It is the collecting of canceled old stocks and bond certificates, Though I also collect other instruments of finance that are of historical interest. I tend to classify these under the banner of Scripophiliy.

Scripophily 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 too. In fact, over the past several years, this hobby has exploded. 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.

As interesting certificates become harder to find, Scripophily is expected to be an exciting investment but as with any other investments, especially in antiques, there are never any guarantees.

Each certificate is a piece of history. It describes the company, the type of instrument (usually stock or bond), the year, signatures of officers or officials, 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 leaders to nothing at all. Due to the information age, more and more stock and bonds are issued electronically which means fewer paper certificates are issued as a percentage of actual stock issued thereby increasing the resale value of these items. Also I feel that because most of these instruments of finance are held in paper form  they are more likely to deteriorate and be damaged. As such I believe that this hobby will become a good investment as the number of good quality collectibles become increasingly scarce.

There are many factors that determine value of a certificate including condition, age, historical significance, signatures, rarity, demand for 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.

The hobby of Scripophily is a fascinating documentation of financial history. Over the years there have been millions of companies which needed to raise money. 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. 

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 major success stories for long periods of time, but were replaced by improvements in technologies. The canal and railroad companies are a good example of this.

My original interest in Scripophility was sparked by a visit to the Poldark Mining Museum in Cornwall in the UK.

In the gift shop there were reams of old tin mining stock certificates lining the walls that the shop had used a display wallpaper. I read the text carefully as I did not know what they were at first. As I read the text I realised that they were bond or company stock that had been sold to investors during the mining boom in Cornwall many many years earlier. I was fascinated as the last Tin mine was closed in Cornwall a long time ago and I started pondering how many of those investors made money. I tried to buy some of the examples from the shop but they were not for sale and I left that at the back of my mind for many years.

During frequent business trips abroad I started collecting foreign money. Realising that there was an endless stream of these I decided to focus in on collecting English paper money. I slowly built up a collection of all the modern bank of  England bank notes. From there I started broadening into antique stock certificates and bonds and then onto related material and instruments of finance.

Aside from having the collection of Bank of England notes I have promissory notes (that predate cash and cheques) dating back to the 17th Century. Also from the early part of the 18th Century I have an early building society savings certificate. An act of parliament authorising enlarged capital for the bank of England (1724) and various collectibles including the paper on the day of the trial for the great Scottish banking crash in 1873. South Sea Bubble material is diificult to come by, though I have some. This is a famous crash, Did you realise that it wiped out about 67% of the countries credit and invoked an act of parliament requiring an joint stock companies to be passed through parliament which probably hindered economic growth for many years to come.

I never get to see all of them for real as I have them stored but I have copies on the walls of my house for interest.

I currently looking at, time permitting, the Provincial banks in the UK. I have researched and can trace back the origins of every UK bank that ever existed. I am considering collecting the notes issued by the banks and / or the stock certificates where available. In 1750 there were around 12 banks in the UK. This had risen to over 700 in 1813 till the disasters of 1825. Now there are only a few left, you could probably count the most  popular on both hands.

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