April sees a new Spink London auction of world bonds & share certificates

SPINK's Bonds and Shares Department has put its latest sale of 2022 online. The auctioneer offers over 600 antique securities from all continents. This online auction ends at 11AM, April 19, 2022. One of the highlights in the auction is this China Mercantile Co. share from the Qing dynasty, L(ot) 102.

The China Mercantile Co. was founded in 1903 as a trading and holding company. The company owned a bank, a porcelain factory, and an export freight company. San Fransico was one its major destinations. The company traded in Chinese and oriental products, tea, silk goods, baskets, brooms, brushes, brass goods, jewelry and art goods. This $20 shares certificate, printed in London by Gilbert & Rivington, dates from 1905 and shows two flags : the Qing dynasty flag with dragon, and possibly the company flag. Rare, L102 

Scripophily from the UK is richly represented. More than 170 lots are divided in separate sections: aviation, bridges/docks/piers, commercial & industrial, hotels & entertainment, mining, motors & cycles, railways & engineering, shipping & shipbuilding. Some of the many interesting items are: 

• L258 is a stock certificate in the Southport and Cheshire Lines Extension Railway, issued in 1890, with vignette and embossed seal of early locomotive. 
• Shares certificates from The Fairey Aviation Company Limited are rarely seen. The company built biplane torpedo bombers and other aircraft. Its share, L282 in the sale, was issued in 1956, a year before Fairey built the Rotodyne vertical takeoff airliner. 
• Roach River Oyster Fishery Company, Limited, 1913, vignette and fine embossed seal of fishing boat, L406 

The UK Mining section consists of 51 lots. This is L323, a 5 shares certificate from the St. Gennys Mining Company, St. Gennys, North Cornwall. Printed on vellum and issued in 1835, this is an early and striking example of using guilloches as a security printing feature. 

The auctions includes stocks and bonds from Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and South America. Dedicated sections contain scripophily from the USA, Confederate States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

New Zealand counts 17 lots in the sale. This is L65, a bilingual 5 shares certificate from 1904 in The New Zealand Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited. Maori warriors adorn this print by Eden Fisher & Co. 

There is lots more to discover in this sale, so here are the details :

• Location : this is an Internet only sale
• Date:  Apr 19, 2022, 11 AM
• Further info : see here , PDF catalog there 

F.L.

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Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG surprises with top-notch scripophily auctions

When it comes to antique stock and bond certificates Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG (HWPH) is a major player in the field. Manager Matthias Schmitt and his dedicated team bring us next weekend a double-session sale. About 2200 lots of scripophily and related documents will go on the block.

Club de Regatas do Flamengo, Titulo de Sócio Patrimonial, 1966, L(ot) 618, €120 start price

"Flamengo" is a Rio de Janeiro sports club best known for their football team. The share shows 18 different vignettes of sports and is one of several in the sale that were issued by famous football teams (lot 615 through 630). 

The first sale is a live auction at Würzburg, Germany, on the 4th of May 2019, followed two days later by an online auction. Both sales offer together nearly 2200 lots of historic and beautiful antique stocks and bonds from all continents.

The 13th-18th century section deserves special attention. It includes about 50 lots of historic and museum-caliber securities. One of these is a founder's share in the Iron Bridge Company "for Building a Bridge across the River Severn" from 1777. This company marks the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Its amazing and extremely rare share starts at €22000, L635 in the auction. 

Another highlight is a Bank of Alexandria share from 1796. It is issued to George Washington, first president of the United States of America. Only one known, in other words unique, L672 starts from €15000.
Top item in the sale is a 500 Flemish Pounds bond from the Dutch East India Company (VOC), dated 1623, see next image!

The Dutch East India Company (in Dutch : Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC) was established in 1602 for the purpose of trade, exploration and colonization. The VOC was involved in shipbuilding, production and trade of East Indian spices, sugarcane from Formosa, wine from South Africa and lots more. In some parts of the world, the VOC produced its own gunpowder like in its refinery at Chhapra, West Bengal, where it processed saltpeter from Patna. The company became one of the first globally operating corprorations. In its overseas colonies, the VOC had governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts and strike its own coins. It was the first corporation to be listed on an official stock exchange. L632 in the auction is expected to realize at least €30000.

