Going out of stock!
By admin on Nov 20, 2008 in Historical, Paper | 0 Comments
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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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?
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.)
AC: What accounts for Americans’ fascination with the Civil War?