Friday, December 27, 2013

This was 2013

This little retrospective of 2013 brings an abstraction of 
scripophily on the Internet and looks at this blog's performance. 
The illustrations "between the lines" form a little story on their own.

Snowy peaks and spruce trees form the setting for this proud mountain goat.
Double-click the image to enlarge.

In 2013 scripophily is further exploring the Internet
This week I googled the word scripophily with the objective of getting an idea about the word's spreading on the Internet. An exercise done earlier in July 2012, see here. Now we can compare the outcomes :
  • number of web links : 515000 (53% related to eBay), no comparison possible because Google changed its search algorithms since then
  • number of images : 170000, or +26% (18 months)
  • number of YouTube videos : 217 , or  +540%


Let's take a closer look at the vignette.
Do you see the nice hatching work used to create
shading effects (the rock) and illusions of physical texture
(the paws, the back and the belly of the animal) ?

Associations embrace Facebook
Today, you'll find blogs and photo sharing sites related to scripophily on almost every social media platform : Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram et cetera. The most dynamic one in 2013 is Facebook. Several professionals were already present on Facebook, but this year also associations planted their flag on a strip of Facebook land. 
  • Norsk Selskap for Scripofili's page: Aksjebrev
    • type: Facebook page
    • created in June 2013
    • currently counting almost 70 likes
  • EDHAC (Germany)
    • type : Facebook group, login required 
    • created in July 2013
    • currently counting about 60 members
  • International Bond and Share Society 
    • type: Facebook page
    • created in December 2013
    • currently counting more than 50 likes

In lithography a separate stone was used for each color. Here, you can
see that the stone used for the brown color was not perfectly aligned in the
printing process. When you enlarge this image, double-click it, you'll see
stripes of brown color were printed above the outlines of the animal's back,
left front and left hind paws and its horns. A pity, especially because the
green color was printed neatly.

With about a billion users Facebook grows at a rate of over half a petabyte … every 24 hours (source: The Register). A little bit of math may put this in perspective. One petabyte = 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes = 1,000 terabytes = 1,000,000 gigabytes. One gigabyte of information is about the size of a truck filled with papers. In other words Facebook grows at a rate of 500,000 trucks of papers ... per day ! So if I forgot to mention your scripophily association in the overview, please tell me about it and I'll complete the overview.

Blog statistics of 2013
I consistently round up the year with the statistics of this blog. I used Google Analytics, an online tool for analyzing web traffic, to review the period 1 Jan 2013 - 20 Dec 2013. Between brackets you'll see the corresponding numbers for 2012, see also here.

This year, the threshold of 90,000 page views was exceeded.


In the considered period 6560 absolute unique visitors were visiting this blog (2012: 9779, -33% ). The chart above indicates roughly a more or less stable range between 100 and 270 unique visitors per week (2012: between 140 and 270 per week).

The number of returning visitors to this blog has risen to 34.3 % (24 % in 2012). This comes down to about 2250 returning visitors in 2013 (about 2300 in 2012).



What about the geographical distribution ? The ranking on the subcontinents stayed the same as in 2012.


Western Europe, number one, and Northern America, number two, are responsable for more than 60% of the visits. Especially Western Europe increased its relative part from 30 to 39% percent at the expense of all other subcontinents. Number three and four are still South-Eastern Asia and Southern Asia. Northern Europe decreased its lag behind Southern Asia but is still on number five.

Locations visiting this blog in the period 1 Jan 2013 - 20 Dec 2013


Suggestions for improvements and topics for this blog are always welcome. Thank you for the many visits, and I hope to see you back in 2014. A Happy New Year to all of you !

F.L.

PS: The vignette shown in the first part of the article comes from the Bolsalona share certificate, see below.

Bolsalona Sociedad Anonima Industrial y Commercial
Bolsalona Sociedad Anonima Industrial y Commercial
5 Shares of 1000 Pesos Oro Sellado (convertible to gold)
1920, Buenos Aires
Company active in the textile business.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Vinos Gasificados Blanxart - Ceci n'est pas un faux.

