What Determines The Value
As good material becomes harder and harder to find scripophily is expected to be the investment collectible of the 2000s, like football cards were in the 1980s and Stamps in the 1950-60s.
Many factors help determine a certificate's collector value:
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Autograph Value - signed by a famous industrialist, entrepreneurs
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Age of the Certificate – post Industrial Revolution, Dotcom, USA Railways
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The Industry Represented – Railways, Banking, Gold Mining
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Whether It Is Issued or Not – Unallocated or Specimen
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Its Attractiveness – Ornate beauty
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Condition – Uncirculated, Extremely Fine, Very Fine, Fine, Good, Poor
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Collector Demand – Rarity
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Certificates from the mining, energy and railroad industries are the most popular with collectors. Other industries or special collecting fields include banking, automobiles, aircraft, motion pictures, communications, tobacco, beverages, and sports. Unissued certificates are usually worth one-fourth to one-eighth the value of issued ones (unless there are no issued ones that are in existence). Inexpensive issued common stocks and bonds dated between the 1960s and 1980s usually retail between A$20 to A$55 depending on availability. Those dating between the 1890s and 1930s usually sell for A$50 to A$100. Those over 100 years old retail from A$50 to A$200 or more, depending on quantity found. Autographed stocks normally sell anywhere between A$200 to A$10,000. Like anything else, the price is directly dependent upon supply and demand and the country of origin.
The Top Sixty
The following table shows the highest realised price for each of the 60 most expensive scripophily pieces sold at auction since the International Bond & Share Society was founded in in 1978. A majority of the pieces were sold in the eurozone. To enable comparisons, this shows all prices in euros (included buyer’s premium), calculated at the exchange rate on the date of the auction. When a type has been sold more
than once, we show its highest price, which is not necessarily the most recent.
The largest group by national origin are USA (16), Chine (11), Germany (10), Britain (8). Interestingly, no Russian. The sales have been fairly evenly spread across eighteen auction houses in seven countries, with
Spink selling the most (9). All the US pieces. Dated 1777 to 1956, have the original autographs of
major innovators or political giants, from George Washington to Warren Buffett via Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Edison and Ford. Many of these were sold in 2000-2002, a period which saw a pricing spike caused
by enthusiastic scripophilists in the US and Germany.
The European pieces tend to be earlier issues, with 15 of the 29 pieces dated in the 200 years from 1558. The majority of the Europeans are valued for the historical significance of the funding event rather than the
signatures.
The buyers may be collectors in other field or speculators as well as scripophilists. For example, the price of #1 in the list, Roulette de Monte Carlo, designed and signed by the Dadaist artist Marcel Duchamp, is
clearly influenced by the art market. And the Mexicans are thought to have
been bought by financial speculators in something of a bubble.
