Antwerp Hilton hosts Boone's auction of historic share certificates.

Mario Boone's 72nd auction features more than 1500 lots of scripophily from all over the world. The word scripophily is a contraction of the English word “scrip”, a certificate entitling ownership right, and the Greek word "φίλος" (philos), meaning "friend". It refers to the field of collecting of antique stocks and bond certificates.

This 1905 share from the Grands Magasins du Printemps tells us what this famous department store from Paris stood for: "Bon Marché - Qualité -Nouveauté - Élégance", in English: Cheap - Quality - Novelty - Elegance. Today a chain of department stores, Printemps offered high quality goods at prices affordable for the middle class. The store pioneered with discount sales to clear outdated stock, and used window models to display the latest fashions. L(ot) 350 in the auction starts at €200 

Two auction catalog volumes are available online and can be downloaded separately as PDF documents. Nearly all of the 180 pages in the main catalog include color images and background stories of the certificates to be hammered. For easy retrieval purposes, search indexes help the collector on his quest for engravers, artists, security printers, Belgian provinces, more than 80 countries and an equal number of special interest themes. 

The TOP 80 auction highlights are documented in a separate volume with bigger pictures and more detailed descriptions. 

This fascinating share in the merchant frigate Le Saint Philippe was signed by its captain Jean Daragorry in 1746. At this time it was the practice to finance the fitting-out of a ship on a one voyage at a time basis.  Le Saint Philippe, equiped with 18 6-pound ball cannons and a crew of 80, sailed under Spanish flag to Campeche and Tabasco in Mexico. At this date, France and Spain were at war with England over the Austrian Succession. Lot 786 is one of the Top 80 highlights of the sale and is expected to realize at least €2,400. 

The auctioneer managed to present some old collections that now have become available to the market including Belgian coal mining, British Railroads, Belgian Trams in Italy, Chile and Brazil. Some of these (check the catalog) are first offered as a complete collection in one single group lot. Only if no bids are received for the complete collection the individual certificates will be auctioned one by one. 

The auction features a few airline stock certificates. This is L1518, a nominative share from the Navegação Aérea Brasileira, issued in Rio de Janeiro, 1941. The certificate is listed at a €50 start price, a steal if you ask me, but it may be hammered as part of a collection of 393 Brazilian securities, L862, that is first offered as a single group at €7000. 

The Boone auction will take place at a new venue, the Hilton Old Town hotel in the heart of Antwerp. It was built in neoclassicism style in 1859 and served as a hotel and department store. You might want to spend a weekend in Antwerp because the day after the auction a scripophily bourse is organized by Guy Bertrand at the same place.

This stock was issued in 1918 to Elizabeth Huidekoper, the wife of Henry P Kidder, co-founder of Kidder, Peabody & Co. A regular donor to charity causes she also made gifts to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The certificate is also signed by Alice Evelyn Hay Wadsworth, known for her "Wadsworthy" tactics. Both women were high-society figures. The Woman Patriot Publishing Company was a publisher of The Woman Patriot, a "National Newspaper for the Home and National Defense Against Woman Suffrage, Feminism and Socialism". L1218, a rare stock representing a remarkable era in the field of women’s rights and American suffrage, starts at €240. 

There is a lot to discover, so here are the auction details :

• Location: Antwerp, Belgium (new venue: Antwerp Hilton Old Town)
• Date:  27 April, 2024 
• Further info: online catalog & bidding, see here on the auctioneer's website, or via the Invaluable platform, see there. The two PDF catalogs can be downloaded from the auctioneer's site.

F.L.

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FHW auctions the Gottfried Schultz collection of worldwide automobile securities

Freunde Historischer Wertpapiere (FHW) has scheduled its 123rd sale for March 4, 2023. This time the auctioneer selected nearly 2000 lots of historic bonds and share certificates. 

FHW reserved major sections for scripophily from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, the German DM era, and the USA. Over 400 lots from previous auctions are grouped in a "50% from previous callout" section. On top of that about 900 lots of automobile related securities will attract the attention of collectors worldwide. 

In 1928 Harry J. Wolfington signed this stock certificate from Alex. Wolfington's Son, Inc., as President. At the age of 14 he joined the carriage body business founded in 1876 by his father Alexander. Seeing business opportunities with the rise of the automobile, he turned to the production of bodies for luxurious buses and carbodies for Stutz, Pierce-Arrow and Duesenberg. The latter's convertible 1929 Phaeton Royale is legendary. L(ot) 725 starts at €750 and is part of the Schultz automobile collection. 

The bulky Automobile section includes nearly 900 lots of antique securities from lesser known companies but also resounding names appear on the block such as : L923 Duesenberg Automobile and Motors, L1059 Hansa-Lloyd Werke, L1116 Hispano Suiza, L1329 Rolls-Royce and L1491 Automobiles Delahaye.  Food for specialists!