Collectors of Chinese government securities will notice several specimen bonds previously unseen before. HWPH tells more about these in an in-depth article in Scripozine.

The auctioneer provides four downloadable PDF catalogues with extensive descriptions, available for free (see links further below):

• 50 Highlights
• 52nd Auction (Public)
• 53rd Auction (Online)
• Russia and former USSR

The latter presents all Russia-related lots in the Russian language.
Remote bidding is also possiblie through Invaluable.com where the auctioneer listed each lot with corresponding images. Here are some more examples of highly remarkable scripophily.

This bilingual Russian-English specimen bond from the State Bank of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dates from 1927. Also known as Gosbank this state bank was for about half a century the only bank in the USSR. L746 in the sale starts at €250

Great Cariboo Gold Company, share, issued by the Standard Finance Company, New York City, 1905. 

Registered in South Dakota, USA, the mines were located in British Columbia, Canada. Fabulous design of gold mining scenes and eight nuggets printed in gold colour. This certificate is the only survived example known. L636, €2000 start price 

Gewerkschaft des Steinkohlenbergwerks Lippermulde, coal mine, Hamborn am Rhein, 1923

Rare, this Kuxschein (mining shares certificate), is issued to industrialist August Thyssen, signed by him and Julius Thyssen, transferred on the back to August's son Heinrich, and signed on the back by Fritz Thyssen and again by Julius Thyssen. Bidding on L639 is invited from €2500 

You can find more of these fascinating stocks and bonds in HWPH's sale catalogues. Here are the auction details :

• Dates
• 4 May 2019, Würzburg, Germany, public auction
• 6 May 2019, online auction
• Further info and downloadable PDF's, see here on HWPH. 

F.L.

The Taylor and Sanderson Steam Shipping Company

In North East England, at the mouth of the River Wear, lies the city of Sunderland. Since mediaval times the city grew as a port, trading coal and salt, and a place where ships were built. Once called the "Largest Shipbuilding Town in the World", Sunderland was also home to Short Brothers Limited. This shipbuilding company built several steel screw steamers for another Sunderland company, The Taylor and Sanderson Steam Shipping Company Limited (T&S). 

John Wallace Taylor and John Sanderson established Taylor & Sanderson in 1877. Incorporated in 1899 as The Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Company, Limited, the company exported coal with its own ships. Several of its vessels, built by Short Brothers, awaited a remarkable fate. 

The Thornhill, a steel screw steamer, was built in 1897 by Short Brothers for T&S. On 16 April 1907, the general cargo vessel caught fire. It sank about 800 miles of Barbados on passage New York for Pernambuco, Brazil.

Short Brothers completed the Coronation for T&S in 1903. On 12 January 1913, the ship made the passage Bremen for Sunderland in balast (without any cargo but with containers filled with sea water for stability). Close to its home port, it was wrecked at Ravenscar, North Yorkshire. The salvaged ship was sold to F W Horlock & Co.

August 1914, the Coronation, renamed Coralie Horlock, was captured at Hamburg. In 1917 she became a part of the Imperial German Navy where she served as a transport vessel and as a submarine target !

The Coronation survived World War I and was sold again, this time to a Spanish company. On passage Genoa for Barcelona, in ballast, there was a bunker explosion. Two days later on 6 June 1921 the ship sank in Cavalaire Bay, France. 

The Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Co. Limited 

Ordinary shares of £5, 1913 

The company went into liquidation in 1917. 

The Wallace was another steel screw steamer that was constructed by Short Brothers in 1905 for T&S. Possibly named for John Wallace Taylor, managing director of T&S, the vessel was requisitioned by the Admiralty for service as a collier, a bulk cargo ship which carried coal. Sold in 1917 when T&S went into liquidation.

detail from the Taylor & Sanderson Steam Shipping Company share certificate

signatures from John Wallace Taylor and John Wallace Taylor Jr as Directors of the company 

John Wallace Taylor (1834-1927) was a member of the River Wear Commission. One of the stained-glass windows in St John's Methodist Church, Sunderland, is dedicated to him. His second son, Frederick William Taylor was a director of Sunderland Association Football Club. 

