Queen Elizabeth II bagged a cool $1.4 million yesterday on an obscure Internet investment.
The queen of England made her windfall after spending $160,000 for a small stake in a dot-com that’s compiling aerial photographs of Britain.
She got involved with the venture after it dedicated to her a reproduction of the Domesday Book — the 11th-century survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror.
When the venture, called Getmapping.com PLC, floated shares on Britain’s Alternative Investment Market, they opened at $3.20 but rose to $3.34.
As a result, the queen’s 1½ percent stake rose in value to $1.4 million.
But more investment may be what’s needed to cheer up visitors to her royal highness’s official pad.
A new tourist guide slammed Buckingham Palace for having “a sterile atmosphere,” “expensive and dry” handbooks, and no refreshment facilities.
So unimpressed was the guide, published by consumer magazine Holiday Which, that it ranked the palace among the worst three historical sites in the U.K. for visitors.
A spokesman for the palace, which is open only two months a year and charges an admittance fee of $16.60 for adults and $7.90 for kids, said the comments were “surprising” and “disappointing.”
He said the palace administration’s own survey, carried out by an independent company, showed that the vast majority of those asked said they thought the place “felt like a royal palace” and the tour was a good value for the money.