No doubt two top pieces in FHW's Automobile section are a 1908 share from the Établissements De Dion-Bouton, L957, signed by Georges Bouton, as well as a 1919 bond from the same company with facsimile signature of Albert De Dion, L958. In 1900 De Dion-Bouton was the largest automobile manufacturer in the world. Its cars and engines were all being made by hand; the assembly line had not yet been introduced. 

A major part of the offerings consists of antique bonds and shares from Germany with pre- and post-DM eras each in a dedicated section. Some examples:

• L1621, a specimen share from the Credit-Bank Nürnberg eGmbH, 1924, large underprint of building, originating from a sample book printed by the Universitätsdruckerei H. Stürtz, Würzburg
• A 1837 interim share in the Rhein-Weser-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft depicts a train entering a tunnel. Daring for the time! Early and only certificate known. L1682
• L1722, Basalt-Actien-Gesellschaft aka Basalt-AG extracts basalt, limestone, sandstone, granite and other rock from quarries in Germany and Europe. A large vignette on its DM100 share, 1973, depicts a worker handling basalt chunks.

The world's first passenger airline, Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG), was organized in 1909 as a subsidiary of the Zeppelin airship construction company. DELAG's airships made air travel possible first between Germany's cities, later to the Mediterranean and then across the Atlantic with destinations in the US and South America. Its LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin measured over 230 meters long and cruised at 117km/h with a 15,000 kg payload. In 1929 it made a round-the-world flight (including stops) in 21 days, the fastest circumnavigation of the globe at the time. This share was printed by Osterrieth in 1910. L1626 

There is a lot to discover in the sale. Here are the details :

• Location : The event takes place at the company headquarters in Wolfenbüttel.
• Date : 4 March, 2023
• Further info, see here; PDF catalog see there; live bidding is possible through https://connect.invaluable.com/dwa/  

FHW's 123rd auction includes a Austro-Hungarian Empire section, L18 through L209. However, this 1895 share in the Magyar Folyam- és Tengerhajózási Részvény Társasag (Hungarian River and Sea Shipping Joint Stock Company) can be found in the "50% from previous callout" section.  

F.L.

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"Auction Explosion!" says Scripophily magazine

Scripophily is the world’s most comprehensive and insightful publication for passionate collectors and active researchers of antique securities. 

The magazine uncovers the stories and features of historic and artistic securities. It brings tales of famous and forgotten business plot twists and memorable personalities. In addition, reports from the auction markets help you to stay up-to-date.

Scripophily, a three-yearly periodical, printed on high quality paper, is the flagship of The International Bond and Share Society (IBSS). 

Here is an overview on the topics brought in the latest issue :

• Events Calendar 
• Michigan Copper Mining Stock Discovered
• Boone To Celebrate 40 years with International Scripophily Event in Antwerp
• Earliest known German Stock Hammered Down at 72,000 Euros
• Bang-Up Scripophily at Bonhams New York
• National Show Back on Track! (27 & 28 Jan 2023, Crown Plaza-Dulles Airport)
• Banks in Transition: From Counters to Apps (Swiss Finance Museum new exhibition) 
• Address on Stock Leads to Present Day 
• eBay Seller Name Fraudulently Used to Pitch Scam
• Letter to the Editor 
• Lingenfelter Collection Donated to the University of California at San Diego 
• EDHAM wins Wikipedia Award and awards Professor Wanner Prize 
• $2.4 Million for one Bond (Marchel Duchamp at Christie's)
• The Winpennys of Manyunk
• Specialization in Our Hobby
• Deutsche Bank Part III: Shares in Deutsche Bank as a Mirror of German Currency History
• W. Y. O. D. and Other Strange Mining Company Names
• Modernizing Certificates 
• Agua Suja Mining Co., Ltd - Diamonds in Brazil 
• Charles Yerkes and the West Chicago Street Railroad

Until 2010 LLoyd Aéreo Boliviano was the principal airline of Bolivia. Founded in 1925, LAB is one of the earliest airlines in the world. This share, issued in 1926 La Paz, sold in HWPH's Sep 2022 auction for €160. 

In its current issue Scripophily reports on exceptional auction activity from recent months. Five-digit amounts are hammered for top historic items, such as:

• John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Company founders' stock certificate (Bonhams, $28,000)
• the oldest known German share certificate from the Embden Asiatic Company which traded with China (FHW, €72,000)
• Oost-Indische Compagnie aka V.O.C. bond (HWPH, €40,000)
• the oldest loan of the City of Antwerp from 1558 (Booneshares, €36,000) 
• Nikola Tesla owned share in the Nikola Tesla Company (Bonhams, $28,000) 
• and a share owned by Frederick-William III of Prussia (HWPH, €25,000) 

More details and images on these recent scripophily highlights, and many other discoveries, can be found in the 48 pages counting December issue.

