5
Abkürzungen / Abbreviations
Abkürzungen und ihre Bedeutung:
Abb.
= Abbildung = Picture
AG
= Aktiengesellschaft = Joint-stock company
Faks
. = Faksimile-Unterschrift = printed signature
Nr.
= # = Nummer = number
o. D.
= ohne Datum = without date
o. Nr.
= ohne Nummer = without number
RM
= Reichsmark = reichsmark (old German Currency)
OU
= Original-Unterschrift = original signature
KB
= Kuponbogen = all coupons
KR
= Kuponreste = rest of coupons
DB
= Doppelplatt = double sheet of paper
RB
= Reichsbankschatz = Reichsbank Hort
Maße:
Alle Maße sind in cm in der Form Höhe mal Breite angegeben.
All measures mean hight x width (1 cm = 0,3937 inch).
Erhaltungsgrade:
UNC
= uncirculated, neuwertig, vollständig erhalten, ungefaltet,
außer zwischen Mantel und Kuponbogen, Papier sauber (ohne
Flecken), ungelocht usw.
EF
= extremely fine, außerordentlich fein, fast neuwertig, vorzüg-
licher Zustand, sehr leichte Gebrauchsspuren, im Mantel
höchstens einmal gefaltet (dies darf nicht zu streng genommen
werden, denn da die meisten US-Bonds großformatig sind,
wurden sie auf Westentaschenformat gefaltet, dies stellt aber
keine Wertminderung dar).
VF
= very fine, sehr fein, gefaltet, mittlere Gebrauchsspuren,
schwach gefleckt, kleinere Randeinrisse, Klammerlochungen usw.
F
= fine, stärkere Gebrauchsspuren, mehrmals gefaltet, mäßig
starke Flecken, leichte Risse sowie kleinere Fehlstellen in der Falz
möglich usw.
Introduction
We welcome you to our journey through five centuries of financial history. In this cata-
logue at hand we present the 50 finest, most interesting, for the economic development
most important and rarest stocks and bonds of our auction. I invite you to view the TOP
50 items of our auction with another view. What would the world be like, if our ancestors
would not have been such brave investors and adventurers? What would be the world be
like, if it would have not given these 50 stock and bond certificates? I know, that it is too
much simplified, but I‘m sure this attitude helps to understand better, what treasures we
do hold in our hands and in our collections.
Let‘s start our journey with the „mother of all joint stock companies“, the V. O. C. This
company issued shares as the first company in the world on 20 March 1602. The V. O. C.
shares were the first shares, which were very similar to what we know today as share cer-
tificates. Other companies, founded before, were only founded for one venture. When the
venture was finished, the company was liquidated. By means of the share capital and the
proceedings from bonds the V. O. C. and the Dutch displaced the Portuguese as the colo-
nial power number one. The V. O. C. had the monopoly for the area between the Cape of
Good Hope and Western of the Strait of Magellan. The West-India Company (WIC) was gi-
ven the monopoly for the trade with Western Africa and America. The WIC founded cities
like New Amsterdam (New York), Brooklyn and Hoboken.
You can see which defining projects and developments were financed by issuing stocks
and bonds. In consideration that only a few hundred or a few thousand certificates of each
issue were printed, the importance of each stock and bond certificate becomes even clearer.
Very interesting is a Liquidated Debt certificate, too. European investors bought trough this
way treasury bonds of the United States at a large discount. The certificate is
one of the earliest proofs of the solidity of US-Bonds.
Money was always the lubricant of the economy. Large companies like the car
manufacturer Daimler-Benz often used the capital market to finance their
expansion. The company raised money through the issue of very decorative
bonds in 1909 and 1912. Social projects were financed also by stocks and
bonds. Both, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Zoo of Phila-
delphia would not have been that important today, if stock- and bondholders
wouldn‘t have invested.
With this we are at the end of our little journey through four centuries of fi-
nancial history. We sincerely invite you to the auction of these 50 contemporary
witnesses of the bull and bear markets. The auction will take place on 26 April
2014 starting at 2.40 p.m. in Wiesbaden. Use this unique opportunity and write
your own chapter of financial history.
Sincerely yours,
Matthias Schmitt
V. O. C. Bond issued in 1623: One of
the oldest bonds of the mother of all
joint stock companies.
Specimen of a HSBC share certificate: Sir Thomas
Sutherland realized the large potential of China and
Asia already in the year 1865.
