There are several types of printing errors on bank notes, bonds and shares (or minting errors in coin collecting). A double denomination is a very special one.
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Train 1995 passing signal bridge.
Vignette on the 100 Shares certificate, see below, of the
Wildwood and Delaware Bay Short Line Railroad. |
Wildwood and Delaware Bay Short Line Railroad
According to the 1932 edition of Moody's Steam Railroads, this company was incorporated May 10, 1910:
- The capital stock $378,000 was divided in 7560 shares $50 each.
- On Dec 1 of the same year the company issued a loan for $470,600, due Dec. 1, 1940. Surviving certificates of these bonds have not been reported yet.
The railroad was opened for traffic Dec. 12, 1912 . Indeed, this was a "short" line. Its 4.20 miles long line ran from Wildwood to Wildwood Junction, New Jersey. There, it connected with the Atlantic City Rail Road.
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The line from Wildwood Junction to Wildwood
connected further to the Atlantic City Railroad.
Detail from map below, double-click to enlarge.
source : Moody's Steam Railroads 1932 |
WDBSL becomes part of the Reading railway system
We also read in Moody's Steam Railroads 1932 that the company became less and less profitable on its operational activities in the late 1920s. In 1929 the Great Crash on Wall Street initiated the Great Depression.
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| source : Moody's Steam Railroads 1932 |
The Atlantic City Railroad Company acquired control of the company in July 1930. This company purchased $428,500 of the outstanding bonds and 52,5% of the shares. The Atlantic City RR in turn was a subsidiairy of the Reading Company. The latter also owned $36,300 of the Wildwood's Co's bonds.
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Double-click to enlarge this map of the Reading railway system.
The Wildwood line, located on the map in the lower right corner,
eventually became part of the Reading railway system.
source : Moody's Steam Railroads 1932 |
Double denominations in scripophily
Many printing errors are caused by mechanical defects, such as a damaged impression cylinder and ink spills. Some errors are caused by human error, such as faulty alignments of printing designs or inverted backs. A special kind of error is the double denomination. In this case, on bank notes the face is printed with one denomination and the back with another denomination. Apparently, such errors can occur on scripophily items too. In this example, two different denominations can be seen on the face.
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100 Shares of $50, 1914
Wildwood and Delaware Bay Short Line RR
click to enlarge |
This certificate for 100 shares of the Wildwood and Delaware Bay Short Line Railroad was issued in 1914. From the Moody's book we know it represented a par value of $50. Yet the green underprint clearly says "SHARES $100 EACH".
The other, correct denomination - 50 Dollars - is printed just under the main title, the company name.
Double denominations in scripophily are quite exceptional.
F.L.
Do you know of any other double denomination examples in scripophily?
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