Subscribing to IBSS's magazine costs you only £28, $35 or €32. What are you waiting for ?

All the info can be found here .

F.L.

Previous posts

• The most expensive share sold at auction in 2021 
• Banks in Transition : from Counters to Apps (exhibition)

HWPH auctions Friedrich Wilhelm III scripophily, a VOC bond from the Dutch Golden Age and nearly 2000 lots of historic stock certificates.

Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG (HWPH) scheduled its next double-session sale for 3 and 4 September 2022. For this occasion specialist Matthias Schmitt and his team brought together some 2,000 lots of scripophily and related documents . 

Included are several top-notch items such as a unique share from the Preussische See-Assecuranz-Compagnie issued to King Frederick William III of Prussia and one of the oldest securities from the mother of all joint stock companies, a Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie bond from 1623. 

L(ot) 568 in the auction is this wonderful share from the Actien-Verein für den zoologischen Garten zu Dresden. The Dresden Zoo opened in 1861 and was bombed in World War II by the Allies. Reopened in 1946 it now welcomes about 1 million visitors per year. This 50 thaler share from 1863 starts at €1800. 

The first leg of the auction is both a live and an online event and takes place in Zorneding, near Munich. The second part is an online only sale and happens the next day. 

A major part of the offerings consists of antique bonds and shares from Germany, spread over several sections in both parts of the event. Among several German highlights you'll find these two :

• A radical democratic anti-monarchist, Gustave Struve's Gesellschaft deutscher Republikaner tried to finance the German revolutions of 1848-1849 with the issue of bonds. L515 is one of these rare certificates. Illustrated with several allegorical vignettes, it is propably the earliest known scripophily showing the colors of Germany's flag.
• AEG, worldwide known today for its eponymous home appliances brand, originated as the Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektrizität. The auction features a 1883 share from this company, L538. The company changed its name change into Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft. L539 is a share, 1887, from the first issue using the new name. Both are extremely rare. 

Perhaps the most spectacular object in HWPH's auction is this share in the Preussische See-Assecuranz-Compagnie. The company provided insurances against sea and fire risks and was organized in Szczecin, Poland, then capital of the Prussian Provence of Pomerania. The share shows a three-master with the flag of Prussia (click image) and is issued in 1825 to Frederick William III King of Prussia (1797-1840). He joined the coalition against Napoleon, and unified the Protestant churches in Prussia. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II are two of his grandchildren. L546, a unique historic document from Germany's and Poland's prehistory, is expected to realize €25,000 

The sale includes many more lots from all over the world. The auction's online catalog allows searching for your interests by means of country as well as thematic indexes. I tried out Luftfahrt (aviation) which refered to several airline companies : 

• Linhas Aereas Paulistas S.A. (LAP), Brazil map vignette, L68
• Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, L69, La Paz, aircraft vignette
• Badisch-Pfälzische Luft-Hansa A.G. Mannheim, L221
• Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, L734
• Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd., L770 and L771

Founded as Pan American Airways in 1927, Pan Am became the largest international airline of the USA in the 20th century. Its advertisements and so-called "Clippper" airplanes featured in movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Live and Let Die, Blade Runner and Catch Me If You Can. The company ceased operations in 1991 and reincarnated several times. The Pan Am Corporation owned and controlled the airline and services division. This share was issued in 1998 to scripophily pioneer Wilhelm H. Kuhlmann. Bidding on L1761 starts at €50  

There is plenty to discover in HWPH's auction catalogs. The live auction concludes with a meeting for EDHAC members. Here are the details of the event:

• Dates
• 3 September 2022, Zorneding, Germany, public auction
• 4 September 2022, online auction
• Further info and catalogs, see here on HWPH. 
• Live bidding is possible through Invaluable.com, see here, where you can find high quality images of the lots.

Collectors of 18th century scripophily, and even older items, will find more than 50 entries in their category. The most iconic lot is a 1623 bond for 1000 Flemish Pounds from the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (V.O.C.), aka Oost-Indische Compagnie aka Dutch East India Company.  Securities from this historic company are extremely rare and considered the crème de la crème in our field. Why can be read on this blog here. In 2019 HWPH auctioned a similar bond, issued for 500 Flemish Pounds, at €46,000 without buyer's premium. L500 starts at €40,000. 

F.L.

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Gigantic : Moody's Industrial Manual

"Moody's Industrial Manual for 1963 is the most comprehensive source of information on industrial corporations and enterprises available to the banker, investor, analyst and business executive."

Introduction, Moody's Industrial Manual 1963

The Moody's manuals are a treasure for scripophily researchers. They contain tons of information about the companies from which we collect antique stocks and bonds.

