The new Scripophily magazine is out!

Scripophily is the world’s most comprehensive and insightful publication for passionate collectors and active researchers of antique securities. This three-yearly periodical, printed on high quality paper, is the flagship of The International Bond and Share Society (IBSS).

Its 2024 January issue brings over 40 pages of scripophily news, in depth articles, book reviews, and pictures of collector friends. Scripophily magazine is illustrated with tons of gorgious stock certificates. This one from the A/S Spitzbergen company is a highlight featured in one of the many auction reports included in the publication. 

A significant part of Scripophily magazine brings reports on auctions in this collecting field. This 1905 stock certificate from the AS Spitzbergen company shows a vignette of a whaler harpooning a whale. That year, the Tønsberg-based whaling company built a whaling station on Finneset, a peninsula located on the east side of Grønfjorden on Spitsbergen. The certificate sold for NOK6,200 at the auction of the Norwegian Scripophily Society. 

Here is a summary on the main topics brought in the new issue :

• Unique War Bond, a remarkable discovery of a World War I prisoner camp library bond 
• Gatling Ordnance Co Misfires
• The Case of the Missing Farmers, an Egyptologist traces back Crédit Agricole d'Égypte vignettes 
• Taking Stock of Pittsburgh 
• David and Goliath, The Winona and Southwestern railroad takes on The Chicago and Northwestern railroad 
• Scripophily Frozen, winter scenes in scripophily

Become a member of IBSS and receive three times per year this great magazine. The 1 year membership costs £28 or $35 or €32. And the magazine is not the only benefit you'll receive. 

More info can be found on-line here at the website of the International Bond & Share Society: https://scripophily.org/ 

F.L.

The Copper Handbook - a manual of the copper mining industry of the world

image by Boone Shares

Following is a list of the elements with which copper is found chemically united in nature. This list includes 29 of the 77 elements known to science at this writing. Following the name of each element is its chemical symbol and atomic weight, as now figured by the best authorities : 

Aluminium Al 27.1

Antimony Sb 120

Arsenic As 75

Bismuth Bi 208.3

Calcium Ca 40.1

Carbon C 12

Chlorine Cl 35.45

Cobalt Co 59

Copper Cu 63.6

Hydrogen H 1.01

Iron Fe 56

Lead Pl 206.9

Manganese Mn 55

Nickel Ni 58.7

Niobium Nb 93.7

Nitrogen N 14.04

Oxigen O 16

Phosphorus P 31

Platinum Pt 195

Selenium Se 79.2

Silicon Si 28.4

Silver Ag 107.93

Sulphur S 32.06

Tellurium Te 127.5

Tin Sn 119

Tungsten W 184

Uranium U 240

Vanadium V 51.4

Zinc Zn 65.4

Excerpt from The Copper Handbook 1903, Vol. III for the year 1902, page 27

More than 2000 copper mines in all parts of the world

Scripophily auctioneers and a few blessed collectors use the book for researching companies. The 1903 issue contains 2207 company profiles. Most of the mines included are located in the USA, others are active in the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Algeria, Bolivia, Canada, Chili, Cuba, France, India, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Rhodesia, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK and much more, even Sudan and New Caledonia. Many company descriptions span tens of lines, sometimes several pages. As an example, I included the profile of the Parrot Silver and Copper Company:

Parrot Silver and Copper Company
shares of 10 Dollars, issued in 1904, Butte, Montana
printed by Western Banknote Company, Chicago
In the Copper Handbook Vol. III the company
was ranked 25th in the list of largest copper producers.
double-click image to enlarge

PARROT SILVER & COPPER CO. - MONTANA
Mine office: Butte, Silver Bow Co., Montana. Harry A. Galway, superintendent. Has a stock issue of 230,000 shares, bulk of which is held by the Amalgamated Copper Co. This company is mixed up to some extent in the litigation that is so unpleasant a feature of mining operations in Butte. Principal mines are the Little Minah and Parrot, opened circa 1884. Company holds 19 claims in all, mostly well located. A barren zone occurs at a depth of about 1,000' , but good ore bodies are found below. Production is at the rate of about 12,000,000 pounds yearly. The ores carry fair values in silver and gold, as well as copper. Mine employs 300 to 400 men, when working full force. The Little Minah mine has a 1,000' two-compartment shaft connected underground with the Nipper. The Parrot mine is about 1,700' deep, main shaft having 3 compartments to 400' level and 4 compartments below, connected underground with Colusa-Parrot, Never Sweat, Nipper and Original mines.

detail from the Parrot Silver and Copper Company's stock certificate
vignette of a brainy parrot claiming his ingot (I want a parrot like that)

This book is encyclopedic

Do you know the meaning of following terms or expressions? Watch out! I can not pronounce some of these words I. Don't hurt yourself in the act.

• pertenencia: one mineral claim in Mexico; area, one hectare or 2,471 acres
• cutting down: when a shaft is enlarged, work begins at the top, and the work of enlargement is called cutting down
• dognacskaite: a sulphide of bismuth and copper; carrying about 12% copper; from Hungary
• pinching out: the narrowing of a vein to extinction

When was the first copper shipment from the Australian continent ? Answer: 1843

What was the world's largest mine in the early 1900s ? Answer: The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Butte, Montana, producing more than 100,000,000 Pounds in 1901.

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.

Poll results - Number of scripophily collectors in the world

"of all human collecting species, the Homo Sapiens Scripophilius, is the hardest to find"

International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)
Domestic share certificate for less than 100 shares, 1959

Results of the poll

This was the question : How many scripophily collectors are there worldwide ?

• less than 1000
• between 1000 and 2000
• between 2000 and 5000
• between 5000 and 10000
• between 10000 and 20000
• between 20000 and 50000
• between 50000 and 100000
• more than 100000

Only 10 votes were made, including mine. I agree, a low number of votes. But to those who made the effort : thank you for voting !

And here are the results :



As you can see, there is no pronounced winner.
My vote ? Between 20000 and 50000.  Actually, I estimate the number of collectors at 30000. Let me explain why I think so.

Wrong about the Trasatlantica flag

Old share certificates from shipping and fishing companies often depict their company flag. This 1913 share  from the Compañia Trasatlantica is not an exception thereon.  The company’s flag in the upper border is an eye-catcher as the company’s monogram is embossed upon the same blue-printed monogram in the center of the flag. As a result you see the flag in some kind of relief. 

 Acción Preferente 500 Pesetas, Barcelona 1913

notice the flag in underprint on the certificate's image

large format certificate: upper & lower half digitally pasted

There is also a flag printed in the right border below, and one in the underprint.  Oddly, the latter two flags are missing the monogram and that is why I initially felt that the design was somehow incomplete : why is the monogram missing in the other flags ? Later on, it turned out that I was wrong about that.