A bargain !
That particular Sunday turned out to be more interesting than usual. I was visiting a scripophily bourse; eBay was by no means invented yet. One of the present dealers showed me an album of certificates. One of them contained a superb share certificate of a Spanish sparkling wine producer. The name of the company: Vinos Gasificados Blanxart Sociedad Anonima Española

Vinos Gasificados Blanxart Sociedad Anonima Española
Vinos Gasificados Blanxart Sociedad Anonima Española
English: Spanish Blanxart Sparkling Wine Company
Share certificate for 100 Pesetas
double-click image to enlarge

A large vignette on the left side showed a pair of enthusiastic hands uncorking a bottle of Champagne, actually Spanish sparkling wine, which tastes as good as Champagne. On the right an elegant lady was ready to propose a toast. What a scene. The certificate's Art Nouveau design, with grapes depicted in the other borders, seemed to fit with the issue date of 1916. The dealer asked a price of 10 Deutsche Mark (about 7 USD) . Surely a bargain ! Without a doubt, I bought it. I even did not bother haggling any further.


But too good to be true !
Later, I noticed that the certificate's paper felt too strong for its supposed age of almost a hundred years. There were no tears or folds. The paper felt actually thicker than was usual the case with Spanish certificates from that period. Not brittle at all. I started being suspicious about my find. Someone told me it was a fake. At that time, I did not spent that much attention to details, but he was probably right. Hey, isn't that printer name a bit weird : Imprenta Fantasia, S.A. ; in English: the Fantasy Printing Company. A printer of securities surely has to have a more trustworthy name ? 

Vinos Gasificados Blanxart Sociedad Anonima Española
detail scanned at 600 dpi

I tried to find out more about the company or about the printer. There was no trace at all of both of them: the company and the printer probably never existed. The most convincing evidence that there is something wrong with this piece of paper can be seen with a good loupe. The paper was definitely printed in the 1970s maybe even in the late 1960s. Check out the details of the woman's face and the uncorking hands. Do you see the regular dot patterns, everywhere ? Old lithographed certificates have solid outlines and fills. This dot pattern is the result of modern offset printing methods.

Vinos Gasificados Blanxart Sociedad Anonima Española
detail scanned at 600 dpi

This is not a fake either !
Yet, I believe the one who issued these certificates had no intention to cheat other people. Why would one counterfeit a certificate that was issued by a non existing company and also was printed by a printer with a very questionable name? My best guess is that the certificate was distributed on the occasion of some kind of promotional activity, such as a wine bourse. Who knows more? 


The certificate has been traded and sold for tens of years .. as true scripophily. Most dealers do not recognize that this is a modern print. Only a very few dealers mention its true nature, see here an example: bravo ! What happened to the certificate ? Well, despite, or maybe thanks to its history, it ended up in my collection.

F.L.

Related links


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Exhibition : The Bank of Valero - The First Hebrew Bank in Eretz Israel 1848-1915

The Eretz Israel Museum, located near Tel Aviv, focuses on the history and culture of Israel. Artifacts, from the 4th millennium BCE to the present, are showcased in several thematic pavilions. One of these, the Kadman Numismatic Pavilion, features coins, bank notes, etcetera. The Alexander Pavilion of Postal History and Philately tells us the postal history of Israel from the mid-19th century until the founding of the state in 1948 by showing us envelopes, letters, rare stamps and much more. The museum also includes a planetarium.


Valero Bank exhibition in Israel Palestine , photo by Leonid Padrul-Kwitkowski
The Valero Bank exhibition
Curator: Cecilia Meir
image source: Eretz Israel Museum

photographer: Leonid Padrul-Kwitkowski
double-click image to enlarge

The museum has prolonged its temporary exhibition The Valero Bank until December 31, 2014. The exhibition deals with the activities from the bank that took place in Jerusalem in the 19th and early 20th century. In this period Palestine was under Ottoman rule, a situation that lasted until World War I.

Ya'akov (Jakob) Valero (1813–1874) opened his bank, Jacob Valero & Company, in 1848. Under the direction of his son Haim Aharon Valero (1845–1923) the Valero Bank acted as catalyst in the early development of the Eretz Israel/Palestine region and supported its Jewish community towards the modernization of the 20th century. The bank’s capital and services were employed in the acquisition of land and building. At a certain point in time, when money for trade was scarce, the bank issued also its own currency : notes that came in one and five piastre denominations.

