Digest of scripophily readings IX

New online scripophily articles and references, January 2013

Pre-World War I American railroads

The following image depicts a stock certificate printed by the American Bank Note Company.

Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad Company
certificate for 5 shares of $100, 1888
identified in the Cox catalog as  WES-748-S-39 iu
double-click image to enlarge

This rare and fine specimen of an engraved stock certificate can be seen, along with many others, on Pete Angelos' website showing American railroad stocks and bonds. Besides issued scripophily papers, separate sections contain proofs and specimens. A special section is dedicated to Confederate issues. All these beauties, can be seen here . Peter, thank you for sharing!

French shipping companies and their house flags

Dominique Cureau has listed more than 2300 French shipping companies and 900 house flags on his website. Interesting to see that several of the flags illustrated are details from shares and bonds.

Try to identify this flag on
 https://pavillon.houseflag.free.fr/ 

If you have a share certificate depicting a French shipping flag, you can research the company or the flag in the following ways :

• alphabetical index on company name
• search by flag characteristics
• or use a term with the search engine.

Merci for sharing your expertise !
Who can help Dominique in completing his inventory of house flags of French shipping companies ?

History of the Norwegian stock exchange

The offices of the Christiania Børs, English: Christiana Exchange, opened in 1819. A new building was opened in 1829. It was the first monumental building since Norways independence declaration from Denmark in 1814 and it took another 52 years, in 1881 to be precisely, before the first securities were listed. Before that, it was a place for trading currencies, bills of exchanges, commodities, ships and parts. 

In the original trading room you can still still see the weather clock, connected with a weather vane on the roof. Depending on the wind direction, prices of commodities and securities went up and down depending on the direction. Why, and much more, can be read on the following pages of the Oslo Stock Exchange  :

• History of the Oslo Stock Exchange 
• Milestones in the history of the Norwegian stock exchange 
• History about the stock exchange building 

der aktiensammler
In addition to the articles above, the latest December 2012 No.6/12 issue of der aktiensammler magazine, and at the same time the last issue, contains the following stories (in German) :

• Der Goldstandard - kein Allheilmittel, aber immer noch vertrauensbildend, about the gold standard and our monetary system in the past (part 12 in a series on the evolution of money)
• Echte und unechte Eiffelturm-Aktien : Auf die Nuancen kommt es an, in English: True and unreal Eiffel Tower shares: It's all there in the Nuances
• HEAG: 100 Jahre Eisenbahn und Strom in Südhessen, about the history of the Hessen railway company and its growth into a larger concern with interests in electric power utilities, telecommunication et cetera
• Spekulation: Schlummernde Schätze oder doch nur Nonvaleurs ?, a collector tells us about his (disappointing) adventures when trying to sell so-called speculative certificates
• Warum die Schmidheinys keine Banker waren (Teil 2), about the Schmidheiny industrial entrepreneurs family and the Holderbank cement business (part 2)
• other periodical topics : Auction Reviews, Collector's Portrait, Events Calendar, Classifieds

I am sorry to learn from the editors that the magazine will no longer be published.

F.L.