Digest of scripophily readings IV

New online scripophily articles and references, June 2012 

Museo Financiero

The Museo Financiero (English: Financial Museum) is an online museum, set up as a blog in the Spanish language. This virtual museum, displaying lots of Spanish shares and bonds, will eventually house three sections :

• Spanish financial institutions
• Hispanic-American financial institutions
• Spanish railways

So far, only the Spanish financial institutions section is finished and open to the online public, but nevertheless it is already impressive. Many old shares and bonds from Spanish financial institutions are listed here together with a historical background note. The material is also browsable in a chronological way. There is further no indication who has been putting together all this great. Maybe you can tell ? You can find this online museum right here. A perfect activity on a Sunday afternoon.  

Our painters and sculptors, engravers, designers

Nos Peintres et Sculpteurs, Graveurs, Dessinateurs is a French book by Jules Martin, published by Ernest Flammarion in 1897. It contains hundreds of portraits and biographies of artists that were noted on artistic events like those from Société Nationale de Beaux-Arts and the Société des Artistes Français. An online PDF version can be found here.

Some of the artists included have been working on the designs of bond and shares: Auguste François Gorguet, Alphonse Mucha, ... Maybe you can recognize others as well. One of the pages in the book refers to a second volume, but I could not locate a digital version of it.

Scripophily from the first canals

During the I.B.S.S. breakfast meeting in Antwerp, 11th March 2012, member Dr Peter Christen gave a very informative talk about the history of canal building and financing, in particular the French Canal du Midi. The presentation can be downloaded here from the IBSS website. Much more on canal scripophily from France, Sweden, Germany, USA, Egypt, Greece and Panama can be found on the speaker's own web pages, see here. Thank you for sharing, Peter !


China to become the world's largest art and antiques market

For the past two years now, and even longer, one of the most popular songs played on the scripophily radio is: China, China, China. Besides the speculation on the redemption of some Chinese government bonds, several international auction results show also that 'true' Chinese scripophily, I mean not related to speculation, has been in strong demand both internationally and locally. Specific auction results in this field are highlighted in the latest Scripophily magazine. You'll understand that it is only a matter of time for China to dominate the scripophily market after reading this article on CoinsWeekly. 

double-click to enlarge

Scripophily Magazine

In addition to the articles above, the brand new April 2012 No.88 issue of Scripophily magazine, published by the International Bond and Share Society, contains the following stories : 

• The World's Oldest (oldest bond dated 1485) 
• Million Pound Bond Sets Price Record 
• Warning: Rampant Speculation Continues (speculation in Mexican bonds and shares) 
• The Ampersat and The Bond (the @ symbol on bonds throughout history) 
• US Savings Bonds De-Materialise 
• Mackay Before He Was Mackay (mining & gold mining USA) 
• Scripophily in Finland 
• Dr Richard C Flower and the Famous Spenazuma Scam (gold mining USA) 
• Cox's Corner #13 - Solving problems with collectibles 
• other periodical topics : News and Reviews, Auction Reviews, Events Calendar, Update Membership Directory Supplement, Member Classifieds 

This time, the magazine includes a 2-For-1 admission coupon for the Checks and Balances exhibition at the Museum of American Finance.

F.L.

P.S. Signed the Guest book yet ?