by David Chesanow

The last blog contained an unfavorable remark about a particular insurance company that required a government bailout in order to, well, stay afloat. AIG may not be the only culprit, but I think it’s the ultimate irony that an insurer would do so much to precipitate a national disaster and then need the American public to save its bacon – instead of the other way around! 

Speaking of irresponsible financial corporations and Wall Street in general, I couldn’t help wondering what effect the current financial quagmire (you thought the term only referred to wars?) has had on the collecting field of scripophily: stock certificates, bonds and other financial paper. The guy I consult on all scripophilic matters is Bob Kerstein of Scripophily.com, in Falls Church, Va., the world’s largest dealer in collectible (and unredeemable) stock and bond certificates. Here are his responses to a few quick queries:

AmeriCollector: How are sales of vintage stock certificates these days, Bob?

Bob Kerstein: Sales were good all year until October and the stock market crash. Business has picked up a little over the past week, so I am hopeful we will end the year on a high note.

AC: Who are your regular customers?

Bob: Customers come from all walks of life. Mostly gifts this time of year. We have been receiving more foreign orders lately, but orders have slowed from bankers, due to the problems in the stock market.

AC: What are the popular certificates and collecting areas?

Bob: Popular certificates are the companies that are in the news, like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, etc.

AC: How would you advise someone to get started collecting stock certificates?

Bob: Keep a focus on the types of companies in which you have a personal interest. Don’t buy for the sake of buying. The certificates that usually retain their value are the ones that are historically significant, good looking or are signed by someone famous.

I checked Bob’s Web site: Get a pre-bankruptcy/delisting certificate for Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns for $295, or a Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage) or Merrill Lynch certificate for $99.95. Or check out the hundreds and hundreds of vintage stocks and bonds, foreign as well as domestic. The color engraved illustrations on many are really beautiful, and they make great gifts – well worth the paper they’re printed on/ See them at www.Scripophily.com.

Images courtesy of Scripophily.com

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by David Chesanow

My last blog was not intended to be a political screed on the momentousness of the first African-American elected president. It’s just that I’m a connoisseur of irony, and the fortuitousness – or not – of a landmark Civil War auction less than three weeks this Barack Obama’s victory was too much to pass up. 

Speaking of irony: Why all the fanfare when the election was supposedly NOT about race? I mean, I voted for the guy, but not because of his color – just as I wouldn’t have voted against him because of his color. I’m not so sure about everybody else, though. 

Anyway, I note that signed copies of Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” are already priced at almost $900 and up on Bookfinder.com (a great book search Web site, by the way). One clown is actually hawking the signed book plus a signed copy of Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” in a custom-made box for – get this –$250,000! I’m wondering if he had a muscle spasm while hitting the “zero” key – or maybe he thinks one of those smart-investing execs at AIG will buy it with some of our bailout money.

There are also reams and reams of Nov. 5 newspapers on eBay. Is this the start of something big? I asked Tim Hughes of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers) about it …

AmeriCollector: Do you think people will start collecting Obama papers beyond the election?

Tim Hughes: I don’t anticipate people collecting other Obama-related newspapers save for the inauguration issue of January. Typically, election and inauguration issues are “THE political pair” for collectors interested in American politics. What I do predict is an increased interest in newspapers celebrating African-American achievements in American history: the 13th Amendment (the right to vote); reports on significant African-American American leaders in politics, science and education; and an entire host of other “firsts” in the civil rights struggle of African-Americans.

AC: Has anyone has approached you with papers for sale?

Tim: As of yet, no. But if the past is any indication, I suspect that once the initial push to move large numbers of Obama election issues works its way through eBay and interest dies off, people will be in touch with us about their remainders and want to unload them rather than store them for some future year.

AC: Are you getting a collection together for future sales? 

Tim: Since we expect to be in the rare-newspaper business for many, many years to come, we always plan our inventory with distant future needs in mind, so yes, we hope to have “Obama Elected” newspapers for sale 50 or 100 years from now. Part of the success of our business is that we never looked for the quick turnaround of our inventory. We buy in large quantities with plans of selling issues slowly in the succeeding years. We had purchased a collection of 500 issues of the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination newspaper from Dallas, the most desired JFK newspaper to be had, and we still have about half that inventory remaining. Our inventory of over 2 million newspapers is proof we expect to be involved in this hobby many years from now!

