Scripophily

Just think, a few short weeks ago, I'd never even heard the term, and already I feel I could become dangerously addicted to trolling around the web looking for old stock certificates and other money-related paraphernalia.

My prime trolling stop has been at Scripophily.com, where I've found a Genuity certificate for $49.95.

If only I'd had the presence of mind to take possession of an actual physical certificate or two, my Genuity stock could have been worth something.

As it turned out, those thousand shares I purchased at the low-low pre-IPO price of $11 were worth nothing!

By the time us lucky insiders could sell, 6 months after Genuity's IPO, the stock price was nearing zero and the stock had been delisted.

Even though the $49.95 price is $20 off the old price, I'd be happy with the $49.95.

Alas, I must draw comfort from having gotten a few years worth of capital losses to deduct.

Now, I actually did have some real Wang stock certificates, but I must have given them the heave-ho at some point or another. Or did I have to surrender them to get some warrants for something else that turned out to be worthless?

In any case, I just did a cursory flip through my (paper) files, and couldn't find any of those beauties.

Too bad. They were nice red ones, and looked a lot like the ones available for $89.95.

This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman. This item has the printed signatures of the company’s president, An Wang and its treasurer. This certificate is over 21 years old and very hard to find.

Hey, my Wang stock certificates are over 21 years old, too. And they're hard to find - at least they're not in my filing cabinet.

And, ah, the vignette of the allegorical woman!

What might the allegorical woman have told us?

Abandon the mini-computer business before it's too late? Let someone other than Dr. Wang make a decision in this company? Screw the lightbulbs back in in those dark halls, or someone might fall and hurt themselves?

Alas, we will never know what the allegorical woman might have been able to help us with.

Clearly, we were no match for our arch-rival Digital Equipment, which managed to outlast Wang by quite a few years.

Even in death, they out do Wang. DEC stock certificates are going for $395. Even Data General's are running for $195.

Life is unfair! Death is unfair!

I can't stop trolling, there's too much of interest on this site.

Stop, stop, stop before I go off on a daffy, unhealthy stock certificate buying spree. I've been such a poor judge of actual stocks themselves, perhaps I can pick some defunct company certificates that will appreciate in value...

And speaking of daffy, here's a beauty on sale for only for only $195!

Oh, I know, Daffy is Warner Brothers, Goofy is Disney, but wouldn't I love to own this one:

A 1944 Disney war bond $195. I must have it now! And, I know it pre-dated me, but is it too late to help that particular war effort? It sure was worth winning, wasn't it?

Now that I look at the bond, I see Mickey, but where's Minnie? I see Donald, but where's Daisy? The Seven Dwarfs, but no Snow White. There's Bambi - but wasn't Bambi a boy? Is that other deer-like thing Bambi's mother? Probably - only she dies!

Come on, Walt, women participated in the war effort, too. Just ask Eleanor Roosevelt. And Rosie the Riveter. And my mother's friend Ethel, who was a WAVE.