Short Brothers built two ships for T&S in 1905. Besides the Wallace, there was the Alexandra. First sold in 1916 and 1920 to British companies, it found a new owner from Norway in 1924. A/S Inger, Bergen, renamed the Alexandra into the Ingerfire. On 11 April 1943, in the middle of World War II, the ship, on passage Barrow for Halifax in ballast, was torpedoed by a German submarine U-571 in 51.29N - 42.59W, far away from any port as you can see here. 

The ships mentioned in this post were all general cargo steal screw steamers that were built by Short Brothers Ltd. Their sizes were more or less the same with these average dimensions : 355ft length (108m), 49ft breadth (15m), 22ft depth (7m). Their volumes were on average 3759 grt and 2376 nrt. 

In 1911 Short Brothers built a second Thornhill for T&S. This collier was requisitioned in 1915 by the Admiralty. She was modified into a "Q-ship". Q-ships were very special mystery ships also known as Q-boats or decoy vessels. The Thornhill became an armed merchant ship with concealed weaponry. 

A Q-ship was designed to lure German submarines into making surface attacks. By seeming an easy target, the U-boat captain was tempted to make a surface attack using the deck gun instead of one of his limited number of torpedoes. In that scenario the Q-ship had a chance to open fire and sink the submarine. 

The Thornhill was sent to operate in the Mediterranean as the HMS Wonganella. On its way back from Malta to the UK, early March 1917, a German submarine attacked the ship near Gibraltar. It suffered gunfire damage and carried casualties. Then, after having crossed the Atlantic first, she left Halifax, Nova Scotia, in early June and returned to the UK. During that passage the ship again was involved in actions with German submarines on 18 and 19 June near Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland. 

The Thornhill survived both World War I & II and was sold consecutively to 5 English and 4 Yugoslavian shipping companies. In 1959 the vessel ended at Yokohama with collision damage and was sold for breaking up at Kawasaki.

The T&S share has a vignette of its shipping flag bearing the company's initials. The flag is skilfully reproduced in the embossed company seal (lower left corner of the certificate). Flag colors: dark blue stripes on a white background, white 'T&S' letters in a red oval 

click image to enlarge 

F.L.

References

• Sunderlandships.com 
• Grace's Guide to British Industrial History  
• The Sunderland Site  
• Q-ships and their story, Chatterton, E. Keble, 1922,  via Archive.org
• Naval-history.net 
• A Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland 

PS:  Interested in shipping flags or company seals? Then you may want to check the categories 'vexillology'  and 'sigillography'.

HWPH to sell TUI precursor at public auction

Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG is a major auction house when it comes to antique stock and bond certificates. The team around Matthias Schmitt kicks of the New Year with two consecutive sales. 

The first sale is a live auction at Würzburg, Germany, on 20th Jan 2018, followed two days later by an online auction. Both sales offer nearly 2400 lots of historic and beautiful antique stock and bond certificates from all continents. One of the many highlights is a share from Norddeutscher Lloyd, precursor of the multinational TUI Group.

An impressive vignette shows one of Norddeutscher Lloyd's transatlantic steam ships. 

On top of the second mast, the company flag is waving, barely recognizable. 

Click the image for more details. The flag shows a crossed anchor and key with an oak leaf wreath. 

The anchor represents the sea and the wreath stands for a united Germany. 

The key is the key of the Freie Hansestadt Bremen. 

The emblem is incorporated three more times in the share's design, see the image below.

TUI Group owns travel agencies, retail stores, hotels, cruise ships and airlines. It is one of the largest travel and tourism companies in the world. TUI's current name was adopted in 2002 but before that, it was called Preussag AG. Oddly enough, Preussag was originally a mining and foundry company.

Norddeutscher Lloyd was formed by merchants from Bremen in 1856. NLD's cargo and passenger transport activities growed as a result of emigration. The company started operating routes to England and the USA, and by the end of the 19th century to the Mediterranean, the Far East and Australia. Because of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Kaiser Wilhelm II seized in 1900 14 of NLD's ships for the transport of German troops.

Norddeutscher LLoyd 

1000 Mark share, Bremen, 1923 

printed by Giesecke & Devrient 

lot 552 in the auction, click to enlarge 

After both World War's large parts of NLD's fleet were either confiscated or destroyed. The company had to rebuild its business twice. After cooperating with the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) since the 1930s, both companies would merge in 1970 to form Hapag-LLoyd. 

