Scripophily magazine celebrates 100 issues

The "World Auction Sales" table in Scripophily magazine reports the performances of auctions over the preceding period. Auctions are measured by the number of lots offered, sell ratio and the corresponding turnover. Also, included is eBay as an auction platform. Did you know that, over the period Dec 2015 - Feb 2016, the average lot price recorded in eBay's scripophily section was €14 in Europe, and €23 in the US (*).

(*) after applying cleansing operations on the data, such as eliminating double counted lots, because some auctioneers sell simultaneously through eBay

Scripophily magazine No. 100 - April 2016

Scripophily magazine was first published in 1982 under the name The Bond & Share Society Journal. In April 2016 the International Bond & Share Society honoured the joyous occasion of the journal's hundredth publication with a separate 44-page commemorative section, printed nostalgically in black and white on A5 paper size. The magazine has come a long way. Editor Max Hensley explains:

A technological advance of great importance for Scripophily (magazine) has been the Internet. The Dec 2015 issue contained an article written in Turkey, edited in the US and composed in the UK, all within weeks. This would have been impossible before the internet.

Editor Max adds that today, the magazine appears on high quality paper, articles are longer and brought with more images in full color. Journals from the 1990s contained an average of 5 auction reports whereas now the issue reports about twenty to thirty auctions. Every issue was produced " .. without paying a penny for content."

" The hollow surprise of the Londonderry Gold Mine is one
of the articles from the commemorative section in Scripophily
magazine, written by Anne Marie Hendy. It reads like Harry Potter."
, says this unshaven blogger.

As usual, this issue brings society matters, market news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, an events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews, interviews and lots of pictures of collector friends and bonds and shares. The commemorative section contains the following set of snapshots from the first two decades :

• Out of the ordinary bonds in out of the way auction, a comic essay
• The formation of British companies to 1856
• Further "nuggets" from Western Australia : The hollow surprise of the Londonderry Gold Mine
• Coastal shipping - a brief, about British coastal shipping scripophily
• The expensive business of raising railway loans : the Shanghai-Nanking Loan Agreement
• The "Train Renard"
• Auction reports, reports on the F.H.W. and Witula auctions from 1992
• Dome and Lakeshore - two top Ontario gold mines
• Trillion $$$ Standard Oil stock comes home !
• UK Tramways - a neglected field of scripophily
• The King George's Sound Company - the American/Chinese fur trade in 1785
• Philoscripy? Bonditry? Shyloxis? , explains the origins of the word scripophily
• Dangerous Edison forgeries on the market
• HP Magazin, a summary from HP magazine Jan 1996
• Share companies in Soviet Russia
• A major art thief signs shares, the story of Arsène Goedertier and the Plantexel  company
• The man who robbed the Robber Barrons, about William Mann, founder of the Mann's Boudoir Car Company
• Otto Mears, Colorado railroad pioneer
• Art Nouveau-Jugendstil
• Scripophily in Tokyo
• Go West, yunger Mann ! , German immigrants in Texas

Scripophily magazine is a publication from IBSS .

F.L.

Exhibition: Gedruckte Werte

Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig illustrates the making of securities
The German city of Leipzig has a rich tradition of bookmaking and publishing. Its Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig (Museum of the Printing Arts Leipzig) is home to functioning machines, tools and presses demonstrating the techniques of copperplate printing, lithography and letterpress. Recently the museum has set up an extraordinary exhibition titled Gedruckte Werte (Printed Values).

Grosse Leipziger Strassenbahn
1000 Mark share, Leipzig, 1895
printed by Giesecke & Devrient
image courtesy : Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig
double-click image to enlarge

From design to production
The exhibition illustrates the history, design and production of commercial securities. On display are approximately 50 bond and share certificates mainly from Leipzig and Saxony of the last 200 years, together with printing proofs, cheques, stamps, wood engravings, printing plates, guilloche and frame dies, sample and order books, and other historical printing forms. The show also explains how Giesecke & Devrient, Germany's most important printer of banknotes and securities, developed a standardized process for the production of artistic and counterfeit-proof securities. 

