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We Take You Inside the National Stock & Bond Show. Rare financial history collectables
Feb 27, 2025
Last month, we visited the 24th Annual National Stock & Bond Show in Washington, DC to learn about the hobby of Scripophily – the collecting of historical stock and bond certificates, meet dealers and explore their collections.
Featuring interviews with:
- Chris and George LaBarre of LaBarre Galleries
- Tim Welo of the International Bond and Share Society
- Fred Fuld of AntiqueStocks.com
- Larry Schuffman, Adjunct Professor at the Museum of American Finance
- Bob Kiersten from Scripophily.com
- Bob & Judy Schell, Conference organizers
- Jim Hutzler, Collector
- Scott Winslow, Collector & Dealer
Ticker History is a proud member of the International Bond and Share Society (IBSS)
This video was produced by BullishStudio.com
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0:00
the number one I believe sold for a
0:01
million bucks one day they called me
0:03
from the SEC and they said we have 15
0:06
people here in our room and want to
0:07
listen to why you buy stock certificates
0:09
and what you're plan to do this is the
0:11
national uh stock and bond show in
0:13
Washington DC 24 years we've been doing
0:15
it this is the best group of people you
0:17
could possibly work with scoy is the
0:19
name of the Hobby and uh we love stocks
0:22
and bars hi I'm Brian Hanley and welcome
0:24
to Ticker history where we explore
0:26
Financial history through the lens of
0:28
old stock and bond certificates today
0:30
we're in the 19th annual stock and bond
0:32
show the stock and bond show attracts
0:34
dealers from the US and around the world
0:37
join us today as we interview dealers
0:39
take a look at some of their unique
0:40
Collections and learn more about this
0:43
hobby there's something here for
0:45
everyone ranging from just $1 for a
0:47
certificate all the way up to thousands
0:48
of dollars for more rare items we hope
0:50
that you enjoy this journey and if you
0:52
like what you see make sure to like the
0:54
video subscribe to our YouTube channel
0:56
and leave a comment below and let us
0:57
know what you found interesting please
1:00
check out this week in history a free
1:02
email newsletter going out to 25,000
1:04
Finance professionals investors and
1:07
history nerds Al like it's free it's
1:09
weekly so make sure that you click below
1:11
or visit us at ticker history.com And
1:13
subscribe thank you for joining us and
1:15
we hope that you enjoy this video you
1:16
could collect it because they're
1:17
beautiful documents you could collect
1:20
these things because they're
1:21
historically significant you could
1:24
collect them because you're interested
1:26
in the company I have a friend he found
1:28
a certificate that his grandfather
1:31
signed as treasur of some railroad who
1:33
am I here with Tim willo I am the
1:35
chairman of the international bond and
1:37
shares Society the interesting thing
1:38
about this hobby is up and this is a
1:42
great
1:42
example here with this dealer number of
1:46
sept go and they're only $3 each you
1:49
know so you can get in the hobby for not
1:51
much money and you know very interesting
1:55
material or you can spend
1:57
$30,000 right you know if you want a
2:00
Founder shareff for Standard Oil um
2:03
signed by John D you're going to spend
2:05
30 40,000 bucks and this is a George
2:08
labar Chris labar of George labar
2:11
galleries it's always exciting to see
2:13
new things uh that you've never seen
2:16
before right and uh this show is just
2:19
tremendous that way we we must have
2:21
bought 300 pieces here very you know
2:24
running from $2 on up to uh $1,000 y
2:29
this is a a check signed by Alexander
2:32
Hamilton usually he signs a Hamilton and
2:38
it's signed Alexander Hamilton he he
2:41
doesn't usually spell out his his first
2:42
name Alexander but sign by him a quite B
2:45
after yeah especially signed the way it
2:49
it is signed that's a really cool very
2:51
primitive
2:52
1795 file that that's around 19,000 we
2:55
find here what is known as a print of
2:59
one of of the most coveted stock
3:01
certific well it's actually an
3:02
obligation is a copy it it is a a print
3:06
that was in a European magazine that 100
3:09
of these were printed all genuine
3:13
Bonds were signed or initialed by by
3:17
Marcel Dua and is is very very rich in
3:20
history a lot of art history it's it's
3:23
combined between scoley as well as art
3:26
and so one of them went into I think
3:28
it's certificate number one that sold
3:30
for about a million dollars and uh there
3:33
was another one that sold in in sbe's or
3:36
Christies for half a million what keeps
3:38
you motivated the treasure treasure
3:40
troves um you keep looking you keep
3:43
seeing something new I'm sure if I can
3:46
live another 40 years I'll I'll continue
3:48
