Societăți pe acțiuni românești în Austro-Ungaria - Hârtii de Valoare Istorice - Colecția Alois Weil

Societăți pe acțiuni românești în Austro-Ungaria is a brand new volume on antique securities from Romanian companies formed in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918), more specifically in Transylvania.

The book, a large format, multicolor, hardcover publication was put together by authors Alois Weil, Gabriel Căsap and Ion Chirescu. It is illustrated with share certificates, mainly from financial companies, from the Weil collection.

Transylvania is a region in central Romania. The term is also used to refer to a larger area that includes parts of Crișana and Maramureș, and the Romanian part of Banat. Up through the 19th century Transylvania was an agricultural society. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich) made Transylvania a part of the Kingdom of Hungary. At the end of World War I Transylvania was united with Romania.

Here's a picture from the book's table of contents (in Romanian), click image to enlarge. Notice the bound bookmark produced with the colors of the flag of Romania.

The authors presented their book on February 10, 2020, in the presence of hundreds of Phd students and invited guests, in the „Lucian Blaga” Central University Library, Cluj-Napoca. The event also featured an exhibition of shares of banking companies from Transylvania.

The Allgemeine Versicherungsbank Transsylvania AG is one of the companies that is discussed in the book. This share was issued on Jun 21, 1918, only a few months before Transylvania became a part of Romania Dec 1, 1918. Illustrated are the coats of arms of the seven provinces of Transylvania. 
image courtesy : BooneShares, auction Oct 2018 

Some more details about the book :

• Title :  Societăți pe Acțiuni Românești în Austro-Ungaria - Hârtii de Valoare Istorice - Colecția Alois Weil, in English: Romanian Joint-Stock Companies in Austria-Hungary - Historical Shares and Bonds - Alois Weil Collection
• Authors : Alois Weil, Gabriel Căsap and Ion Chirescu
• ID : ISBN 978-606-93235-9-5, publised by Art Group-România, under the aegis of Museum of Romanian Records, 2019
• Languages : Romanian, with a summary chapter in English and German
• Number of pages : 349
• Images
• nearly 200 large color images of share certificates 
• about the same number of detail images and vignettes from these securities 
• over 200 enlarged images of signatures seen on the securities
• many postcards of company premises, pictures of significant business people, and the like
• Index : no index, but one of the chapters contains a table with the details of 185 banking institutions organized as joint-stock companies

The stunning certificate illustrated on the left is from Plugarul, s.p.a. în Cacova, a credit company that serviced the agricultural sector. 'Plugarul' is Romanian for plowman. The share is signed by Ioan Opreanu, president of the Cacova parish committee (see signature in detail).

Click image to enlarge

Company entries in the book are grouped by historical period. Each company is discussed in its historical context. Most shares are illustrated together with enlarged images of the signatures of the company officers who signed them, each one briefly identified and described.

This is a top work for anyone interested in Romania, Austria-Hungary, banking, and of course, artistic designs in scripophily !


F.L. 

Related link

• scripophily from Siebenbürgen (German for Transsylvania), thank you for the tip Roland !

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