Thursday, March 24, 2011

Pineapples from Cotonou

Cotonou, located at the Ouémé river, was in the early 1800s a small coastal fishing village in the Kingdom of Dahomey . In 1851 King Ghezo allowed the French to establish a trading post there. Now, it is the largest city of Benin and its defacto capital. In the local Fon language, 'Cotonou' means 'the mouth of the river of death'.


Compagnie de L'Ouémé-Dahomey
Action de 100 Francs, Paris 1899, design by Tomasz
The Ouémé river is 300 miles long and
flows into the ocean near Kotonu.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Scripophily versus coin collecting

Similarities with coin collecting
Many collectors of bonds and shares initially started collecting coins before they switched or expanded their hobby to scripophily. If you think about it, it is actually a small step because many similarities exist between both disciplines.


Collecting in themes is one of these similarities.
It is unthinkable a numismatist attempts to collect all coins of the world. The same applies to scripophily. When collecting stocks and bonds sooner or later you will decide to focus on one or more themes. Many themes are possible :
  • geographical: e.g. Egypt, Skandinavia, Berlin
  • a historical period: e.g. 18th century, Tsaristic Russia, Deutsch Mark certificates
  • an activity: gold mining, railways, shipping
  • an art style: Jugendstil, Art Deco
  • a person: artists, engravers, pioneers, inventors or business tycoons
  • a printing house: Waterlow & Sons, American Banknote Company
  • a visual theme: maps, flags, and, oh yes coins
Collectors often combine themes: French casino's, Russion banks, American oil companies, ..

Similarities but also differences
Many other similarities can be pointed out between coin collecting and scripophily. And you might have guessed it already : there are some differences too.  I suggest to take a look at the article 'Scripophily and Numismatics' that I was permitted to post on CoinsWeekly, see here.

Curious about CoinsWeekly ?
CoinsWeekly -MünzenWoche in German- is an international blogsite on coin collecting. The owner is Ursula Kampmann, very passionate about coins and an absorbing writer. My favourite article series is 'Detecting forgeries', see here .

F.L.
Related links

Monday, March 7, 2011

Book: Alte Wertpapiere

Oude aandelen
the Dutch edition of Alte Wertpapiere
  • Title: Alte Wertpapiere, Bibliophila series. This little book has been published and reprinted in several languages. As far as I know there is a German, an International or English (Old Securities), a Dutch (Oude Aandelen) and a French (Actions et obligations anciennes) edition. 
  • Authors : Ulrich Drumm, Alfons W. Henseler, Erich J. May
  • ID : ISBN 9022611914 (Dutch),  ISBN: 3921846625 (German by Harenberg Kommunikation, 1978), ISBN : 9783921846629 (English)
  • Languages : see Title description
  • Number of pages : 200 (Dutch version)
  • Images : About 170, in color.
  • Indexes : none, but chapters by activity type
This small format book is actually a book containing only images of decorative bond and share certificates ordered by activity type. It is not a reference book, it is not a catalogue. The book can give the starting collector,  a good idea of what kind of certificates are available.  With a bit of luck, you can find the book in your local library, or offered as a second-hand item on Amazon Books or Ebay.

F.L.