finding things that are that are really
3:51
you know unique that I've never seen
3:52
before and then then the cool thing is
3:54
there's plenty of other safety deposit
3:56
boxes to be found and to be opened and
3:59
uh cabinets that have a drawer and there
4:02
was a a state trooper from the state of
4:04
New York that that that came to me and
4:06
said I found this in a very early piece
4:08
of furniture and it was a bunch of uh
4:11
1865 Mexican bonds you sound like now
4:15
and I offered grand for for the group uh
4:18
we met at the airport at Syracuse and
4:21
he's like why why are you buying this
4:22
why are you buying this he said well
4:24
it's it's collectible and so I handed
4:26
him a cashier's check and we parted ways
4:28
and he was very happy happy and I was
4:30
very happy and uh they're beautiful just
4:33
just beautiful stuff it's amazing I'm
4:35
Fred fold and how long have you been in
4:37
this industry how'd you get into it uh
4:39
well I've been in it for at least 20
4:43
years that I remember maybe 25 years I
4:45
start out as a stock broker right out of
4:48
college and at the time people would
4:51
come in with certificates and they'd
4:52
want to take a tax loss on worthless
4:56
companies that they had stock
4:57
certificates for so I told our Trader
5:01
who calls in the trades I said if
5:02
anybody comes in you know I'm willing to
5:04
pay a dollar and in order to uh let that
5:09
person have a confirmation showing that
5:11
they have a tax loss and so I ended up
5:14
buying a lot of certificates that way
5:16
were people you know they just said
5:18
interesting certificates but uh they
5:21
were basically worthless but I was able
5:23
to help them out and then I started
5:25
building this collection and then I
5:27
started going to antique stores I
5:29
started going to coin shows and looking
5:30
for stock certificates stamp shows that
5:33
type of thing yeah you want to show us
5:35
some of the stuff that you're most
5:36
interested in that you brought to the
5:37
show today okay um Trump hotels and
5:41
Grand Resorts
5:43
Casino uh and it has the vignette of
5:45
Donald Trump with his hotels and casinos
5:49
in the background it also has his
5:52
machine printed signature at the bottom
5:54
the Bold signature there as chairman I
5:58
notice this one is issued to you so can
5:59
you tell us a story about how you did
6:02
you you invested in the company or what
6:04
what was the Journey of that at the time
6:07
the Trump company was on the verge of
6:09
going bankrupt bankrupt and I thought
6:11
it'd be interesting to have some of
6:13
these certificates so back in the early
6:16
2000s you could actually you know buy
6:19
say 20 or 30 or 50 shares of a company
6:24
uh have certificates issued in your name
6:26
in one share certificate format and and
6:29
so I did that and that's how I ended up
6:33
with uh these certificates my name is
6:35
Larry schuffman I'm out of Pensacola
6:36
Florida I've made a lot of wonderful
6:39
friends over about the past quarter
6:41
Century that I've been involved in this
6:43
and it's been an awful lot of fun think
6:45
of myself as kind of a pseudo Financial
6:47
historian uh I've been privileged to
6:49
have been an Adjunct professor at monore
6:51
State University in New Jersey and also
6:53
an adjunct for the Museum of American
6:55
Finance so what I found is that you
6:58
learn a lot about a country history
7:00
through its body during World War
7:03
I to F to fund the war effort uh the
7:07
United States issued what was called War
7:09
saving stamps and also uh liberty bonds
7:12
there was a series of five liberty bonds
7:14
issued from the time the United States
7:16
went into the war um June I could be
7:19
wrong of 1917 or maybe April of 1917 up
7:23
until you know armis this day in in 1918
7:27
so this is the fourth series uh um the
7:30
interest rates which everybody kind of
7:31
take a look at these were issu in 1918
7:34
so it was a 20-year Bond and it was
7:36
callable after 15 meaning that you know
7:38
if interest rates went down the
7:40
government had the right to take the
7:41
bonds out of circulation the other thing
7:43
that I thought I'd share with your
7:45
listeners viewers Etc again this was
7:48
exchangeable into gold up until the time
7:51
we went off the gold standard in
7:53
1933 so if you think about this this is
7:56
$50 in Gold back then gold was um I
8:00
think $20 an ounce so um it was 22 o of
8:05
gold was what this was now if you turn
8:07
it into value today and that's of gold
8:10
is about
8:11
$2,800 this had about $7,000 of
8:13
purchasing power exclusive of the
8:15
coupons that went with it well this
8:17
coupon rate again was reading upside
8:20
down I think it's 4 and a qu% so that
8:24
means that every 6 months you would get
8:27
um a coupon you would get on a $50 Bond
8:30
so it would pay
8:32
$2.13 a year okay so every six months is
8:36