Remember Preussag, our industrial conglomerate. That company transformed itself into a transport and tourism company after purchasing Hapag-Lloyd in 1997. Preussag changed its name into TUI in 2002. 

You can find more of these fascinating stocks and bonds in HWPH's sale catalogues. Here are the auction details :

• Dates
• 20 January 2018, Würzburg, Germany, public auction
• 22 January 2018, online auction
• Further info see here on HWPH. 

F.L.

Kawasaki in the year 2889

We are in the year 2889. By then, all objects in museums are virtualized. People can download a perfect but scaled copy of any thinkable museum object and have it rendered in their living room as a tangible three-dimensional image. The objects that are speaking volumes are the ones the general public like the most. And you? Well, you are an archaeologist specialized in 20th century financial artefacts.

That day you are excavating a chamber at an ancient site which seems to be an office building from the 1960s. Yes, that is funny, back then people used to assemble all day long in a dedicated building to do office work. Anyway, the chamber you are working on, contains a safe weighing about 100 pounds. Your hand-scanner tells you there are documents inside the safe. With your tools, you manage to open it in no time. Wow, the parcel inside contains a set of old stock certificates. In the 20th century, people printed shares on paper for representing ownership in companies. Most of these certificates perished. One of the shares stands out from the others. It is speaking volumes.

With a PhD in Ancient Oriental Languages and Cultures, you translate the long line of characters on top. It is ancient Japanese, and you need to read it in the old way : from right to left. 

'Kabushiki Kaisya', 株式會社 are the first words and mean stock/limited company. A common term on Japanese certificates. You mouth the following word much slower : 'Kawa', 川, and 'saki', 崎, 'together Kawasaki', 川崎. Aha, that's interesting, halfway now. 

Already from the start you identified the last two symbols, 'Kabuken',  株券, 'share certificate'. Then you speak loudly, 'Zōsen', 造船, 'shipbuilding .. Tokoro, place', 所. 'Wait a minute, together they form Zōsensho, shipyard !',  造船所. You have figured it out : 'Kabushiki Kaisya Kawasaki Zōsensho Kabuken! I found a share in the Kawasaki Shipyard Co. Ltd '. With your hand-scanner you look up the flag printed on the share. Yep, that is the one.

Six months later, a new exhibition of the objects unearthed by you is launched at the Central Museum. The Kawasaki share is one of the highlights. As one of the museum's educators, you are leading a school group around the show. Of course, you spend time on the Kawasaki and explain all about the way business initiatives and innovations were financed 900 years ago. Some of the kids are babbling on anything but the tour, others look a bit bored. One of the kids raises its arm. 'Yes ?'. The group now turns quiet and looks at you first, then at the kid who says, 'If this piece of paper was meant to finance a business, what type of business would that have been?' The other kids are speechless and are now all staring at you.

Happy with the question and all the attention you have, you clarify 'Well, that could be anything you can think of, but in this case, you can see from the vignettes, the little pictures on the certificate, what this company was all about.' Now, for the first time, all the kids turn to the display case and inspect the Kawasaki share. 'They made ships !', shouts one of them and they all look at you again. 'That is correct ! The Kawasaki Shipyard Company was founded in 1896 and already one year later the company completed the Ivomaru, its first ship. If you look carefully, you can see a drawing of the shipyard behind the lettering. At Kawasaki they were very inventive. In 1906 they completed their first submarine. They even made battlecruisers like the Haruna, which was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and II !'.

After reducing contrast, the underprint of the Kawasaki share reveals 

an image of a dockyard with ships under construction.

click to enlarge image

'And they also made cars .. and airplanes .. and locomotives !', they tell each other and leave their finger prints all over the display case. The kid that posed the first question, raises its arm again. 'Yes?', you wonder amused, 'What's your name ?'. The whole group answers instead, 'Sidney!'. 'Yes, Sidney, what is it ?'  Again, the group turns quiet and Sidney continues, 'These large vertical signs, they look like a cartouche. Is this from a Pharaoh ?' To everyone's reassurance you can not suppress a smile. 'Sidney, that's is actually a good question. A cartouche, an oval with a horizontal line at one end, encloses a royal name and was used in Ancient Egypt.' The boys and girls look disappointed but turn their heads to the share certificate again when you proceed, 'But, as is the case with this Kawasaki share, a signature of a high official or very important person was often printed in such a vertical way.'

