Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital the day after Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a baby boy, in London July 23, 2013.
IN PHOTO: Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall leave the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital the day after Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a baby boy, in London July 23, 2013. The world was awaiting the first glimpse of Britain's new prince on Tuesday, with camera crews poised to photograph Prince William and his wife, Kate, leaving the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital with their baby son. Reuters/Suzanne Plunkett

Prince Charles has demanded a very unusual currency for lease payment. The Prince of Wales apparently wanted the new owner of a quarry on his land to pay him a single daffodil as rent.

The strange rent for the Cornish quarry is part of the 999-year lease on the historic site Prince of Wales and Trewarmett Quarries. The quarry itself was sold on behalf of the Duchy of Cornwall by land and property auctioneers Clive Emson at an auction on Thursday for £81,000 [$156,000], up from the listed guide price of £40,000 to £50,000.

Instead of demanding cash as rent payment, though, Prince Charles opted for a more novel form of payment. He wanted a single daffodil from the new owner.

Clive Emson auctioneer Scott Gray thought the future king stated his demand with a “twinkle in the eye.” “Normally with property you see a peppercorn ground rent. In this instance they exchanged the words ‘peppercorn’ to ‘daffodil.’ I think that was done with a twinkle in the eye by the Duchy of Cornwall,” he said, explaining that daffodil is the flower of Wales, so perhaps that’s why the prince chose it.

Peppercorn payment is a metaphor for a very small payment. In this case, the small payment isn’t in the form of cash but in the form of a yellow bloom. With a 999-year lease, the new owner is not expected to pay a daffodil each year to the prince.

Gray said the owner will not be able to do anything with the land except for pleasure and amenity purposes. It’s unlikely the unnamed new owner can use it for commercial purposes, but Gray isn’t ruling that one out.

A spokesperson for Clarence House explained that the daffodil rent is just the Duchy’s own “charming version” of peppercorn rent for decades. “It is grown by a lot of our tenants, particularly in Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly,” the rep was quoted by the Pres Association as saying. Like the new owner of the quarry, the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust also pays daffodil as rent.

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