The Valero bank provided services for the Ottoman government and was often asked to support the government by providing loans or by purchasing government bond issues. The bank carried out financial transactions with numerous banks in Palestine and throughout the world, among them banks that belonged to the Rothschild family, but also with other governments such as the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Rothschild check Jerusalem Valero bank in Austro-Hungarian krone
Valero Bank check for 227.81 Austro-Hungarian crowns
made out by S.M. Rothschild to Assad C. Kayat
signed by Aharon Valero and issued February 12 1903, Jerusalem

image source: Eretz Israel Museum
double-click image to enlarge

Jewish pre-WWI banking history is an unusual subject in scripophily. Even with only a very few certificates on display, the engaging story of the Valero Bank makes the exhibition worthy of a visit. 

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Digest of scripophily readings XII

New online scripophily articles and references, November 2013


Taiwan Stock Museum
About one year ago, the Taiwan Stock Museum (TSM) was opened officially to the public in Taipei. The museum was created by the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC) following the completion of the company's move to a paperless depository of securities in July 2011. The museum, which includes an interactive multimedia hall, shows artifacts and many stocks and bonds that have witnessed the historical development of Taiwan's stock market.
Related links :


NONVALEURS on Tumblr
Hans-Georg Glasemann, author of many books and articles, see for example here, is also the writer of many scripophily related posts on his NONVALEURS blog on Tumblr. You'll find out that Mr. Glasemann's topics cover all themes worldwide. Most articles are written in German, here is one of my favorites about Papua New Guinea, but occasionally you can detect stories written in English, like this one about early attempts to connect France and the UK by means of a railway tunnel. Tumblr is a social-media blogging platform, so you can "Follow" the NONVALEURS blog and never miss a post !




Scripophily Magazine
In addition to the online sources above, the latest August 2013 No.92 issue of Scripophily magazine, published by the International Bond and Share Society , contains the following stories :
  • Speculation mixed, about speculation phenomena in scripophily
  • Collectors' clearinghouse - Hetty HR Green
  • Cox's Corner : Sharing information and knowledge
  • Dr Fred S Pearson and the Infrastructure Revolution, about infrastructure and railway investments in the US, Canada and Mexico
  • Britain's National Debt, a coverage of 17th, 18th and 19th century loans, payment orders and annuities
  • Scripophily at the New York Stock Exchange, about the NYSE archives
  • Consolidate What ? a story on John Peirce's railway ventures
  • Inspection of the vignettes on a share of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company, amazing what there is to see !
  • Tasker L Oddie - Prospector & Politician, a US gold mining story
  • An Interesting Mystery, about Chester Pennsylvania banks 
  • other periodical topics : society matters, news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews

F.L.
Signed the Guest book yet ?

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Spink UK - Auction November 2013


Spink UK - Bonds and Share Certificates of the World


share certificate of the Geldenhuis Deep gold mining company in Transvaal South Africa
Geldenhuis Deep Limited
1934, Johannesburg, Transvaal
25 Shares of 1 Pound Sterling
Printed by Waterlow & Sons
double-click image to enlarge



  • Date: November 28, 2013
  • Place: London, UK
  • More info, see here 



F.L.

Friday, November 1, 2013

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


The Copper Handbook, by Horace Stevens
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:


share certificate 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 share certificate depicting parrot and ingot
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.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

HWPH - Auction 31 and 32

HWPH Auction 31 - Part 1
image: Brau-Gesellschaft des Marktfleckens Stankau
Share of 200 Gulden Ö.W.
1874, Markt Stankau, now part of Czech Republic
double-click image to enlarge


HWPH catalogue showing share certificate of the steam navigation company on the Thuner and Brienzer lake
HWPH Auction 31 - Part 2 - 50 Highlights
image: Vereinigte Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft
 für den Thuner- und Brienzersee
nominative share for 500 Swiss Francs
1843, Thun, Switzerland


HWPH catalogue depicting Holsten brewery share certificate
HWPH Online Auction 32
image: Holsten Brauerei
Share of 1000 Mark - later overstamped into 400 Reichsmark
1909, Hamburg Altona, Germany



  • Date: 26 October 2013  - Auction 31 ;  28 October 2013 - Auction 32
  • Place: Auction 31, Wiesbaden, GERMANY 
  • Further info, see here


F.L.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Gould in Cleveland's Encyclopedia

The other day I was doing some research about the Gould Inc. company on the Internet. I came across an article on this webpage. It mentioned that the Gould company purchased in 1969 the Clevite Corporation which was a major supplier of ordnance and oceanographic equipment to the U.S. Navy. But it was the link at the bottom that caught my attention : BUSINESS, INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY . I could not resist that one, clicked it and bingo : an inventory page of more than 800 entries to articles about company histories, business people and technology topics related to Cleveland.