The American John Moody (1868 – 1958) was a financial analyst and investor. In 1900 he published his first manual providing details and ratings of company and government bonds. In 1909 he founded Moody's Investors Service to produce yearly manuals like the one illustrated here. 

Featured in the Industrial Manuals are thousands of profiles of industrial companies, mainly from the USA but also from Canada, Great Britain and other countries. For instance, Siemens & Halske, Honda Motor Co., Heijn (Albert), Ontario Steel Products Co., SIMCA Industries, Rolls-Royce and Montecatini are a few of the many non-American entries in the illustrated 1963 edition.

Here's an excerpt from a profile from the Stanley Aviation Corp, an aircraft equipment manufacturer. This is one of the smallest entries in the book. Medium-sized and large companies are listed with much bigger profiles, up to several pages. For instance, R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., is described in four pages; E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. fills six pages.

The entries consists of : a company history, its capital structure, background, mergers and acquisitions, company name changes, subsidiairies, plants and properties, employee statistics, officers and directors, business activities and products, operating statistics, balance sheets, and much more. 

These books are gigantic. Issue 1963 measures about 21,5x28,5 cm, or 8.5x11.2 inch, and counts 3028 pages. It's thickness is 10,5 cm or 4.1 inch. It weighs 5 kg or 11 lbs. Don't put any of these on your flatbed scanner ! Some year editions are even bigger and consist of two volumes : monstrous. 

Illustrated below is an extract from the Alphabetical Index in the 1963 edition. The index section counts 114 pages with each page referring to about 130 company names ! 

I use manuals like this for looking up company details and identifying hard to read signatures. Let's try this with a 1960s specimen share from The Bendix Corporation. 

The manual has three pages on this company: 

"Incorporated in 1929 as the Bendix Aviation Corp., the company adopted its present name in 1960. Bendix and its subsidiaries produce a wide line of aviation, automotive, missile, electronic, marine, space and automation products, .."

What about the signature of Bendix' chairman ? Note that this is a facsimile signature, which is a reproduction by engraving, printing (like this example) or stamping of the manual signature.

The manual lists for Bendix over twenty officers and directors. One of them, our match, is listed both as Exec. Vice-President and Director : A. P. Fontaine. This information in turn allows me to find out more about the person :

Athanas P. Fontaine (1905-1989) was a pioneering airplane designer. After graduating in aeronautical engineering, he helped designing the Aeronca C-1, the first lightweight passenger plane in the US. An aircraft designer and project engineer he worked for several aircraft companies such as Fairchild Aircraft Corp and Republic Aircraft Corp. 

A. P. Fontaine headed Bendix' aircraft division in 1944 but left in 1946 and returned in 1952 to become director of engineering. He was chairman and chief executive of Bendix from 1965 to 1972. source: The New York Times, May 17, 1989

These books are valuable research tools. Unfortunately very few have been digitized. On this Moody's Manual Wikipedia page you'll find several links to editions from the 1910s and 1920s. A few of them actually lead to a fully browsable digitized version.

F.L. 

Previous posts

• The smallest company in terms of equity capital, is it ? 
• Collecting antique stock certificates ? Go to the next level with Scripophily magazine ! 

The smallest company in terms of equity capital, is it ?

How much money do you need to start up a company ? How much money do you need to organize an airline ? Apparently, not that much.

Here is a share certificate from Croydon Airways Limited. The company was organized with a capital of only £100. 

The world's first airport air traffic control system with control tower and radio position-fixing procedures was developed at Croydon Airport. During the interwar period Croydon Airport was UK's only international airport, the home base of Imperial Airways. 

Former Surrey Flying Services pilot Tim Woods founded Croydon Airways in 1936. The business owned two De Havilland Dragonfly airplanes. Flight services to Paris were provided. 

The company's capital was divided into 100 £1 shares. Take a look at the certificate's image above. The certificate bears serial number 1 and represents 50 shares. In other words, it stands for 50% of the company's capital. 

The Croydon–Le Bourget route (to Paris) was then the busiest in the world. Yet, the company was already in receivership the next year. Undercapitalization may have been the reason.

F.L.

Do you know of shares from even smaller capitalized companies ?

Previous posts 

• Collecting antique stock certificates ? Go to the next level with Scripophily magazine ! 
• An Albatros from Ukraine 

Shall we take the car, the plane, or the boat ?

Recently I was surprised by a vintage stock certificate. Its design was rather plain featuring an eagle vignette, frequently seen on American scripophily. But the name of the issuing company was SPACETRONICS, INC., and that was enough to get my attention.

My first guess was that the company developed radar equipment, missile guidance systems or something like that. But that turned out not to be the case. 