April and October you would literally
8:38
cut a coupon off this Bond actually had
8:40
five coupons with it when it was issued
8:42
fully you'd cut one off walk into the
8:45
bank and they would pay you you know
8:48
that money and that's what they did um
8:51
really pretty
8:52
vignettes on the back there's some
8:54
others and the vignettes were very
8:56
beautiful and very patriotic it's great
8:59
right so that's kind of the and what's
9:01
an item like this go for now and how do
9:03
you um how do you kind of determine the
9:05
value of something like this well one
9:07
thing is supply and demand this you
9:09
still can actually cash in for $50 plus
9:11
the coupons so it's still good all right
9:14
the thing is though is this is worth in
9:16
this condition around $1,000 my my name
9:19
is Bob Kiren website is scrip.com and
9:22
scrapo is the name of the hobby the
9:24
typical stock certificates has the name
9:25
of the company the DAT it was the datea
9:29
was issued on it the printed signatures
9:32
the older ones are handwritten
9:34
signatures but the newer ones are
9:36
printed signatures or they of the
9:38
president or the officers of the company
9:40
usually a secretary president or or
9:43
chairman of the board um they have the
9:45
number of shares that were issued on the
9:46
certificate they have a serial number on
9:48
the certificate and they have um the
9:51
cusip number for the modern certificates
9:53
and the qip number were you know people
9:56
always say well here's the qip number
9:57
the certificates of what that well all
9:59
the qip number does is identify the
10:02
company or the type of security it
10:03
doesn't identify what happened to the
10:05
company so qip you know people on the
10:08
internet says well you got to find the
10:09
qip number sign if the certificat worth
10:11
anything it's not true you want to find
10:13
the name of the company and contact that
10:14
company if you can directly to see
10:16
whether or not it's still around if it's
10:18
worth anything that's great and then you
10:19
have you know so it has the corporate
10:21
seal like this one was issued in
10:24
1998
10:25
we and then we typically have what two
10:27
signatures on it or three
10:30
sign and you know then it has the fine
10:32
print and on the back side if you want
10:33
to transfer the certificate as awarding
10:36
to transfer to and these were actually
10:38
like uh contracts right for for stock
10:41
yeah but the difference is just because
10:43
you have a stock certificate doesn't
10:45
mean that you still have ownership in
10:47
the company all it was is at the time
10:49
that it was purchased it meant you had
10:51
ownership in the compan but sometimes
10:52
people lose their stock certificates if
10:54
they lost their stock certificates they
10:56
could have had it received a replacement
10:58
certificate so then people find their
10:59
old certificates and they go oh D I
11:01
never cash this in but you can't cash it
11:03
in twice the company is still around
11:05
nice that's cool for new people getting
11:07
into this industry what what advice
11:09
would you give them number one buy
11:11
things that you like you know don't buy
11:13
you know you could buy things as an
11:15
investment but I wouldn't necessarily
11:17
recommend it because you can't predict
11:19
it it's like the stock market you just
11:21
don't know right um but you buy things
11:23
that you like and if you buy things that
11:25
you like that you can enjoy frame on the
11:27
wall and we always tell people to get
11:29
these float frames where there two
11:31
pieces of plexiglass or glass in a frame
11:34
and you put the stock certificate in it
11:36
and then you put it it has a frame
11:37
around it and then you can look at the
11:38
front and the back and if you get tired
11:40
of that certificate you take it off and
11:41
put in you know why spend $200 or $300
11:43
for framing when you get a Flo frame and
11:45
just put it on the wall that's great
11:46
yeah it's all about showing it and
11:48
visualizing it and and enjoying getting
11:50
the enjoyment out of it totally they're
11:51
great gifts uh this is Bob shell and
11:53
this is uh Jun hi the promoters of the
11:56
show we have been for 24 years this is
11:59
the national uh stock and bond show in
12:02
Washington DC yeah it's been 24 years
12:04
we've been doing it amazing yeah how did
12:06
it originate well uh I was trying to
12:09
find a show that was reasonable for the
12:11
dealers uh so we could get more people
12:14
into the Hobby and uh I started out with
12:17
renting a a kind of a broken down
12:20
Ballroom uh down in Alexandria they long
12:23
time ago ripped down that hotel and uh
12:26
we actually uh put up people at our
12:28
house and we Ser because the restaurant
12:30
had been closed out in that hotel we
12:32
actually gave especially the outer
12:34
Towners the ones that came from Germany
