Archives International Auctions presents antique securities in upcoming March auction

Over the last 12 years Archives International Auctions has been offering banknotes, coins, scripophily, autographs and security printing ephemera in more than 50 auctions. Their next sale takes place on Tuesday, March 19th 2019 at their new offices in River Edge, New Jersey. The event marks also the launch of Archives International Middle East Auctions, AIA's new division which will specialize in banknotes and coins from Islamic countries.

Scripophily is substantial in this auction sale which includes 300 lots of antique stocks and bonds from the USA, Mexico, China and much more. Here are some stunning items from the American section.

Lot 892 : New York Telephone Company, 1909 $500 specimen bond 

Now part of Verizon, this company was organized in 1896 by the Bell Telephone Company to take over the operations of the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph and the Westchester Telephone companies. In 2001 the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center damaged the company's largest exchange building, now called the Verizon Building. 

Lot 583 : Arkansas State Telegraph Company, $50 shares, 1861 

Right from the start of the American Civil War, private telegraph companies played an important role in this conflict. Telegrams were used to transmit information from reconnaissance missions, reports on army units in contact with the enemy, or simply for asking a fellow officer to charter steam boats for troop transport. The Arkansas State Telegraph Company was one of the most important private telegraph companies of the Confederates. This share was issued on 1st of July 1861, only two months after Arkansas left the Union. Historic and extremely rare

Lot 767 : Wired Ventures, Inc., specimen stock, ca. 1993 

"IN THE FUTURE WE TRUST" is the motto printed vertically over the entire width on this Wired stock certificate. Founded in 1993 the magazine focuses on how new technologies affects culture, the economy, and politics. The term "Crowdsourcing" was coined in the magazine's June 2006 issue. More recently Wired discussed the 2018 Atlanta cyberattack in several much talked-about articles about cyberwarfare.  

There is much more to tell about this auction, but the most interesting way is to see for yourself. So here are the auction details :

• New Location : 1060 Main Street Suit 202, River Edge, New Jersey
• Date : 19 March 2019
• Further info : see here , live and absentee bidding here and a downloadable PDF catalogue there 

F.L.

SPINK to sell New Zealand stock at online auction

SPINK's next scripophily auction is set for October 17, 2018. This online sale counts about 500 lots of antique bonds and shares from the UK, Russia, China, Mexico, Egypt, USA and many more states. The auction starts with an important range of New Zealand scripophily.

The Land & Loan Company of New Zealand Limited provided credit for farmers and traders in wool and frozen sheep meat. Meat and dairy exports to Britain would form the basis for economic growth in New Zealand. Bids for this rare 1884 share, lot 15 in the auction, can start at £60. 

Detail from the Land & Loan Company of New Zealand certificate above. 
The vignette illustrates the company seal showing a ship and sheep. The vignette's design is skillfully repeated in the company's embossed seal. 
Click image to enlarge. 

Bonds and shares from New Zealand are hardly seen at auctions. SPINK included this time more than sixty lots. Among the highlights you can find a share from the Dunedin Stock Exchange, L(ot) 13. The New Zealand Times Company share, L18 in the auction, issued in Wellington, 1900, may be purchased from £120. Some certificates show a Māori vignette, such as L39 and L40, two different types from The London & New Zealand Exploration Company, but also on a Taitapu Gold Estates certificate from 1899, L54.

From Timaru, located on New Zealand's South Island, this £10 share in the Timaru Landing and Shipping (Limited), L57, was issued in 1868. Equally rare and early, it is estimated at £120-150. 

The Far East section contains mainly lots from China. An uncancelled Shanghai Power Company share, L139, printed by American Bank Note Co, with text in Chinese and English, starts from £180. L141 is a 200 silver dollar share in the Tai Seng Opium Firm from Macau, dated 1918. £400 may buy you this extraordinary topic in scripophily. The section counts many Chinese government loans offered either in group lots or as a single item such as a 1912 5% Gold 'Crisp' Loan, bond for £1000, L99.

L137, two shares from the Shanghai Land Investment Company, incorporated in Hong Kong, show a Chinese workman painting a house at the top of a ladder. Both certificates, signed by philantropist Sir Horace Kadoorie, can be acquired from £80. 

Some twenty lots of African company securities are next, often richly decorated, e.g. L170 Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de Fer Éthiopiens,  L172 Compagnie Générale de l'Afrique Française, French Congo, L174 Charterland Goldfields Limited, Rhodesia.

The Ottoman Company Limited, formed in 1865 to finance the Bank of Turkey, failed the following year as a result of the Panic of 1866. Its £20 share, 1865, printed by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co, has one of the finest engravings in scripophily. L159, in the auction, estimated at £50-60.