'Do you see these five large vertically written characters over here?', and with your light pen you point out the position on the share. 'The first two stand for Matsukata.' , 松方. Some children try to mumble the word. 'The last three are Kōjirō.', 幸次郎 . 'So from top to bottom you read Matsukata Kōjirō.', 松方幸次郎. 'Now repeat all together !' They all chant Matsukato Kōjirō in unison. 

'Matsukata Kōjirō was born in 1865, that's more than a 1,000 years ago, and he was the son of the Prime Minister of Japan. Kōjirō became president of the Kawasaki Shipyard Company in 1896.' 

'Was he rich ?', someone asks. 'Oh yes, his business was very successful for some time. Kōjirō also wanted to give something in return to the people in his country. With the fortune he accumulated, he bought lots of Western European and Japanese art and wanted to build an art museum. Unfortunately he died in 1950 before he could realize his dream. But soon large parts of his collection found a home in Japan's National Museum of Western Art in Ueno and the Tokyo National Museum.'

'I have another question', adds Sidney, 'My dad rides a Kawasaki motorbike, why don't we see a motorbike on the share ?'  Some kids nod, they obviously know Sidney's father. 'Great question Sidney.' The group is proud to have Sidney on board. 'You see, this share was issued in 1921', and you point out the date 大正拾年 on the Kawasaki share. 'In Japan, years were then expressed as the number of years in the reign of the emperor starting with 1. 大正 represents Emperor Taishō, 拾 stands for 10 and 年 is the word for year. Taishō's first year of reign is 1912. So the date we see here is 1912 + 10 -1 which results in 1921. Now, that was easy, isn't it ?'. Everyone in the group tries to convince one another that it was easy. So you continue, 'Kawasaki started producing motorcycles more than 30 years later; therefore we see no motorbike on the share. The first motorbikes were produced by Kawasaki's Aircraft Division. That's why the emblem's on their fuel tanks looked like the Kawasaki flag within a wing.'

Later at home, Sidney tells mom and dad about the museum visit. The child activates the home visualizer and downloads a virtual replica of the Kawasaki share. It rotates slowly in the air when Sidney walks around it. 'Omigosh!'  The floor lamp shines through the image and a large watermark becomes visible.

Reading from right to left the watermark of the Kawasaki share says 

壹拾  株券 : 1x10  share certificates

株式 會社 : Kabushiki Kaisya  = Co., Ltd.

川崎 造船所 Kawasaki Shipyard

In 1969 the Kawasaki Shipyard company merges with its earlier spin-offs, 

Kawasaki Rolling Stock Manufacturing and Kawasaki Aircraft, 

into Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

F.L.

Related links

• Wikipedia's Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation   
• Reading Japanese dates on stocks and bonds 

The Tokyo Motor Show 2013 featured the Kawasaki J Concept motorbike.

Image by Morio [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify U.S. state seals on a Kentucky & Great Eastern Railway bond

The word zero originates via the French zéro from the Italian zero, 

in turn an Italian contraction of  the Venetian zevero, which in turn 

came from the Arabic ṣifr ( صفر).  (wikipedia)

Whether you call it zero, nought, nil, nada or zip, the zero 

shown above is arguably one of the finest zeros seen in scripophily.

Double-click the image and notice how the shadows around the scrollwork 

seem to make the number levitate.

Kentucky and Great Eastern Railway Company

$1000 Gold Bond 7%, free of U.S. taxes, 1872

Printed by American Bank Note Co.