12:35
or or Europe you know we would serve
12:38
them Virginia ham at that night and then
12:40
pizzas during lunch you know that type
12:41
of thing so yeah that's how we started
12:43
the show uh so that more people could
12:46
get it and make it reasonable when we
12:48
started out of course we were able to do
12:49
it for like $30 a table well now you
12:51
can't do that anymore when you rent a
12:53
ball you know so so that's how we
12:55
started 20 some 23 years ago there have
12:58
been a lot of great beautiful
12:59
collections that have been donated to
13:01
museums that ended up in the basement
13:02
somewhere you know so um but it's a
13:05
great thing the paper's beautiful the
13:07
vignettes are
13:08
beautiful uh and somebody's probably
13:10
already told you you know the the Rarity
13:12
depends on condition and and numbers
13:15
that are out there has it been seen
13:17
before or is the company meaningful or
13:20
who is it signed by simple as that
13:21
that's great and Judy how has your
13:23
experience been with this uh this
13:25
industry and Bob going down how do you
13:27
feel about it well you know when we
13:28
first started about what are we
13:30
doing but I love these guys this is the
13:34
best group of people I could possibly
13:36
work with and I enjoy it I mean I
13:39
wouldn't come if I didn't right exactly
13:41
are there any uh particular uh
13:43
categories that you're interested in
13:45
personally well of course be being a
13:47
Wisconsin girl anything from Wisconsin
13:49
is always an interest well for both of
13:51
us so I would guess I don't have
13:53
anything in particular but if it's from
13:55
Wisconsin I certainly would take a good
13:56
long look at that's great and what are
13:58
you excited for in the future the show
14:00
we're hopeful that more young people uh
14:02
like yourself uh gain an interest in
14:05
this I think the the great thing about
14:07
it is that the sources is now cut off I
14:10
mean you don't they don't print these
14:11
things anymore it's all electronic as
14:13
you know and so at some point somebody
14:16
going to say wow you know this is what
14:18
really represented this is history you
14:20
know you look at a piece of paper that's
14:21
more than just a piece of paper it's the
14:23
history of a company and the thousands
14:26
of people that work for the company and
14:27
what they produced what impact they had
14:30
on History you know that's that's a lot
14:32
of it it really is so yeah believe it or
14:34
not this is wish rare but you see right
14:37
here this is his family his grandfather
14:40
stuff he's looking at that's his name
14:41
you people seeing their family
14:44
stuff you're hutler so the the business
14:48
was uh my my family the hudler family
14:51
came from Bavaria in uh in the
14:57
1840s and they did you have fun a Jewish
15:01
family and they uh came with uh
15:05
something like $18 in their pocket and
15:08
it was just a classic American story and
15:12
they uh came hutler Brothers company the
15:14
earliest I know is they actually were
15:16
pack Peddlers so they actually had a
15:19
wagon a horse and a wagon and they took
15:22
stuff from Baltimore and they took it
15:24
out to Frederick Maryland area at the
15:28
time the family of six children each one
15:30
of the brothers started actually a
15:32
business on their own one started a
15:34
retail business one started a wholesale
15:36
business and uh and eventually they
15:40
Consolidated in 1858 into what became
15:44
hutler Brothers company just again a
15:46
classic story where the business started
15:48
small and it just kept expanding and it
15:51
eventually became the premier of
15:53
department store in Baltimore one of
15:55
them and the business expanded it it was
15:58
a loan store one location in downtown
16:01
Baltimore until uh 1951 when they opened
16:05
their first uh Suburban store which was
16:08
in talson
16:09
Maryland uh and it eventually uh
16:12
expanded to about seven stores including
16:16
one on the Eastern Shore in Salsbury
16:19
down and uh but uh it was interesting
16:22
the writing certainly was on the on the
16:24
wall by the 1960s uh things were
16:27
changing very quickly
16:30
and uh the the discount retailers were
16:34
coming into being and it was a this
16:37
threat I remember being with my father
16:41
on had visited the West Field store
16:43
walked around got back in his car we
16:45
drove down and he says I need to show
16:47
you something so on the right side of
16:50
the road there was a newly open
16:52
Corvettes if you remember Corvettes and
16:56
he said he drove we drove into the
16:58
parking lot he says I want you to look
16:59
at this he said this is a problem and uh
17:02
he knew back then right after it opened
17:05
that uh Corvettes was uh and the whole
17:08
concept of uh discount self-service
17:11
retailing was a real threat to the G so
17:14
