What is Scripophily?

SCRIPOPHILY (scrip-af-il-ly), the collecting of canceled old stocks and bonds, gained recognition as a hobby around the mid-1970s.  The word resulted 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 in search of scarce, rare, and popular stocks and bonds. Collectors who come from the a variety of businesses enjoy this as a hobby, although there are many who consider Scripophily an good investment. In fact, over the past several years, this hobby has exploded.   Modern Dot companies and Scandals have been particularly popular.  You can find our more about modern collectible stock certificates at ModernStocks.com

Many collectors like the historical significance of certificates. Others prefer the beauty of older stocks and bonds that were printed in various colors with fancy artwork with ornate engraving. 

Many autograph collectors are found in this field, looking for signed certificates of famous people like John D.Rockefeller of Standard Oil Company, Franklin Fire Insurance Company signed by famed economist Henry Carey issued in 1836,  Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus,  Atari Corporation,  Eastern Air Lines with Captain Eddie Rickenbacker as President, Certificate signed by George Bush's Great Grandfather Samuel Prescott Bush, Broadband.com, Tucker Corporation and many others.  As many certificates become harder to find, Scripophily is an exciting hobby with lots of challenges and potential.  Since the hobby is relatively new (around 20 years),  it prices are still very reasonable.  Where can you find a 100 year old piece of history with a an excellent engraving for under $40? Fortunately the hobby hasn't hit the boiler room call centers yet!

There are many reasons that contribute to the success of this hobby. First of all, it is a worldwide collectible since almost all countries of the world have issued stocks and/or bonds through their governments or businesses. Each certificate is a different piece of history. It describes the company, the type of instrument (usually stock or bond), the year, signatures of officers or officials, who it was issued to, the printer, due date for bonds, and much much more. Many of the certificates have pictures or vignettes showing anything from cars to trains to Indians to leaders to nothing at all. 

Due to the computer age, more and more stock and bonds are issued electronically which means fewer paper certificates are issued as a percentage of actual stock issued.  During the past several years, the Internet has played a major role in the awareness of the hobby.  We have been able to display and sell thousands of items from our inventory on our shopping cart at Scripophily.net.  Our customers come from all over the world.  We started in 1996 with a selection of 50 certificates and now have over 6,300. Without the Internet, this would not have been possible

The hobby of Scripophily is one of the most fascinating areas of financial history. Over the years there have been millions of companies which needed to raise money for their businesses.  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 variations of equity and debt instruments. The can be Common Stock, Preferred Stocks, Warrants, Cumulative Preferred, Bonds, Zero coupon bonds, Long Term Bonds (over 400 years) and any combination thereof.  

When I was CFO at American Mobile Satellite and we did our roadshow to go public, we flew in a jet for two weeks and visited over 20 cities.  I can't even imagine what a roadshow must have been like 100 to 150 years ago.  Roadshows by horseback, stagecoaches, trains, etc.  What a different world it is today.

Just as each company is different, each certificate is different as well. The color, paper, signatures, images, dates, stamps, cancellations, borders, industry, Stock Broker, name of company, transfer agent, printer, holder name all add to the uniqueness of the hobby. Each company needed to raise money to get into business. Each company had their own story as to how they did it. These certificates give us a piece of that story.

Some of the companies became major success stories. Some the companies were acquired and merged into other companies. Some of the companies and industries were successes for of time, but were replaced by improvements in technologies. The railroads are a good example of this.

Most the companies, however, never made it and the certificates became worthless pieces of paper....until the hobby of Scripophily came along!  There were many bubbles that came and went.  The mining boom in the 1850's, the railroad build out beginning in the 1830's, Oil Boom beginning in the 1870's, Telegraph beginning in the 1850's, Automobile Industry beginning at the turn of the 20th,  Century, Aviation beginning around 1910 after the Wright Brothers, Electric Power Industry in the 1930's, Airline Wars and Takeovers beginning in the 1970's, Cellular Telephones beginning in the mid 1980's, Banks in the 1930's, Saving's and Loans in the 1970's,  Long Distance Telephone Service in the 1990's, and most recently the Dot Com rags to riches to rags chapter.   

Cont Part 2