Gould Inc.
warrant to purchase common shares, hole-cancelled in 1969
printed by the Federated Banknote Company
double-click to enlarge image

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
Announced to the public in May 1998, the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, see here, brings us the history of greater Cleveland, Ohio. Maintained by Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and Western Reserve Historical Society, it is the first modern urban encyclopedia available on the World Wide Web. Thousands of articles, photographs, maps and multimedia files have been produced and provided by on-line editor John J. Grabowski, Krieger-Mueller Associate Professor of Applied History, together with graduate students from the Department of History at CWRU and volunteer writers outside of the university. The site contains an efficient search engine. Give it a try, let's say with the words railway and railroad, and you'll be amazed at the number of companies involved in Cleveland's railway history. A great research medium !

Cleveland Ship Building Company
Cleveland Ship Building Co.,
a forerunner of the American Ship Building Co., 1890

Source: Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
provided by Western Reserve Historical Society


F.L.

Related links


PS: Why the research on Gould Inc.
Well, I was interested in Gould's history in computer manufacturing. In 1981 Gould acquired Systems Engineering Laboratories, a designer and manufacturer of minicomputers, which became the Gould Computer Systems Division. Gould developed its "Reflective Memory" technology used in real-time computing which allowed up to eight computers to share memory at a very high speed. In 1983 a pair of Gould SEL 32/8780 minicomputers were used in SAIL, the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory in Houston, Texas, for the Space Shuttle simulator environment. 


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Archives International Auctions - Fall auction 2013


Archives International Auctions Part XVI
US and worldwide banknotes and scripophily,
autographs and security printing ephemera



stock certificate issued to and signed by Buffalo Bill Cody
Cody's Wyoming Coal Company
Common shares of $100, 1904
issued to and signed by William F. Cody "Buffalo Bill"
double-click to enlarge image




  • Date : 19 and 22 October 2013
  • Place : On 19 Oct at the Museum of American Finance, New York city; on 22 Oct at AIA's offices in Fort Lee, New Jersey
  • Further info : see here


Tip !
The first part of the auction is to be held in conjunction with the 3rd Annual Wall Street Coin, Currency & Collectibles Show, being held October 17th to 19th, 2013 at the Museum of American Finance ( 48 Wall Street, NYC )

F.L.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Spink Switzerland - Auction October 2013


Spink Switzerland - Bonds & Share Certificates of the World
image (double-click to enlarge) :
Berner Chocolade-Fabrik, Tobler & Co. A.G.
English: Bern Chocolate Factory Tobler & Co.
Share of 100 Francs, 1905
"Toblerone Jugendstil"


share certificate of the Basel Zoo
Actien-Gesellschaft des Zoologischen Gartens in Basel
English: Basel Zoological Garden Company
Duplicate nominative share of 250 Francs 1910, issued in 1975


  • Date: 19 October and 21 October 2013
  • Place: Lugano, Switzerland on 19 Oct (21 Oct is an online auction only)
  • More info: see here


F.L.





Saturday, October 5, 2013

Reference catalogue : Les Tramways Belges




  • Title : Les Tramways Belges - Catalogue des Titres de Sociétés Belges de Tramways dans le Monde, in English: Belgian Tramway Companies - Catalogue of Belgian Tramway Companies in the World
  • Author : Luc de Voghel, Alain Roba
  • ID : no ISBN number; published 1986 by Alain Roba
  • Languages : French
  • Number of pages : 71
  • Images : over 220 small black and white images
  • Index : 1. Chronological (main classification), 2. Geographical classification,


This book is the work of two Belgian pioneers in scripophily : Luc de Voghel and Alain Roba. The work consists of a list of Belgian tramway companies operating in Belgium and abroad and their bonds and shares. Bearing in mind that the list was compiled 37 years ago, it counts more than 150 of such companies. More than 220 certificates are depicted in, according to our modern standards, a not so good quality. Interesting to know, entries were derived from the collections of both authors, but also from another scripophily pioneer : collector Erik Boone.

The companies mentioned were operating in the following countries : Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Persia, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Siam, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey, Yugoslavia. 

The work concludes with an overview of Belgian tramway companies whose certificates were not surfaced yet on the collector's market at the time (1986). 