This story is about Walter A. Crowley (1917-2008). As an engineer he worked at General Motors, and later at Chrysler on guidance systems for missiles. Crowley also designed and built a Benson Gyrocopter but after two crashes he aimed his research at 'flight without height'. 

Crowley observed that blowing air into the center of a conical lampshade would cause it to rise and hover steadily above any surface, including water. In 1957 he developed an air cushion vehicle that could traverse land or sea without physical contact. 

A first test flight, or you could say test ride, occured in an in-house experiment with Crowley's ten year old son as the test pilot. Other prototype vehicles and outdoor tests followed. In the mean time he formed his Hydro-Air Transportation Company and filed a patent in 1958.

In this period Carl W. Bollum Sr. worked at the Washington office of the Army Ballistic Missiles Agency. Bollum was sent out to learn about Crowley's ideas. But, unlike himself, his office did not show further interest. 

Soon after Bollum left the army he founded Spacetronics. The company incorporated on October 8, 1958, under the laws of the District of Columbia. Spacetronics was located at Bethesda, Maryland, less than 10 miles away from Washington, D.C. Bollum was chairman of the board and president. 

Spacetronics acquired Crowley's company and its related patents and rights. In return Bollum promised to provide capital to develop Crowley's ideas. He hired Crowley as chief engineer and appointed him vice president. 

In that period the US Navy got interested in the so-called "ground-cushion phenomenon". Hearings sessions took place before the Committee on Science and Astronautics at the House of Representatives on 13, 14 and 15 April, 1959. Several projects on air cushion vehicles were discussed. The key people from Spacetronics were invited to present their developments. Other projects screened involved those from the Ford Motor Company and the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, among others.

At the start of the hearings, Admiral R. Bennett, Chief of Naval Research, USN, explained why the Navy and the Marine Corps was interested :  

"... such a ground proximity machine, used as an amphibious transport or an assault boat, with a low silhouette and moderate load-lifting capability would be extremely valuable in accelerating the ship-to-shore movement. Traveling 4 or 5 feet over the wave tops at speeds up top 50 mph and capable of negotiating beaches up to 15 percent slope, the vehicle would present a far less vulnerable target than our present craft ..."

Bollum, president of Spacetronics, knew how lucrative military contracts could be. His company built a heavy-duty prototype vehicle for the US Marine Corps. The machine could achieve a ground clearance of nearly 12 inches and was stable even as a dozen men moved around its deck. 

This Hydro-Air vehicle, aka a ground effect machine, built by Spacetronics, Inc.,  is designed for traversing swampy ground, snow or ice. A flexible skirt enables it to cross many obstructions. The horizontal propeller behind the driver maintains pressure in the hollow body. 

source: Aviation Week 1959-01-12, via the Internet Archive  

The company gets national coverage after The New York Times, on Sunday, October 11, 1959, publishes a special news article "Flying Platform Planned in U.S." :

A Washington concern announced last week that it was building a flying platform as a prototype for a cargo-carrying craft that would skim over water on an air cushion. The "Hydro-Air" vehicle, being built by Spacetronics, Inc., is similar to the Saunders-Roe Hovercraft that is under test in Britain. The American craft is scheduled to be unveiled next month.
When completed, the prototype will be tear-drop shaped, thirty-two feet long, twenty-four feet wide and two feet high. A horizontal propeller at the forward section will pump air downward to lift the craft just off the water. With aft-mounted fans, for forward propulsion, the vehicle will attain speeds up to fifty miles an hour, it was said.
Officials reported that there were essentially two designs for providing lift for such a vehicle. One is a "pelum chamber" [sic; should be 'plenum chamber' ], used on the Spacetronics craft, to provide a billowing volume of air, and the other "annular jets which gain lift by directing a curtain of air at the water surface", he said. The latter is the method used on the Saunders-Roe craft.

Around the same time the British worked on a much larger commercial vehicle, the "hovercraft, based on the earlier work by Christopher Cockerell and produced by the Sanders-Roe company. 

Both Cockerell's and Crowley's prototypes could not spark more military interest. Two main problems of these early crafts were inaccurate steering control and the stirring up of dust on land.

In 1960 the Spacetronics owners moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, with the intention to produce a commercial-type model for fishermen. 

They had some big ideas. In The International Teamster (a union magazine), issue Oct 1960, you can read that the company was designing a big cargo air truck. Allegedly Southern Airways, Inc., had ordered two of these from Spacetronics, envisioning trucking cargo over water on regular scheduled runs between Miami and the Bahama Islands.

Another far reaching idea from Spacetronics shows a train riding air cushions on a concrete rail

source: Popular Mechanics 1960-06: Volume 113, Issue 6, via the Internet Archive 

It is not clear what happened next, but the company was suddenly dissolved. Yet, Bollum still believed in the potential of Crowley's ideas. You can see here that in 1963 Bollum filed a patent for an "earth-skimming air vehicle" mentioning his name as the inventor.  

