Digest of scripophily readings VII

New online scripophily articles and references, October 2012

HPax - Hankes market index for German scripophily

Ulrich W. Hanke is no stranger to German collectors of stocks and bonds. In his German blog, Hankes Historische, Hanke follows the news on the German scripophily scene including auction and eBay results but also highlights the more modern securities. You may also want to read about him in this online interview.
As far as I know he is the first one to publish a market index for the German high end scripophily market. The HPax, Historische wertPApiere-indeX (English: historical securities index), is calculated twice a year and is based on the ten most expensive items sold by auction by the HWPH and FHW auction houses. See the chart here.
It is a matter of time when others may conceive similar indexes for other regions, e.g. Asia, or market segments, such as American gold mining certificates. A great idea!

Banking history of Northern England

In 1894 E. Wilson & Company publishes the book A History of Banks, Bankers and Banking in Northumberland, Durham, and North Yorkshire. It is written by Maberly Phillips. As the subtitle indicates, this worthy volume illustrates the commercial development of the north of England from 1755 to 1894 with numerous portraits, facsimiles of notes, signatures, documents, et cetera.

Chapters:

• Banking in London
• Banking in Scotland
• Incidents prior to Provincial Banking
• Provincial Banking (8 chapters spanning the period 1755 - 1894 )
• Coining and clipping, tontines and lotteries.
• Bank Reviews
• Index

Interesting for us: in 300 pages hundreds of banks are reviewed.  Furthermore, the book is illustrated with close to a hundred images of early coins, clipped coins, forged assignates, banknotes, document signatures, portraits, engravings ..  When did we stop making books like that? A must read for anyone interested in English banking history and early and counterfeit money. Yes, there is an online version. You can see it here , the PDF-link is at the left.

Scripophily Magazine
In addition to the articles above, the brand new August 2012 No.89 issue of Scripophily magazine, published by the International Bond and Share Society, contains the following stories :

• The Oldest Mining Scripophily
• Speculations Roll On (Mexico, Westphalia, Brazil)
• The Nineteenth Century UK Bicycle/Infant Motor Industry Investment 'Bubbles'
• Strasburg Retrospective
• Joseph R De La Mar - The "American Monte Cristo" (US mining & gold mining)
• The Texas Pacific Land Trust and the Saga of Certificate No.390 (railways, land property, oil)
• The Central of Georgia (US railroad and shipping)
• Self-Referential Scripophily: Mary Ann Gold and Silver Mining Co., Nevada Territory
• other periodical topics : News, Bourse Reviews, Book Reviews, Auction Reviews, Events calendar, Member Classifieds, Update Membership Directory Supplement, Club Auction  

Tip 1 : This issue has been put online as free download, see here. If you are still not a member, time to check out the magazine by yourself !

Tip 2 : Also this issue includes a 2-For-1 admission coupon for the Checks and Balances exhibition, see here,  at the Museum of American Finance, open through November 2012.

F.L.

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