The Kentucky and Great Eastern Railway Company

The wonderful zero was printed on a 1872 bond from the Kentucky and Great Eastern Railway Company (KGERC). From this company, no stock certificates are known; I believe, only this type of bond. I must confess that this railway stays a bit of a mystery to me because I could not find out to what degree the railway has been operational. Some pieces of information found:

• 1871, Jun: Kentucky and Great Eastern Railway Company, organized under the laws of Kentucky. (0)
• 1871, Oct: Mason County subscribes $400,000 to the KGERC. (1)
• 1871, Nov: The KGERC closes a contract at Ceredo, West-Virginia, with  the commissioners of West Virginia, by which they acquire the franchise and property of the West Virginia Central Railroad Company. (2)
• 1871, Dec: Lewis County agrees to subscribe $100,000 to the KGERC. (1)
• 1872, Feb: Authorization of a $2,190,000 bond issue. (0)
• 1872, Mar: KGERC announces a 146 miles railroad, from Newport along or near the south bank of the Ohio river to Catlettsburg, is under contract to be built by Alton & Beach of New York city.(1)
• 1873, Mar: A mortgage of the KGERC to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Co., of New York, for $2,190,000, is recorded in the clerk's offices for Mason, Campbell, and other counties. In the same month, ground is broken at Maysville for the line. (1)
• 1873; Aug: First locomotive is put to work upon that portion of the KGERC now building, along the Ohio river between Maysville and a point opposite Portsmouth, Ohio; 350 hands at work. (1)

Sources :

(0) Information printed on KGERC's bond certificate
(1) History of Kentucky, by Lewis Collins, Richard H. Collins, see here .

(2) The Ohio Statesman, Nov 30 1871

Lovely vignette of a locomotive with a white flag.
In the U.S., any train operating not on a published schedule was an "extra" train,
indicated by white flags (or lights) on the front of the engine. 
(Source: Trains.com )
double-click image to enlarge

Despite wonderful bonds, investors stay away 

You know, researching this company made me lose all sense of time for a while. So, before I address the topic of the title, I'll dive a little further into KGERC's remaining history. 

Poor's Manual of Railroads 1874-1875 reports for the year 1873 that the company planned a 146.5 miles line from Covington, Kentucky to Catletssburg, Kentucky. The railway intended to open communication between the coal and iron mines of Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia and the system of railroads centring at Cincinnati. Poor's further states that the KGERC planned to extend the line to Huntington, the western terminus of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, 13 miles from Catlettsburg. Grading was done from a point opposite Portsmouth, Ohio, to the eastern boundary of Bracken County, 60 miles. That portion was to be completed in the same year with negotations for the iron being in progress. The company's financial situation is described as follows :

• Capital stock authorized: $10,000,000
• Capital subscribed: $500,000 (by Mason and Lewis Counties, see before)
• Capital paid in: $100,000. 
• Bonds authorized ($15,000 per mile), $2,200,000, 7% gold, dated Feb 15, 1872, no bonds yet issued. (the bond shown above)

The Poor's Manual 1877-1879 mainly repeats the same information for the year 1876, but speaks now of an 1872 $2,250,000 loan (still the same loan). Also here: no bonds have yet been sold. We see no further reports in the subsequent Poor's Manuals. 

After two years in business, only 1% of the capital was paid in. Four years after the authorization of the loan issue, the number of bonds that were sold was still zero, nought, nil, nada or zip. On Coxrail, this bond is known as KEN-580-B-50, see here, and all registered serial numbers have been reported as uu, unissued and uncancelled. My guess is that the company went bankrupt, but why no capital could be attracted is not clear to me.

The other side of the bond certificate above depicts three U.S. state seals.

Can you identify them ?

Surprise on the other side

When you look at the other side of the certificate, you'll see four large, rounded rectangles made of guilloche patterns. Three of these contain a U.S. state seal. State seals appear on many American stocks and bonds.

On Wikipedia's Seals of the U.S. states page, see here, you can compare the seals one by one and try to identify which seals are depicted. But, over time, state seals may have changed slightly in appearance. Terry Cox tells us that state laws often prevented engravers from using "official" state seals. Engravers often modified the most important elements of official state seals and then added new surrounding features. In other words, a difficult and time consuming task.

Luckily, Mr. Cox conceived for us a finding system, some kind of decision tree that helps us quickly identify state seals by looking only at key details. Here below, you'll see the individual state seals in high resolution images. Go ahead, try and identify the state seals, by using the Cox state seal finding system, see here. You'll see it is fun and it is fast.

F.L.