Guilloching tool, dated around 1900
source: Giesecke & Devrient, Leipzig
image courtesy : Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig

One of the exhibits is a manually operated guilloching tool, see image above, from the Giesecke & Devrient security printing house in Leipzig. A tool like this was used to engrave a guilloché, an ornamental pattern formed of repeating, interlacing lines in a circular design. When printed on securities and banknotes, designs like these were almost impossible to counterfeit. The guilloché pattern shown just below at the left, is a detail from the image beside it, another object in the exhibition : an advertising, ca. 1910, for Giesecke & Devrient, designed and printed as a share certificate.

source: Sächsisches Staatsarchiv Leipzig 

image courtesy : Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig

The exhibition is a cooperation between the Museum and the “Firmenhistorisches Archiv” of the Giesecke & Devrient GmbH (Munich). Some loans are also from the State Archives of Saxony in Leipzig.

Giesecke & Devrient printing plate for a share
of the Actien-Brauvereins zu Plauen (see also image below)
image courtesy : Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig

Practical info

• Duration : 16 March to 14 August 2016
• Location : Nonnenstrasse 38, Leipzig, GERMANY
• Opening hours : Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ; Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Entrance: 6€ for adults, 3€ for students and 1,50€ children, 4€ for owners of a Leipziger-Card
• Guided tours on the following Sundays at 12:00 a.m. : 8 May, 22 May, 12 June, 26 June, 24 July and 14 August
• Special 60+ tours on the following Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. : 19 April and 21 June.
• Hans-Volkmar Gaitzsch holds an evening talk Leipziger Wertpapiere on Thursdag 19 May at 7:00 p.m. , free entrance
• The Museum also organizes a one-day conference Gedrucktes Vertrauen on Friday 24 June, more info in German, see here.
• Further, there is an accompanying 60-pages book, in German, availble at the price of 8,80€ excluding shipping cost (but more on that in my next article).

Actien-Brauverein zu Plauen
in English : Plauen Brewery Association
1000 Reichsmark share, specimen from Giesecke & Devrient, 1943
One of the original printing plates for this certificate is shown above.
image courtesy : Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig

Related links

• Museum für Druckkunst Leipzig, in German, in English 
• Exhibition Gedruckte Werte, in German, in English 

F.L.

PS: Here are some images, from the museum's Facebook page, from the opening of the exhibition.

Vielen Dank an alle Gäste für eine tolle Ausstellungseröffnung zu GEDRUCKTE WERTE gestern Abend!
Posted by Museum für Druckkunst on Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Scripophily magazine 98

It's only a matter of one or two weeks before you can expect the next issue of Scripophily magazine in the mailbox. For those who are not subscribed, here is an overview of the stories from the last August issue :

• The Anderson Motor Company
• $100,000 Denomination Chinese 1937 Liberty Bond print inconsistencies , about counterfeit Chinese bonds
• Rarity Key System , a joined communication by several auction houses 
• The bonds issued under the forced loans of Jérôme Bonaparte , a story on Westphalia Kingdom finance 
• Rafting Scripophily , highlights early timber logging and transport companies in the US
• Embossed British revenue stamps , did you know about the junction between British revenue stamps and stocks and bonds?
• Charles A Stoneham & Co mining curb brokers , a story on a remarkable mining stock brokerage firm
• Sensation at 5 centimes in 'Le Petit Journal', an updated article about this famous French newspaper company 
• An early IBM predecessor company, about the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co
• China's Historic Foreign Bonds, by J M Thompson and M D Perry , book review 
• Pictorial Stock Certificates - Lithography and Engravings for the Graphic Art Collector, by B Brown , book review 
• Cox's Corner : We're not getting any younger , tips about specializing your collection
• other periodical topics : society matters, news, bourse reviews, auction reviews, events calendar, member classifieds, book reviews, interviews and lots of pictures of collector friends and scripophily

Did you know about the previously rare Suez canal company
where about 50 hoard certificates recently appeared?
Read about it in Scripophily magazine Nr 98 Aug 2015
-
image from Wikipedia:
Suez Canal from 1881 Young Persons' Cyclopedia of Persons and Places

Scripophily magazine is a publication from the International Bond & Share Society.

F.L.

Related links

• International Bond & Share Society (IBSS)
• IBSS on Facebook 

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
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

• List of known counterfeit certificates, by EDHAC (in German)