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Scripophily
Scripophily is the study and collection of stocks and bonds. A specialized field of numismatics, scripophily is an interesting area of collecting due to both the inherent beauty of some historical documents as well as the interesting historical context of each document. Some stock certificates are excellent examples of engraving. Occasionally, an old stock document will be found that still has value as a stock in a successor company.

History

Scripophily, the collecting of canceled old stocks and bonds, gained recognition as a hobby around 1970. The word "scripophily" was coined by combining words from English and Greek. The word "scrip" represents an ownership right and the word "philos" means to love. Today there are thousands of collectors worldwide (Scripophilists or Scripophiliacs) in search of scarce, rare, and popular stocks and bonds. Collectors who come from a variety of businesses enjoy this as a hobby, although there are many who also consider scripophily a good investment. In fact, over the past several years, the hobby has exploded in popularity.

Many collectors like the historical significance of certificates. Dot com companies and scandals have been particularly popular. Others prefer the beauty of older stocks and bonds that were printed in various colors with fancy artwork and ornate engraving.

Many autograph collectors are found in this field, looking for signed certificates from John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company, Henry Carey of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Atari Corporation, Eddie Rickenbacker as president of Eastern Air Lines, Broadband.com, Tucker Corporation and many others.

Scripophily as a hobby

A large part of scripophily is the area of financial history. Over the years there have been millions of companies which needed to raise money for their business. In order to do so, the founders of these companies issued securities. Generally speaking, they either issued an equity security in the form of stock or a debt security in the form of a bond. However, there are many varieties of equity and debt instruments. They can be common stock, preferred stock, warrants, cumulative preferred stocks, bonds, zero coupon bonds, long term bonds (over 400 years) and any combination thereof.

Each certificate is a piece of history about a company and its business. Some companies became major successes, while others were acquired and merged with other companies. Some companies and industries were successful until they were replaced by new technologies. The color, paper, signatures, dates, stamps, cancellations, borders, pictures, vignettes, industry, stock broker, name of company, transfer agent, printer, and holder name all add to the uniqueness of the hobby.

A lot of companies either were never successful or went bankrupt, so that their certificates became worthless pieces of paper until the hobby of scripophily began. The mining boom in the 1850s, railroad construction in the 1830s, the oil boom in the 1870s, telegraphy (1850s), the automobile industry beginning around 1900, aviation (around 1910), electric power and banks in the 1930s, the airline wars and mergers in the 1970s, cellular telephones (1980s), long distance telephone service in the 1980s and 1990s, and most recently the Dot-com era and Enron all resulted in historically significant certificates being generated and issued.

With the existence of the Internet, more and more stocks and bonds are issued electronically, meaning fewer paper certificates are issued as a percentage of actual stock issued. However, the Internet has also played a major role in creating awareness of the hobby as can be seen at Scripophily.com.

Scripophily guidelines

There are many factors that determine value of a certificate. These include condition, age, historical significance, signatures, rarity, demand for the item, aesthetics, type of company, original face value, bankers associated with issuance, transfer stamps, cancellation markings, issued or unissued, printers, and type of engraving process.

Condition - The grading scale that could be used in stocks and bonds is shown below. Generally speaking, however, the grading is not used in the hobby as strictly as it is in coins and stamps. Most people acquire certificates for the artwork and history.
  • Uncirculated - Looks like new, no abnormal markings or folds, no staples, clean signature and no stains
  • Extremely Fine - Slight traces of wear
  • Very Fine - Minor traces of wear
  • Fine - Creased with clear signs of use and wear
  • Fair- Strong signs of use and wear
  • Poor- Some damage with heavy signs of wear and staining
Age - Usually the older the more valuable, but not always.

Historical significance - What product did the company produce? Was it the first car, airplane, cotton gin, etc. Was the company successful? Was it a fraud? In what era (i.e. during a war, depression, revolution) was the item issued?

Signatures - Did anyone famous or infamous sign the certificate?

Certificate Owner's Name - Was the certificate issued to anyone famous or to a famous company?

Rarity - How many of the certificates were issued? How many survived over the years? Is the certificate a low number?

Demand for Item - How many people are trying to collect the same certificate?

Aesthetics - How does the certificate look? What is in the vignette? What color of ink was used? Does it have fancy borders or writing on it?

Type of company - What type of company was it issued for? Does the industry still exist? Has the industry changed a lot over the years?

Original Face Value - How much was the stock or bond issued for? Usually, the larger the original face value, the more collectible it is.
Enlarge picture
H. J. Heinz Company
Bankers associated with Issuance - Who worked on the fund raising efforts? Was it someone famous or a famous bank? Is the bank still in existence?

Transfer Stamps - Does the certificate have tax stamps on it - imprinted or attached? Are the stamps valuable or unusual?

Cancellation Markings - Are the cancellation markings interesting to the item? Do they detract or add to its history and looks?

