only 2% per year, bringing the debt down to only $8.9 million. She has not yet paid. In fact, I'm still waiting for the five bucks she borrowed from me last year.