F.L.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Mario Boone - Auction 51



Live Internet and Mailbid Auction of Historic Shares and Bonds
image: Société Anonyme d'Horticulture et de Botanique de Gand,
Share of 100 Francs, 1835
double-click image to enlarge


Russian Company Ltd for Optical and Mechanical Manufactures (LOMO)
50 Shares of 100 Roubles, Petrograd (Saint Petersburg), 1916
text in Russian, French and English


  • Date: 12 October 2013
  • Place: not applicable, this is a live internet and mailbid auction
  • Further info, see here 


F.L.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

IBSS - Mail bid auction October 2013


The International Bond and Share Society, sets its next (members only) auction date to 11 October 2013. This auctions counts more than 200 lots from more than 30 countries.


share certificate of the Hungarian National Petroleum Company Ltd
Hungarian National Petroleum Company Limited
Ordinary shares of 1 Pound, 1920

double-click image to enlarge

  • Date : October 11, 2013
  • Place : not applicable, this is a mail bid auction only
  • Practical info, see here 
  • Auction catalogue can be downloaded here, and images of the lots are listed there 


F.L.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Clairette de Die


Characterized by peach and apricot flavours and rose and honeysuckle aromas
Usually drunk young at a maximum of two years, served chilled at a temperature of 6°C to 8°C


Menglon is one of the villages in the Diois producing Clairette de Die.
Vineyards are located on the hill side at the left.
double-click image to enlarge
source : Wikipedia contributer Minimoi30

Clairette de Die
In southeastern France lies Die, a small town in the Drôme department. Diois, the region around Die, counts hundreds of wine producers cultivating about one thousand five hundred hectares of vineyards. The making of the local sparkling wine, Clairette de Die, can be traced back over two thousand years. It is known that already around the 1700s two types of grape varieties formed the basis for its production: the Clairette Blanche and the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains. With the inauguration of the railway that linked Die to the line Paris-Lyon-Marseille in 1885, the market expanded further to the neighboring regions and took off in 1925 after the adoption of the Champenoise bottle. The Clairette received its first recognition with an appellation d'origine classification (AO) in 1910. The AOC, appellation d'origine contrôleé was established in 1942. 

Cave Coopérative de Clairette de Die, 1962
nominative certificate for 24 Shares of 5 Nouveaux Francs
printed by Imp. Reynard, Valence
double-click to enlarge image


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Spink USA - Auction October 2013


Spink USA - The Collector's Series
US and world coins, paper money, bonds and shares, autographs, books and more
This auction contains more than 100 scripophily lots,
of which a substantial part consists of Confederate States material.


Confederate States of America
Fifteen Million Loan, 1861
Ball-825, Cr. 140



  • Date: October 9-10 2013
  • Place: New York, USA
  • More info, see here


F.L.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Scripopily.Fi - Auction 16



Aktiebolaget Hotel Restaurant, English: Hotel Restaurant Company
1 Share of 1000 Finnish Mark, 1900, Helsingfors (Helsinki)
double-click image to enlarge


  • Date: until 22 September 2013
  • Place: not applicable, this is an online event
  • Further info, see here

F.L.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Poll Results - women versus men in scripophily - part 3 Influences and areas of Interest

Thirty-six collectors of antique stocks and bonds participated in a survey about collecting behavior. The goal was to find similarities and differences between men and women. In this third and final part of the review, you can read how collectors may get introduced into our hobby and what related areas of interest they may have. The first part of the review, "Interaction", can be read here, the second part, "Preferences" can be read there

share of the Crédito Cántabro, engraved by Antonio Roca y Sallent
Crédito Cántabro
1 share of 2000 Reales Vellon, unissued, Santander 1861
engraved by Antonio Roca y Sallent
source:
Artemon auction Sep 2013
double-click image to enlarge


How did you obtain your first historical bond or share ?
Top answer was 'I saw it on a show, bourse, flea market, ..'. With the exception of the three participating women, almost half of the whole group of participants (fourteen men) say that their first collectible was made at a public event such as a bourse or flea market. Bourse organizers : use social media to announce the event, put an ad in a local newspaper, and position a sign board on the sidewalk. With a bit of luck, a number of passers-by will be curious enough to enter the fair, start to like what they discover and become a collector.

Sharing more or less a second place are the answers 'An article in a magazine or a book, made me decide to start collecting' and 'I was looking for other collectibles and found a certificate'.