Walter A. Crowley went to develop new air cushion concepts at American Machine and Foundry in Stamford, Connecticut. In 1961 the Boeing Company hired him. There he developed an air-bearing system for moving heavy objects with compressed air, up to and including an entire 747 Jumbo Jet. In fact, in 1967, Boeing spun off a succesful subsidiary, Aero-Go, to commercialize all kinds of products based on Crowley's concepts : aero-planks, aero-pallets, air-cushion vehicles, scissor lift tables and much more. 

Crowley's original scale model and prototype hovercraft is on display in the Smithsonian Air Museum in Washington, D.C. 

Walter A. Crowley, research & development manager of Aero-Go, demonstrates the Terra Skipper while skimming over sand and sea at 30 miles an hour. 

Excerpt from The Seattle Times, Pictorial, November 24, 1968 as seen on aerogoeurope.de 8 Nov 2021  

F.L.

Something extra :

• The Spacetronics, Inc., share illustrated here was issued to James Harold Scribner. Likely, this is Dr. James Harold Scribner, the first US Navy dentist to visit the South Pole and Antarctica. He participated in the first Operation Deep Freeze in 1955-56 with Admiral Byrd. Spacetronics was involved as a Navy contractor, and in the hearings sessions of 1959 (see main article)  the company envisioned its air cushion vehicles operating also in polar regions. The company's location was Bethesda, MD, where there was a dental clinic at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. From a good source I learned that Dr. Scribner was married to Dorothy Louise Scribner nee Meadows who worked as a navy nurse stationed at Bethesda!

Reference links :

• Crowley, Walter A. (1917-2008), by Walt Crowley, HistoryLink.org Essay 7987 (Walt Crowley was Walter A. Crowley's son)
• The Ground-Cushion Phenomenon, House Hearings April 13, 14, and 15, 1959, via Internet Archive
• Air Caster Technology, AeroGo (check the videos on this site showing the principles)

Previous posts

• The Berner Alpenbahn Gesellschaft - Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon, new book from author Dr Peter Christen 
• The Walkman share 

Feuerwerk at HSK's May auction! Over 1400 antique stocks and bonds from Germany, USA and other states, go on the block

Hanseatisches Sammlerkontor für Historische Wertpapiere, HSK, has scheduled its next auction for 29 May 2021. Michael Weingarten and his team goes online with more than 1400 lots of historic bonds and share certificates. The sale features scripophily from Germany, USA, Russia and more. One of the highlights is a stunning and rare share in the Rochlitz coal mining association.

The Gründerzeit starts halfway the 19th century. During this period Germany's rail and transport network took off, and in its wake, the other industrial activities. However, government rules allowed only very few companies to be organized.  

The short-lived Steinkohlenbau-Verein zu Rochlitz was formed in 1855. Its interim share, a wonderful lithograph, shows at the top the city of Rochlitz and mining scenes on the left and the right. At the bottom we see gnomes at work and an explosion in their mine. Seldom seen in early prints you detect mined rock with imprints of fossilized plants. L(ot) 1168 in the auction is expected to realize at least €12,000 

Starting with this auction, HSK's 40th, the auctioneer decided to change its schedule. HSK auctions will now take place in the early summer period of the year. Also, participants have now the opportunity to follow the auctions live on the Internet via the Invaluable online platform. 

The Alaska Gold Syndicate Company was formed in 1896 under the laws of the Territory of Arizona. Its office was located in "the end of the road " Homer,  Kachemak Bay, Alaska. This 1898 stock certificate, with large hydraulic mining vignette, was printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Engraving & Printing Co. L15 in the auction.

The first major section in the event includes 330 lots of American scripophily. Noteworthy are several certificates from Alaska, as well as stocks from several shipping companies, such as L313, Union Navigation Company, L314, The United States and Azorean Steam Packet Company, and L318, The United States Mail Steamship Company. And there is a lot to go through for US railroad collectors as well, a few examples :

• L67 Chester and Eddystone Street Railway, elk vignette
• L199 The Natchitoches and Red River Valley Railway, rare
• L329 The Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad Company, three vignettes, rare

Merchants from Bremen formed in 1856 Norddeutscher Lloyd, a precursor of the multinational TUI Group. This rare 100 Reichsmark share from 1929 illustrates the printing mastership of Giesecke & Devrient. Note how Norddeutscher Lloyd's logo, a crossed anchor and key with an oak leaf wreath, is included in both the left corner guilloches. The anchor represents the sea and the wreath stands for a united Germany. The key is the key of the Freie Hansestadt Bremen. L603 starts from €300 