Great Britain contains over 50 lots including several pre-Irish independence ones. L253, The Derby Canal Company share, printed on vellum, with waxed paper seal and rare, was issued in 1793.  L269, a trio, contains a share in The Atlantic Royal Mail Steam Navigation Co Ltd, 1860, wonderful vignette of a paddle steamer and issued to "The Most Honorable The Marquis of Clanricarde of Portumna Castle County Galway" (sic). Another share, from The Boy Messengers and Electric Call Company, L273, is signed by Patrick Bowes-Lyon, uncle of Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who won the mens doubles Wimbledon championship in 1887. Modestly estimated at £40-50.

The Navan and Kingscourt Railway Company opened the section that connected the Irish towns of Kingscourt and Navan in 1875, at that time still part of Great Britain. This £10 share, issued 1871, Dublin, is part of a trio, L297 in the auction. 

The sale covers many other European countries. E.g. collectors of 18th century securities will be impressed by the caligraphy and the fine printing of the company seal on a Canal de Richelieu share from 1753, L206, bids welcomed from £200 onwards. Lots of Art Nouveau, Jugendstil and Belle Époque material ready for the block, such as a Théatre-Concert du Moulin-Rouge share from 1904, with the famous windmill logo's inclusive, £80, L220.

The SPINK auction features scripophily from the Confederate States of America as well. This $100,000 5% treasury note, was issued in the last months of the American Civil War on February 1, 1864, Richmond. Click the image and see the enlarged sailing ship vignette. L381, estimated £120 to £150. 

Matching time zones, scripophily from The Americas tops off the sale with over 150 lots. Bidding can start at £140 for an extremely early Peruvian Treasury Loan issued during the Peru's fight for independence from Spain, L368. A specimen share from the Canadian Western Lumber Company, with felled timber in the vignette, was printed circa 1910 by Waterlow & Sons, L358. Catalogued on Coxrail.com as LAC-360-B-30, the only one known, L422, a $1000 bond in the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Rail-Road Company, 1855, can possibly be snapped up for £80.

Banco de Buenos Aires, share of 10 Pesos, 1911, with a nowadays controversial but mega underprint scene of natives listening to a conquistador with priest. L346 in the auction. 

You can find more of these fascinating stocks and bonds in the SPINK online catalogue. Here are the auction details :

• date : 17 October 2018, 11:00 AM
• location : online auction
• online catalogue and further info, see here  

F.L.

Scripophily magazine reveals early Fiji scripophily

The International Bond & Share Society (IBSS) recently launched its 105th issue of Scripophily magazine. IBSS started 40 years ago and since then has been encouraging collecting of antique securities. The society publishes its flagship, Scripophily magazine,  three times a year and also offers a free newsletter.

This time the magazine counts over 50 pages illustrated with more than 100 images of bonds and shares.  An overview of the stories :

• Digging scripophily at the Carrera Marble Quarries 
• "Numismatics, meet Scripophily" exhibit at the American Numismatic Association Convention 
• The Newport Casino 
• Rogues Gallery, extract from Hollender's Financing the World
• Scripophily of the Gold Coast and Ghana 
• Animal vignettes 
• U.S. Presidents on Scripophily 
• Profile and history of the Warner Company 
• Southern Revenue-stamped stock certificates of the Civil War Era, part II 
• "Selling the Stock", about the use of securities as advertising and promotion material 
• The New York Produce Exchange 
• Cox's Corner, the periodical column on our hobby 

Other recurring topics are : society matters, news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews, interviews, letters to the editor and the like. 

The auction section includes tens of reports from sales in Australia, Belgium, China, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, UK and USA. Noted top sellers were shares from the Compagnie des Indes, Bank of China and a BMW founder's specimen share. The magazine provides more details on these and hundreds of other lots auctioned over the past months worldwide. One eyecatcher was a Fiji share sold by Downies, Australia, illustrated below.

Downies 324th sale ran from 18th to 20th July 2017. The auction took place in Box Hill, Victoria, Australia, and included a remarkable, early Fijian share certificate from The Polynesia Company, Limited. 

The Polynesia Company, Limited 

certificate for £2 shares, 1869 

An alert collector purchased this early Fiji scripophily 

for (only) A$120, buyer's premium not included. 

image : Downies

Before Fiji became a British colony in 1874, its government was dominated by European settlers. The Polynesia Company incorporated 7th Dec 1868 after purchasing around 200,000 acres of land around Suva in Fiji. The land was bought from local chiefs including warlord Cakobau, a former cannibal before he was christened in 1854. Because of the rising price of cotton following the American Civil War (1861-1865), the company had become interested in acquiring land in Fiji for planting cotton. However, several legal issues arose when it turned out that the land Cakobau had sold was not completely his to give. 

Not a member of IBSS yet ?
Then these links should help you out :

•  International Bond & Share Society 
•  free sample of Scripohily magazine 
•  free newsletter 
•  IBSS on Facebook 

F.L.