Five persons, which represent almost 14% of the group (four men and one women) also started collecting after they received a stock or bond as 'gift from a relative, a friend', ' a gift from a collegue or the boss'. Let me add to this selection also that one participant that 'accidentally found a certificate'. Sure, a surprise for everyone of them. This expands this group to six persons, or almost 17%. 

Double-click image to enlarge


Did you ever collect anything as a child ?
We already learned how our participants became a scripophily collector. But were they "born" to be a collector? Do they have a nose for collecting since childhood ? Yes they have!  All women and the larger part of the men have collected stuff as a child. In my case, I always seemed to have collected something. It started at the age of six with cigar labels, which I got from my grandfather. Soon I switched to stamps that my grandmother gave to me, and at the age of ten I started collecting coins, like my father. Two years later I collected minerals, like an uncle did. Each one of these collections lasted three years at most.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Artemon - Mail bid auction September 2013


Numismatics and Economical History - Artemon auction
The German catalogue contains about a hundred scripophily lots.
Share depicted on the front cover above: 
Astilleros del Mediterraneo, 1917, Barcelona
double-click image to enlarge


Share of the Credito Castellano company, engraved by Antonio Roca y Sallent, featured in Artemon auction
Crédito Castellano
1 Share of 2000 Reales Vellon, 1862
engraved by Antonio Roca y Sallent


  • Date : September 11, 2013
  • Place : not applicable, this is a mail bid auction only
  • Practical info, see here
  • Auction catalogue can be downloaded here

F.L.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Exhibition : Helsinki Stock Exchange 100 Years


My apologies for this very late notice, I found out about it only yesterday, 
but I still wanted to post this topic on the blog.


Until 1 September 2013, only a few more days left, the Bank of Finland Museum presents the 100 year history of the Helsinki Stock Exchange in a seasonal exhibition. On display are
  • original documents related to the history of the stock exchange
  • a nice collection of share certificates from Finnish companies

Yhtyneet Paperitehtaat Osakeyhtiö, share from 1920
English: United Paper Mills Ltd
source: Bank of Finland Museum
double-click image to enlarge

Practical info :
  • location :  Snellmaninkatu 2, Helsinki, Finland, see here 
  • duration : 29 January 2013 -  1 September 2013
  • opening hours : Tuesday to Friday, 11:00 - 17:00, Saturday to Sunday 11:00 - 16:00, closed on Mondays.
  • no entrance fee
  • Guided tours are available in Finnish, Swedish and English and are also free of charge

Further reference :

F.L.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Raab/Kürle - Auction 58

This scripophily auction contains 1189 lots.

Société Anonyme des
Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers à Monaco



  • Date: September 7, 2013
  • Place: Gelnhausen, Germany
  • More info: see here 


F.L.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Poll Results - women versus men in scripophily - part 2 Preferences

In part 2 of the poll's review we will have a look at the preferences that men and women have when they collect old bonds and shares. Do men and women show different preferences, or are these rather similar ?

original size of detail : about 1 cm x 1 cm
scan resolution : 300 dpi
no scaling

In part 1 you could read that 36 persons, including 33 men and 3 women, have answered more than twenty questions. Ten questions queried the participants about their preferences. The following five preferences were compared in pairs :
  • Scarcity
  • Beauty
  • A Good Bargain
  • Collection Completeness
  • Historical Significance

This resulted into ten possible combinations : scarcity-beauty, scarcity-a good bargain, et cetera . For each combination the participant was asked to choose between one of both, in other words which one he preferred. Let us no longer beat around the bush and have a quick look at their answers.



Scarcity versus Beauty
If you had to choose between Scarcity or Beauty, what would you choose ? Apparently the men prefer Scarcity above Beauty. Two of our three female participants prefer Beauty. But with a difference of only one female vote, on a total of three, it is not obvious to decide that the women in general prefer Beauty over Scarcity. So no clear conclusion can be made that applies to both genders.

double-click to enlarge images



Beauty versus A Good Bargain
If you are looking for a good bargain, then you will make a better investment. At least that is what you think.  Results :
  • men : Needless to say, this is a difficult choice. Men equally prefer both. 
  • women : There is no clear outcome; two of our three female participants prefer Beauty, unfortunately the number of participants is too small to decide that Beauty is preferred over A Good Bargain.


Collection Completeness versus Beauty
Not much doubt here, men mostly prefer Collection Completeness over Beauty. No clear and unambiguous outcome here as well for the women.