HSK specializes in scripophily from North Germany. The sale counts about 200 lots from Bremen and Niedersachsen, over 100 lots related to Hamburg and more than 40 lots from Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The Norddeutscher Lloyd share shown here is one example. Some others are :

• L461 Aper Canal-Gesellschaft, 1849, what a shipping vignette! 
• L478 Bremerhavener Strassenbahn, rare
• L638 Uelzener Bierbrauerei-Gesellschaft, bond printed by Hofbuchdruckerei der Gebrüder Jänecke from Hannover 
• Due to the spartan equipment of its ships and the notoriously poor catering, the Deutsch-Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft earned the nickname "the German-Austerity-Line". Its rare share from 1888 is one of the highlights in the auction, L671 

After World War I the Nürnberg area counted several competing brands of motorcycles such as Ardie, Mars and Zündapp.  Apparatebau AG Kracker & Co. produced in the early 1920s several lightweight motorcycles under the Abako brand. This specimen share, with hundreds of gears in the design, was produced in a striking Art Deco style by Graphische Kunstanstalt Zerreiss & Co. L828

The European section, lot range 365 through 452, includes historic items like a 1918 share in the Det-Østasiatiske Kompagni, L365, and, L409, Kaiser Ferdinands Nordbahn, 1856. And here is a representative of modern scripophily, Austrian Airlines.

In 1988 Austrian Airlines underwent an IPO upon the Vienna Stock Exchange. Yet the majority of shares in the company stayed with the Austrian government. L375, Austrian Airlines Österreichische Luftverkehrs-AG, Wien, 1000 Schilling share, 1988, starts at €100 

There is a lot more to discover in the sale, so here are the details :

• Date : 29 May, 2021
• Further info, see here; PDF catalog see there; live bidding is possible through https://connect.invaluable.com/dwa/ 

F.L.

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King of the Netherlands owned the Belgian economy : spectacular royal share in the Société Générale de Belgique auctioned in Antwerp

Mario Boone's 65th auction is set for Saturday 31 October and takes place live on the internet. Over 1,300 lots of antique stocks and bonds from all over the world span four centuries of financial history. Part of an extraordinary collection and highlight in the auction is a unique share in the Société Générale des Pays-Bas pour favoriser l'Industrie Nationale that once belonged to Willem I, King of the Netherlands. 

With the help of bankers from Brussels, Willem Frederik (1772-1843), King of the Netherlands, created in 1822 an investment bank, the Société Générale des Pays-Bas pour favoriser l'Industrie Nationale. Belgium was still under Dutch rule at that time. In 1830, when Belgium became an independent state, the Société Générale des Pays-Bas took the name Société Générale de Belgique. 

The Société Générale de Belgique played a major role in the industrial development of the country and its former colony Belgian Congo. After the independence of Belgium the company became the official banker of the kingdom until the National Bank of Belgium was formed in 1850. Under Leopold II, the investment bank financed industries in China, South America, Egypt and Russia. The Société Générale is now a part of the French multinational Suez. This certificat d'inscription was issued in 1841 for 4300 shares of 500 Dutch Florins to Willem I, King of the Netherlands. Lot 332 in the sale is expected to realize at least €12,000. 

The 'Willem I' share offered here is part of a set of rare and early Société Générale items, lots 329 - 347 in the auction. Each one of these are opportunities to enrich any serious Belgium scripophily collection. Included are the 1822 company statutes from the Alg. Ned. Mij. ter Begunstiging van de Volksvlijt (the company's Dutch name), a provisional share from 1837, a 500 Ned. Guldens share dated 1847, a Bradbury Wilkinson specimen, parts de reserve, and the like. 

The Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga was registered in Elisabethville, today known as Lubumbashi. This specimen share from 1949 is part of the Belgian Congo railway collection. Lot 204 

The sale includes more noteworthy collections. The Belgian Congo section counts about 80 lots, more than half of these come from a railway collection. The Dutch Indies consists of 40 lots, some of them group lots, and will interest collectors of sugar, tobacco, spices and rubber scripophily.

Northern Steamship Company Kotlas-Archangel-Murmask 

200 Roubels share, 1916, lot 1062, click the image to enlarge 

A large Russian section counts over 90 lots. Many of these antique securities were issued during the reign of tsars Alexander III and Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov. Some of the highlights :

• Northern Steamship Company Kotlas-Archangel-Murmask, gorgeous vignette, see image above, L(ot)1062 
• City of Arkhangelsk, 5000 Rbls bond, 1916, large denomination, L1064
• Baku-Tiflis Oil Industry and Commerce Company, company operated in today's Azerbaijan and Georgia, temporary share for 1000 shares amounting to 1 million roubles, serial number 1, extremely rare, L1060
• L1061, share from the Chinabad-Andijane Feeding Railroad Line, Uzbekistan, 1916
• Kursk-Charkov-Azov Railway, £500 bond, 1888, L1002

