Thursday, January 18, 2007

Want to Buy Your Own Country?

For Sale: Sealand, a sovereign nation with its own national anthem, stamps, and coins. And it'll only cost you $975 million to own it. Sealand is a 5,920-square-foot artificial island in the North Sea created by Britain during World War II. It was abandoned after the war ended until retired Army Maj. Paddy Roy Bates took it over and declared it a principality in 1967.

Despite Britain’s best efforts, the courts upheld Bates’ claim of sovereignty and territorial waters. The 85-year-old Bates now lives in Spain. A Spanish real estate company is helping him sell Sealand, promoting it as a base for online gambling or offshore banking.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read about this place a couple weeks ago, sounds pretty cool, except you are out in the middle of the ocean

Anonymous said...

rishi has the money to buy this...so he says????

Anonymous said...

That would be awesome if Rishi bought Sealand, then he could be a prince.