Something for everyone: HWPH puts 4486 lots on the auction block!

Historisches Wertpapierhaus AG has scheduled his next triple-session auction for 27, 28 and 29 March 2023. This time Matthias Schmitt and his team brought together over 4400 lots of scripophily and related documents from all continents. 

One thing is for sure, you need some time to go through all the offerings. So I suggest you use keywords in the online search functions. HWPH's site has a dedicated page to select Regions, Countries, Eras and Industries, see here. I tried out the country Japan and found over 40 related lots. 

This unissued Kyoto bond was part of the city's 1909 5% External Loan of 45,000,000 francs. It shows the facsimile signature of mayor Saigo Kikujiro (1861-1928). He was a member of the Satsuma army, a group of dissident samurai that revolted against the imperial government in the Seinan War of 1877. Then, he was shot in the right leg which was partially amputated. Later, as mayor of Kyoto, he organized large infrastructure projects such as the excavation of the Second Lake Biwa Canal, the development of the city's water supply resources, and the expansion of Kyoto's roads and tramway network. With the Mitsui Bank, Saigo Kikujiro procured this 45 million francs foreign loan to finance these projects.  L(ot) 1895  

On the same page you can select for certain industries such as Fine China (Porcelain): you'll be surprised how many hits you get on this theme.  

Oh yes, you can combine 'industries' with 'countries'. I tried USA Railways, and there it is, over 200 lots in that combination, including the following rare bond printed by the National Bank Note Company. 

The Yumuri Rail and Tramway Company was incorporated in 1907 in the state of New York to construct a railway across the east end of Cuba connecting the northwest and southeast coasts. The Republic of Cuba was founded in 1902. The country's first decade was tumultuous and created a difficult climate for foreign investors. It is unclear what happened to the Cuban operations of this company. It went bankrupt in 1914. Click to enlarge image. L2996 

HWPH also brings its event to the online public through Invaluable.com. There, you'll find a separate section for each auction session. Click through to see the items. From there continue and select "Sort by: Price High to Low" to find the top items within each session. 

One of the top items from the first session is this 500 thaler Prussian Courant share in the Pommersche-Ritterschaftliche Privat-Bank from Stettin.  Today known as Szczecin, Poland, Stettin was then the capital of the Prussian Provence of Pomerania.  The fine print was produced by the Berlin-based lithographic workshop of H. Hindersin. Click the image below to see the rich details on the word "Actie" (share). L796 in the auction.

There is a lot more to discover in HWPH's auction catalogs. Here are the details of this online event:

• Dates: 27, 28 and 29 March, each day starting at 11 AM German time 
• Location: this is an online event
• Further info and catalogs, see here on HWPH. Live bidding is possible through Invaluable.com, see there.

F.L.

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Scripophily Puzzle No. 7 - solution

What have The Washington Post, Berkshire Hathaway and 20th Century Fox in common? 

Answer: Scripophily Puzzle No. 7 ? 

Hm, yes ... but no, we are looking for the solution of that puzzle.

To help you solve the puzzle, see here, I provided three visual cues. These were images from three different stock and bond certificates. Each one relates to our mystery person.

And the correct answer for the puzzle was ... (drumm roll in the background) ... Katharine Graham.

The first cue showed a 100 shares certificate from The Washington Post Company, issued in 1971. At that time Katharine Meyer Graham was the President of her family's newspaper business. 

Her father, financier Eugene Meyer was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board from 1930 to 1933. After leaving the Federal Reserve he bought the Washington Post newspaper at a bankruptcy auction in 1933 and became its "publisher". In the US a newspaper publisher is the owner of small newspaper company, or the chief executive of a major newspaper. Eugene Meyer was both. 

 

When president Harry Truman named Meyer to be the first president of the World Bank in 1946, Meyer transferred control of the Post to his daughter and her husband Phil Graham, the new publisher. After his father-in-law passed away in 1959 Phil Graham became the company's new president and chairman of the board.

So much for some background info about the newspaper. Enters our starring role, Katharine Meyer Graham.

Katharine Graham, publisher of The Washington Post, guest at a meeting of the Dutch Newspaper Press (NDP) in 1975

attribution: Unknown / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, URL see here  

In 1938, after graduation, Katharine Meyer covered labor news and a wide range of other topics at the San Francisco News. One year later she returned to Washington to work for her father's newspaper. Katharine married Philip Graham in 1940. After serving the army during World War II he took over the position of The Washington Post's publisher from her father.

When her husband died in 1963, she took control of the newspaper as its new president and publisher. Back then, a woman was not supposed to be able to run a tough business like a newspaper company, but she persisted.

Katharine Graham was the first woman to head a Fortune 500 company. She was the first to serve as a director of the Associated Press, the news service owned by member newspapers, and of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Her facsimile signature appears on stock certificates from The Washington Post.  

Mrs Graham made historic decisions about the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, a top secret government account of the war in Vietnam, and the Watergate scandal, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency in 1974 under the threat of impeachment. 

In both cases, she hold out against massive pressure from the White House and other government agencies not to publish, at the risk of criminal charges for violating espionage laws and opposition to licenses for the company's broadcasting properties.

Together with Benjamin C. Bradlee, The Post's editor, Katharine Graham took the company to the top in American journalism. During her leadership, the company's revenue grew about twentyfold. The Washington Post got listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1971 and became a diversified media corporation.

What did The Washington Post disclose about the Vietnam War? The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged its military operations in the Vietnam War, without informing the mainstream media. 

The first visual cue of this puzzle - a Washington Post share with Katharine Graham's signature - already contained sufficient information to take a good guess.  

However, I wanted to make you doubt yourself by providing two more visual cues, diversions, including one with a detail of another famous signature. 

image courtesy HWPH 

The facsimile signature shown in the second image provided is the one from famous investor Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a multinational conglomerate holding company. 

Warren Buffett started buying large portions of Washington Post stocks in the 1970s. He became a close friend and financial advisor to Katharine Graham. For 37 years Buffett was a member of the board of the newspaper till 2011. At that time Berkshire Hathaway owned 21% of the common stock in The Post.

The last visual cue for this puzzle is a $5,000 bond certificate from Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. 20th Century Fox released in 2017 The Post, a political thriller about The Washington Post and the publication of the Pentagon Papers. It stars Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham. 

Trivia: Katharine Meyer Graham and Meryl Streep both attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, though at different times.

The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, also shows a similar looking stock certificate from The Washington Post. Check out The Post's trailer at imdb.com see here. Scroll forward there to 1m 32sec to see Meryl Streep presenting the Washington Post's new stock certificate. 

The Washington Post's company seal, shown at the bottom of the share, mentions 1947 as its date of (re)incorporation. Near the upper left and right corner of the image, and outside the seal, you can distinguish two small round marks. You can find these dots elsewhere on the certificate too and also on many other American stock certificates. Called "planchettes" they are mixed into the paper pulp during the manufacturing process of the security paper and glow under ultraviolet light. 

Is The Washington Post still owned by the Graham family? In Oct 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, owned by Jeff Bezos, for $250 million.

No one submitted a solution for the puzzle. Was this too easy, or too difficult? Let me know.

F.L.  

Related links

• Katharine Graham's obituary at The Washington Post 
• Warren Buffett to step down from Washington Post Co. Board 
• The Post (film) at Wikipedia 

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• "Auction Explosion!" says Scripophily magazine 
• The most expensive share sold at auction in 2021