The French city of Reims hosted in 1909 the Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne, the first international aviation meet. Aviation pioneers such as Glenn Curtiss, Louis Blériot, Louis Paulhan and Henri Farman participated. This share in the Aérodrome de la Champagne - Terrain d'Aviation de Reims-Bétheny was issued in 1910.  The artist Gournay may have attended the event and added different types of early aircraft to the design of the share. L643 

The catalog's comprehensive country index lists about 100 countries. In particular large sections are Dutch East Indies, Belgian Congo, Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the USA. Scripophily from less obvious, often exotic places, like Papua New Guinea, Burma, Ethiopia, Monaco and El Salvador is present as well.

Printed by Imprenta Casa Misericordia this Minas de Cala share was issued in 1901, Bilbao. Its ingenious design of a carving incorporates all the important headings of a share certificate (company name, share capital, ..) as well as the arms of Huelva and Bilbao. L1108 starts at €50 

There is much more to discover in the auction. Here are the auction details :

• Location : Internet only
• Date : 31 October 2020
• Further info : 
• online catalog & bidding here, or via the Invaluable platform 
• PDF version of the catalog there 

F.L.

The share from the Compañia de Seguros Maritimos de la Habana, dated 1857, features this stunning vignette. Click to enlarge. L1210, see the Cuban section of the auction

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Subscribe to free Newsletter and stay informed on scripophily

The International Bond & Share Society (IBSS) offers lots of expert content freely available online to non IBSS members.  Its web site continues to expand. Several archives of newsletters and in depth articles were added, such as  

• Buying guide to (American) Scripophily 
• Review of Keith Hollender's book Financing the World  

And there is more to discover: upcoming events, news items, publications and books, links to museums, associations, auctioneers and dealers, and the like.

You can sign up with the IBSS Newsletter for free, here.

Nihon Koku Unso Kabushiki Kaisha

Japan Air Transport Co

1928, 50 Yen share

Spink US Jan 2017 auction

Spink US is announcing details of their upcoming Numismatic Collector's Series Sale. The auction features more than 1,000 lots of coins, banknotes, medals, and the like. Over sixty lots of scripophily items are included, mainly consisting of US stocks and bonds. Four of these comprise historic Matson Navigation Company securities.

William Matson (1849-1917) was a Swedish-born American shipping executive. As a youngster he became friends with the industrialist and sugar beet refiner Claus Spreckels while working on the latter's family yacht. With the help of Spreckels, Matson founded in 1882 his own shipping business, the Matson Navigation Company. Its ships carried merchandise from the US Pacific Coast to the Hawaiian islands and returned with sugar. In the early 1900s Matson introduced passenger lines to Hawaii where he soon opened hotels. Its luxurious Matson Airlines operated between San Francisco and Hawaii (1946-1948).

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The collector's market knows a few types of historic Matson Navigation Company shares. These show vignettes of the company's important ships :

• The company's blue $100 shares (capital $1,500,000) were issued when the company incorporated in 1901. They illustrate a vignette of the barque Roderick Dhu, the first ship to have a cold storage and electric plant with electric lights on board. 

• Shortly before World War I, the company increases its capital to $5,000,000. Matson's brown $100 shares depict the SS Lurline (1908),  the company's first steamer. 

• Spink US now offers four lots, each consisting of about 500 stock certificates issued in the 1940s and 1950s. Printed in green and black by the Western Bank Note & Eng. Co. Chicago, their design show the brigantine Lurline (I) purchased by Matson in 1887. Coming from Hawaii the ship carried 600 tons of sugar and 12 passengers.

Details of the auction

• Dates: 17 & 18 Jan 2017
• Location : New York
• More info : see here 

F.L.

Archives International Auctions - Sale 37

AIA offers nearly 400 lots of historical stocks and bonds in a double sesssion auction held over two days. Among the many attractive certificates is a stunning bond trio from the San Fransisco International Airport (SFO).

This is one of three City and County of San Fransisco bonds offered as lot 296 in the auction. The $1000 Airport 1949 Loan bond was issued in 1950. The engraved vignette shows a four-engine propeller airliner, a Douglas DC-4. SFO's history starts in 1927 when the City and County of San Fransisco leases 150 acres from politician and business man Ogden L. Mills for use as an airport. The airport was initially called Mills Field Municipal Airport, but it was renamed into San Francisco Municipal Airport in 1931. SFO adopted its present name in 1955.

Archives International Auctions

US, Chinese & Worldwide Banknotes, Scripophily and Coins

Practical info

• Session 1 : Dec 6, 2016 
• Session 2 : Dec 13, 2016 
• Location : AIA, Fort Lee, New Jersey

Further info : see here, for the catalog there

F.L.