actually not too long thereafter they uh
17:17
put the business on the Block uh and the
17:20
whole business wrapped up in
17:23
1992 W this is one of the types of stock
17:26
certificates there's uh there's some
17:29
other ones well the when the business
17:31
was sold there were 92 family members
17:35
actually who were shareholders in the
17:36
business at that time uh everything
17:38
worked out you know until the era
17:42
changed that's the best way to quit it
17:43
right so today we see U Macy's is still
17:47
existing and although in trouble it's
17:50
the end of an era sadly
17:53
yeah but uh this is a relic of the past
17:56
though right yeah so I'm I'm glad had to
17:59
be able to share this with whoever Scott
18:01
Winslow Scott tell us a little bit about
18:03
your uh your journey here into this
18:05
industry how'd you get started well
18:07
actually I've been I've been doing this
18:09
my entire life in my working life I
18:11
started out actually working with George
18:13
labar when I was a kid um at the age of
18:18
about 14 and throughout call high school
18:21
and college I worked with him so in
18:24
1985 I started working for myself that's
18:28
great and do you do I deal with
18:30
historical stock certificates bonds
18:32
manuscripts autographs currency a lot of
18:36
early American Paper Money things like
18:39
that great and how did you come into a
18:40
lot of this stuff uh well at the
18:42
beginning you start buying from dealers
18:45
uh you start buying from auctions and um
18:48
then you get occasionally the fortune
18:50
and opportunity to buy from an
18:51
institution a big archive or something
18:54
like that which which is always is fun
18:57
when you can make it happen although
18:58
it's not that frequent um and then
19:01
institutions and once you develop a name
19:03
for yourself in the industry you start
19:06
having the opportunities to buy
19:07
collections that already exist they've
19:10
sold hundreds and hundreds of thousands
19:12
of pieces through through the years it's
19:15
been 40 years it's hard to hard to look
19:17
back and say it's been 40 years but it
19:19
has aw and what are some of your
19:21
personal favorites any Industries
19:23
companies
19:24
Styles uh well I I I I particularly like
19:28
a lot of early American types of the
19:31
development of our Capital system from
19:33
the 18th century the late 18th century
19:36
up to up to I'd say 1850 I like early
19:41
vignetted pieces the companies that
19:44
Transportation
19:46
railroads um and I really enjoy
19:50
collecting and dealing with things that
19:52
are signed by the The Men Who Built our
19:54
country John Jacob Aster John de
19:57
Rockefeller
19:59
um yeah can't go on and on but you know
20:01
with a litany and names but that I you
20:03
know the people that that built our
20:05
country yeah so than well I I can only
20:08
encourage you to get out there and learn
20:10
about this stuff the the hobby is a
20:12
fantastic one uh there's a lot of
20:15
opportunities to be on the ground floor
20:17
of certain themes and and you can buy a
20:20
lot of really interesting stuff for a
20:23
reasonable amount of money still that's
20:25
great can you share a little bit about's
20:26
been going on well in terms the show the
20:29
future well i' I've um happily am
20:32
picking up the ball and taking taking it
20:35
forward with with uh trying to operate
20:37
the show uh and continue a life of it
20:40
it's I mean there there's been for 38
20:42
years there's been a a a a national
20:45
stock and bond show in the US from the
20:48
early Inception of Strasburg and then
20:50
Bob and Judy picked that up and with for
20:53
the with the National Stock Bond show to
20:55
continue it on so we've got 38
20:57
continuous years of National stock and
20:59
bond show so the point is to continue
21:01
that you know for the coming years and
21:04
Beyond uh and um that's my goal that's
21:08
great so uh when is the show next year
21:10
it's always at the end of
21:12
January uh to the beginning of February
21:15
so it will still be in that time I don't
21:17
I don't have the exact dates and where
21:19
is it typically it's going to be held
21:20
still still at the same place that it
21:22
has been for the last number of years
21:24
which is the the Crown Plaza dullas in
21:27
hearnden Virginia thanks a lot Scott
21:29
appreciate it yeah are you interested in
21:31
learning more about financial history
21:33
check out ticker history where each week
21:35
we explore this week in history through
21:38
the lens of Finance going out to over
21:41
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21:44
this free email newsletter jam-packed
21:47
with information about how history plays
21:49
a role in our modern society thank you
21:52
for tuning in and I'm Brian Henley from
21:54
Virginia
21:58
he
22:02
[Music]
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