Old stock certificates often illustrate the purpose or type of business a company was in. As such, they act as a window into the past, making them valuable as historical documents.
Here's a nice example from The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company. It features two vignettes each depicting a vault with a map of British India in the background.
The Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company Limited, Karachi
stock certificate for 10 ordinary shares of 10 Rupees (5 Rupees paid)
This Hindusthan Safe Deposit Company share was issued to Hormusjee Ardeshir Mistri on the 2nd of April 1937 in Karachi. Now the capital city of the Pakistani province of Sindh, Karachi was then part of British India.
The company, incorporated in 1936, was managed by reputable businessmen like Homi Mehta, A. D. Shroff, and Messrs Doongursee & Sons. It provided safe deposit services and had its building on the McLeod Road in Karachi, today known as the I. I. Chundrigar Road.
The company's building and vault were designed by K. T. Divecha, an architect from Mumbai “on the most modern lines and provide up-to-date amenities. The vault is one of the strongest in India and was impregnable by the most skilled and persistent attacks of the scientific burglar. Particular care has been exercised to see that it does not become out-of-date when modern warfare breaks out. Local authorities have certified it as well designed to resist damages from bombs.”
The vault had a capacity of 5,000 lockers with a spacious and well-furnished waiting room provided for the clients. The basement was air-conditioned in order to give better protection to deposits against deterioration due to moisture. Apparently, the architect was forethoughtful about us scripophilists.
The certificate has a beautiful embossed seal showing a vault.
(image taken from the reverse)
The certificate has two vignettes, quite alike, depicting a robust vault door on a map of Hindhustan, commonly spelled as Hindustan or Hindostan. During the British Raj, which extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the term Hindusthan referred to the whole of the Indian subcontinent.
Note that the company was organized in 1936. Though partly shown on the map illustrated in the vignettes, Burma (now Myanmar) became a separated colony of Britain on 1 April 1937, just the day before this certificate was issued.
F.L.
This post is based on my article for Scripophily magazine No 127-April 2025, a publication by IBSS.
References: “The Colourful Personalities of Sind,”, M. U. Abbassi, 1944
