Two-Footers for sale at Spink New York

In The Numismatics Collector's Series sale, Spink will auction more than 800 lots of coins, medals and banknotes. Seventy-six lots from the US, Canada, China and Russia complete the scripophily section.

Lot 829 is a group of railroad bonds including a $500 dollar bond issued in 1901 by the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railroad. Two $100 dollar denominations from  the same issue and a 1908 $1000 bond from the Sandy River & Rangely Lakes Railroad complete the group. Both lines were nearly neighbours and were built as "Two-Footers".

Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Railroad Company
5% First Mortgage Gold Bond
$1,000,000 loan, 1901, due 1921
issued in denominations of $1000 $500 and $100

"Two Footers" are narrow-gauge railways which are cheaper to build. They require lighter construction, smaller tunnels and bridges, and use smaller cars and locomotives. Most narrow-gauges were built for industrial railways. The term (track) gauge refers to the distance between both rails. "Two-Footer" tracks were built with rails so close together that a pair of large shoes set "heel-to-toe" could span the distance between the rails. source: Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum

Auction  details

• Location : New York
• Dates : June 19-20, 2017
• More info : See here 

F.L.

Olympic history at AIA's upcoming Summer Auction 2017

Archives International Auctions announces details of their upcoming sale on Thursday June 15th 2017, at Fort Lee, New Jersey. The sale includes nearly 250 stocks and bonds spread over several sections such as China, imperial Russian specimen bonds, US Federal Bonds & Liberty Loans, State of Israel bonds, US City and US Railroad bonds and  more.

One of the remarkable items in the auction is a California Tenth Olympiad Bond Act of 1927 bond proof. The Act authorized a $1 million dollar loan to finance the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

$1000 bond proof "California Tenth Olympiad Bond Act of 1927"
Below the Olympic rings there is a motto printed : Citius, Altius, Fortius,
which is Latin for  Faster, Higher, Stronger.

The  Games of the X Olympiad took place during the Great Depression. There were no other cities that made a bid to host these Olympics, except for Los Angeles.  It was here that for the first time an Olympic Village was built, for male athletes. The Chapman Park Hotel was home to the female athletes. Another premiere introduced was the victory podium. These were the first Games that exceeded one million spectators. 

This proof bond offered in the auction is a historic Olympic item that helped finance the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Only two of these were found in archives as proofs, no specimens were found. The first one sold for $1400 in AIA's January 2007 auction.

Auction details

• Date : June 15, 2017
• Place : Fort Lee, NJ 
• Further info : see here, virtual catalogue see there and PDF version here 

F.L.