Related links :

• Cox's State Seals page

Interested in sigillography (seals)?

Then check out this series of related posts .

What is scripophily ?

Take a little test
What is the oldest and the youngest word in the following list ?

1. scripophily
2. computer
3. android.

I bet you are wrong ! I was too. I'll give you the answer right away.

The word scripophily is a contraction of 

• the English word “scrip”, a certificate entitling ownership right, 
• and the Greek word "φίλος" (philos), meaning "friend".

Scripophily is about collecting old securities and related items
Securities can roughly be divided in :

• debt securities, such as a bond, which represents a debt of a company, a society, a federal, statal or municipal authority, or a non-governmental organization
• equity securities, such as a stock certificate (also known as a share certificate), which represents part ownership of a company, society or association.

More than just collecting
Scripophily involves also the study of stock and bond certificates and their related history. One can be a scripophilist without owning a single stock or bond. 

Did you know that antique stocks and bonds are easy to find ?
Many certificates are common and can be easily and cheaply acquired on bourses and online platforms like eBay. More interesting material is found at dedicated auctions. Some certificates, like this one, are very rare and have a great historical importance and reside only in museums. 

Why collect ?
There are tens of reasons why scripophily items are appealing : security engraving, artistic design, particular vignettes, a pioneering activity, the name of a company, historical background, the name of the holder, a signature of a famous person, and many more reasons.

Société Agricole et Industrielle du Thap-Muoi

Share of 20 French Indochinese piasters, Saigon, 1928, printed in Paris by Chaix

The piaster was the currency of French Indochina between 1885 and 1952.

Tháp Mười is a rural district in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.

double-click image to enlarge

Is it really important to make a distinction between true and untrue scripophily? 
Absolutely not. Scripophilists may also collect other related papers, often not regarded as true scripophily, for instance : insurance policies, membership certificates, invoices. The issuers used these papers in their daily business processes. This contrasts with securities that were issued only occasionally during the lifespan of the issuer. Hence, ordinary lottery tickets, drawn on a weekly basis, belong to the former group, and lottery loans to the latter. Combining both types of documents in a collection only contributes to the fun and learning possibilities.

The Ericsson Shipping Company, Ltd, 1915

Printed by Andrew Reid & Co., Newcastle, UK.

The company owned the S.S. Willingtonia, a steel hulled steam cargo ship, built in 1918. 

In the very same year the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UC27. 

A weird coincidence, the company's shipping flag depicts a swastika, 

in many cultures seen as a sign of good fortune.

Do you know the word in your language ?
In other languages, scripophily is often translated in a similar sounding word

• Escripofilia (Spanish)
• Scriptophilie  (French)
• Scripophilie (French, German)
• Scriptofilie (Dutch)
• Scripofilie (Dutch, Romanian)
• Scripofili (Norwegian)
• Scripofilia (Italian)
• Skripofilija (Lithuanian)
• Skrypofilistyka (Polish)
• Скрипофилия (Russian)

Is the word for scripophily in your language not listed here? Please let me know, I’ll make sure it deserves its place in the list.

How old is the word scripophily ?
The word scripophily is actually a relatively modern word, as you can see here in Google’s Ngram chart. This tool lets you trace the usage of a word or phrase during the past five centuries (!) by seeing how often it's appeared in books over that time span.

The word Scripophily started appearing in books halfway the 1970s.
Source : Google Ngram  Viewer

As  you see, the word Scripophily started appearing in the 1970s, which is pretty modern when compared to words like android (17th century) and computer (16th century). 

F.L.

Tip : The more (online) scripophily friends you have, the more you will share knowledge and have fun. You should join a club or participate in a social media group !

PS : Scripophily is also the name of the magazine issued by the International Bond & Share Society (IBSS), see more here .

Related links 

• International Bond & Share Society (IBSS)
• Wikipedia's Scripophily entry
• Synopsis of the Ocean's Twelve movie, starring Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. In this movie, a gang of thieves pick a European target : " the world's oldest stock certificate, which was issued by the Dutch East India Company in 1602, worth around 2.5 million euros, and kept in Amsterdam. " 
• Saved at the last minute, a story about the life of a share

Can you help me to reach more people by sharing this post ? 

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.

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.