Issued or Unissued - Was the item issued or unissued? Was the certificate a printer's prototype usually stamped with the word "specimen"? Usually, issued certificates are more valuable and desirable.

Printers - Who printed the certificate? Was it a famous printer?

Type of Engraving Process - How was the certificate made? By hand? By wood engraving? Steel engraving? Lithograph? Preprinted form?

Paper - Was the paper use in the printing high quality or low quality? Has it held up over time? Does it have a watermark to prevent counterfeiting?

See also

External links



Numismatics (Lat. numisma, nomisma, a coin; from the Greek, derived from voµi eiv, to use according to law), is the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms.
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Numismatics (ancient Greek: νομισματική) is the scientific study of money and its history in all its varied forms.
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currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and/or services. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. A currency is the dominant medium of exchange.
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COIN can refer to:
  • Collaborative Innovation Networks
  • Counterinsurgency
  • Coin


This article is about monetary coins.

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banknote (often known as a bill or simply note) is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and under many jurisdictions is used as legal tender.
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<onlyinclude> This list of circulating currencies contains the 194 current official or de facto currencies of the 192 United Nations member states, one UN observer state, three partially recognized sovereign states, six unrecognized countries, and 32 dependencies.
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In economics, a local currency, in its common usage, is a currency not backed by a national government (and not necessarily legal tender), and intended to trade only in a small area. These currencies are also referred to as community currency.
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Company scrip is currency issued in certain industries to pay workers. Such scrip can only be exchanged by wage-earners in company stores owned by their employers and often charging inflated prices. In the UK, such systems have been formally outlawed under Truck Acts.
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Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) also known as LETSystems are local, non-profit exchange networks in which goods and services can be traded without the need for printed currency.
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time-based currency is an alternative currency where the unit of exchange is the hour.

Time-based currencies value everyone’s contributions equally. One hour equals one service credit.
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Fictional currency is currency in works of fiction. It is often invented, bearing little or no resemblance to any modern or historic currency. This is a necessary plot device, in order to increment the completeness of the environment, and at the same time dissociate it from any
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"Mints" redirects here. For other uses, see Mint (disambiguation).

A mint is a place or facility which manufactures coins for currency.

On the whole, the history of mints correlates very closely with the history of coins.
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Coining is a form of precision stamping. It differs from simple stamping in that enough pressure is used to cause plastic flow of the surface of the material. A beneficial feature is that in some materials, such as phosphor bronze, the plastic flow breaks up the surface
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In numismatics, the term milled coinage (also known as machine-struck coinage) is used to describe coins which are produced by some form of machine, rather than by manually hammering coin blanks between two dies (hammered coinage) or casting coins from dies.
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Hammered coinage describes the commonest form of coins produced since the invention of coins in the first millennium BC until the early modern period of ca. the 15th-17th centuries.
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Exonumia is the study of coin-like objects such as token coins and medals, and other items used in place of legal currency or for commemoration. This includes elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, badges, counterstamped coins, wooden nickels
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A credit card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. A credit card is different from a debit card in that it does not remove money from the user's account after every transaction.
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A medal is a small metal object, usually engraved with insignia, that is awarded to a person for athletic, military, scientific, academic or some other kind of achievement. There also exist devotional medals, worn to indicate religious faith.
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token coins or tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of tokens is part of exonumia. Tokens are used in place of coins and either have a denomination shown or implied by size, color or shape.
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Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes. A notaphilist is a collector of banknotes, paper money, paper currency or plastic notes.

History

It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use.
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banknote (often known as a bill or simply note) is a kind of negotiable instrument, a promissory note made by a bank payable to the bearer on demand, used as money, and under many jurisdictions is used as legal tender.
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In financial markets, the stock capital of a corporation or a joint-stock company is the capital raised through the issuance, sale and distribution of shares. A person or organization that holds at least a partial share of stock is called a shareholder.
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bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to repay the principal and interest (the coupon) at a later date, termed maturity.
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In financial markets, the stock capital of a corporation or a joint-stock company is the capital raised through the issuance, sale and distribution of shares. A person or organization that holds at least a partial share of stock is called a shareholder.
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bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to repay the principal and interest (the coupon) at a later date, termed maturity.
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Numismatics (Lat. numisma, nomisma, a coin; from the Greek, derived from voµi eiv, to use according to law), is the scientific study of currency and its history in all its varied forms.
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Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold or steel are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing
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A hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit.

Origin of term

A hobby-horse was a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like the real hobby. From this came the expression "to ride one's hobby-horse", meaning "to follow a favourite pastime", and in turn,
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English}}} 
Writing system: Latin (English variant) 
Official status
Official language of: 53 countries
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: en
ISO 639-2: eng
ISO 639-3: eng  
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Greek}}} 
Writing system: Greek alphabet 
Official status
Official language of:  Greece
 Cyprus
 European Union
recognised as minority language in parts of:
 European Union
 Italy
 Turkey
Regulated by:
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