AC: Do you anticipate this event raising interest in historic newspapers as a hobby (not investment)? 

Tim: I think any major event which causes people to keep a newspaper they pick up at the local newsstand does cause some to think about collecting other issues as well. I think the tragedy of Sept. 11 created some newspaper collectors, and every four years more discover our fascinating hobby with the presidential election and inauguration. Our hobby has grown slowly over the years and I expect the trend to continue. I also believe that the future for “hard-copy” newspapers is somewhat bleak, with so much information coming from the Web; and if this causes the demise of print editions of newspapers, the hobby will be more intriguing to more people, as newsstand copies may become nothing more than a pleasant memory of the pre-Internet and pre-digital age.

by David Chesanow

There are wars within living memory and those that have exceeded it; of the latter, it’s the Civil War that pulls most strongly at the American psyche. And with good reason: It’s one thing to go to war against foreign imperialists and oppressors; it’s another to fight your own countrymen, your neighbors – your own kin – over concepts like personal freedoms and the right of states to secede from the Union. Can you imagine the American voting public getting up off the sofa to do THAT in THIS day and age?

Of course, what Americans did do two weeks ago was, in some measure, to lay the ghost of racial discrimination that has been haunting our republic for 140 years. The election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land hasn’t suddenly ended all social inequality in America, but it certainly reminds us what a long and tortuous road we’ve traveled to get to this point. 

So I think it’s wonderful planning that – in the same month that America voted in its first black president – Heritage Auction Galleries is holding their 2008 November Civil War Auction this Thursday and Friday, Nov. 20 and 21, in Gettysburg, Penn., the town where President Lincoln on Nov. 19, 1863 – almost exactly 145 years prior! – made a certain speech reiterating that “all men are created equal” and that “this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom …” (Those who can’t make it to the Keystone State for the live auction can bid online, of course.)

The auction contains some 951 lots – everything from firearms, swords and flags to uniforms, canteens, photos and autograph material – and features the collection of John Henry Kurtz.

I asked Dennis Lowe, director of Civil War auctions at Heritage, a few questions about what’s on the block:

AmeriCollector: Who was John Henry Kurtz?

Dennis Lowe: John Henry Kurtz was a dedicated collector of Civil War memorabilia for the last 40 years; he passed away in Feb. 2008. His success, over the last 20 years, was as a voice-over announcer, including the voice of “NBC Nightly News,” which allowed him to combine a degree of affluence with his superior knowledge and impeccable taste to form one of the most important U.S. Civil War collections in private hands. His interest was primarily limited to the arms, uniforms, equipment and photographs of the Union combat infantryman.

AC: What makes this auction special and would you say are the highlights?
Dennis Lowe: The highlights of the auction are myriad, with the Kurtz collection representing the largest and most important auction presentation of U.S. Civil War uniforms, equipment, photographic images and personal items in modern history. The general Civil War session includes the personal battle flags of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, the Confederate battle flag of the 37th Mississippi Infantry, along with a large and select presentation of Confederate and U.S. arms, edged weapons, photographic images along with general militaria. No previous Civil War auction has even approached this offering in importance, and it will be many years in the future until a commensurate presentation is again seen in the market place.

AC: What accounts for Americans’ fascination with the Civil War?

Dennis Lowe: The American Civil War was clearly the defining moment in this nation’s history. The cataclysmic bloodletting it represented finally forged the individual states into one nation, putting to rest the issue of “states’ rights” that had prevented this melding since the nation’s founding. This was the last war in American history that interwove the horror and tragedy of the battlefield with an aura of romance, chivalry and bravado, never to be seen again on the battlefields of the 20th century. Most Americans who can trace their indigenous roots to America during that period have some kind of historical or ancestral link to the war.

Don’t expect to pick win many souvenirs at this auction cheaply – this is an event for serious collectors – although I note that there are some nice canteens, a couple of guns and a drum or two that are expected fetch under $1,000. See all the lots at www.ha.com.

Images courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries, www.ha.com

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