AIA's 44th Auction features hundreds of early US, Chinese and Worldwide stocks and bonds

Nearly 150 years after issue, a bond from The Franklin Silver Mining Company of Colorado, carrying a high content of American history, turns up in Bob Schwartz' upcoming auction of Banknotes, Scripophily, Coins and Security Printing Ephemera. 

The Franklin Silver Mining Company was established in 1868 near Idaho Springs, Colorado. Its Franklin Lode was a large and rich vein of solid mineral. By 1906 the mine produced over a million dollars. The company's bond, lot 831 in the auction, is signed by Civil War hero Benjamin Franklin Fisher.

Sixty of these gold ink printed $100 bonds were part of a $60,000 loan
 issued in 1869 by The Franklin Silver Mining Company of Colorado.
The bond was "convertible into the stock of the corporation at its par value,
and redeemable at the option of the company at any time after three years."
Signed by civil war hero Benjamin Franklin Fisher as the company's President.
Click image to enlarge

Two months after the outbreak of the American Civil War, Benjamin Franklin Fisher (1834-1915) went into service as 1st Lieutenant, Company H, 3rd Pennsylvania Reserves in June 1861. He was detached to the Signal Corps where he produced intelligence reports from observation posts. Promoted to the rank of Captain, he commanded a detachment of signallers from February 1862 with General Hooker, and on the Peninsular Campaign under McClellan. During the movement to Chancellorsville Capt. Fisher was the first to detect and report Confederate General Lee's movements up the Rappahannock river at the beginning of the campaign into Pennsylvania. 

On June 17, 1863, while tailing Confederate lines near Aldie, Virginia, Fisher was captured and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond. There he was joined by Lieutenant Causten, his future brother-in-law. On February 9, 1864, 109 prisoners tunneled out of Libby Prison, including Fisher and Causten. That night they passed guards unnoticed, hided through the day in the thickets and the swamp jungles of the Chickahominy river, and continued their escape at night time. Both endured a two-day lasting snow storm and evaded search parties for several days. Then on February 18, they ran into the enemy and were shot at. His future brother-in-law was recaptured but Fisher escaped and found his way to Union lines at Williamsburg, February 21 1864. Fisher, Brevetted Brigadier General, resigned November 15, 1866 and started practising law in Philadelphia.

US, Chinese, Middle Eastern & Worldwide Banknotes,
Scripophily, Coins, and Security Printing Ephemera
featuring additional selections from the
Alexander I. Progrebetsky Family Archives of Rare Chinese Banknotes

Archives International Auctions' 44th sale takes place on Tuesday, August 29th, at Fort Lee, New Jersey. The sale includes about 300 antique stocks and bonds spread over several sections such as Chinese government bonds, treasury bills from Russia, US mining, US railroads and much more.

Auction details

• Date : August 29, 2017
• Place : Fort Lee, NJ 
• Further info : see there and PDF version of the catalogue here 

F.L.

Archives International Auctions - part XXXI

Lot 397 Confederate States Bond 500 Pounds - 12,500 Francs.

"Erlanger Cotton" Loan, 1863

-

Emile Erlanger & Co., a French finance and investment company, 

tried to raise a $15,000,000 loan in Europe for the Confederate States. 

Because of the American Civil War, Confederate currency had practically 

become worthless in Europe. To make the loan attractive to buyers, 

the bond could be converted into a pre-specified quantity of cotton

 ... which was located in the Confederacy. 

As the Union tried to cut off all the Confederacy's overseas trading. 

this was a challenge but also an opportunity for a blockade runner.

-

Start price $280.

Archives International Part XXXI

U.S. & Worldwide Banknotes, 

Scripophily & Security Printing Ephemera

• Date : Feb 23, 2016
• Place : Fort Lee, NJ 
• Further info : see here

F.L.

IBSS - Mail bid auction January 2015

The International Bond and Share Society, sets its next (members only) auction date to 30 January 2015. This auctions counts 199 lots, representing more than 30 countries and an equal number of themes.

Confederate States of America
$1000 Bond for $1000
Loan Act of 20 February 1863
vignette of Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
Printed by Archer and Daly
(see also note below)

• Date : January 30, 2015
• 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.

NB:

I've looked up the CSA bond shown above in Criswell's Currency Series Vol II Confederate and Southern State Bonds, 1961 edition. The book catalogued the certificate as Cr. 122 with a rarity number of 4 on a scale between 1 and 11 with the  latter used only for semi-unique pieces.

The accompanying Price List and Supplement, dated 1964, estimated the certificate at 20 USD. 1964, that is 50 years ago. Today, according to some online inflation calculator tools like this one and that one, it would represent something like a 150 USD. The certificate, lot 168 in this IBSS auction, has a modest start price of 45 GBP.

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.

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.