I came across a box of exonumia today and this was in it. Some lucky fellow cashed out just before the 1929 stock market crash! Idk...maybe it's some unlucky fellow making a purchase. I just thought it was interesting to see so much money being moved just before the crash.
Awesome, I have had the chance to buy old checks or other paper based transfers. Didn't do it, though,
It's not really worth anything (that I know of). I thought it would be cool to put in a frame and hang in the bathroom.
Have you ever seen a movie called "The Mating Game"? If not, here's the trailer... What the trailer doesn't show is the surprise ending...(SPOILER ALERT!!!). At the end of the IRS audit, the family owes some ridiculously large amount and will lose the farm. However, they came across an old post-Civil War Reconstruction bond that has been accruing interest for 100 years. It had grown in value to over $800,000 (as I recall). A nice sum of money in the 1960's! Anyway, I mentioned that to say this... I bought a $1000 South Carolina Reconstruction bond issued in 1869 that accrues interest at 6% annually. I bought the bond because it has the original signature of the (then) Governor of South Carolina. These Reconstruction bonds were voided in the 1870s (I forget why). I've always hoped that since mine is hand-signed by the duly elected Governor of the State, then perhaps it can't be voided...and I'm sitting on a gold mine!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kingston_Scott So...what do you think? Does the Governor's hand signature (as the chief executive of the State) make this bond payable? "In the legislatures bribery was open and shameless. Negro members soon proved themselves the equal of the white members, at least in political capacity to sell their votes, though their price, perhaps, was lower. A North Carolina negro legislator answered a question as to the source of his proudly-displayed cash, “Master, I’ve been sold ‘leven times in my life, but this is the very first time I ever got the money.” Lavish expenditure of public money for the entertainment of legislators greatly facilitated their purchase. In nearly every state capitol was a free bar; in several were as well free restaurants; and, in some, bawdy houses were openly maintained. Rice-field negroes in South Carolina ate delicacies gathered from all the markets of the world, drank vintage wines and choicest liquors, smoked imported cigars of the finest grades, and drove behind blooded horses, all paid for by the state. Their wives and concubines—for many of them sought to emulate Solomon in all his glory—wore imported clothes, hats, and shoes, and furnished their quarters with mahogany and rosewood, damask and fine linen. And for all these things the state paid. The debts rose by leaps and bounds. In 1868, when the carpet-bag governments began their operation, the total bonded debt of the ten states, exclusive of interest, was in round numbers about $75,000,000. In 1873 this had increased to more than $217,646,000, and it is estimated that $100,000,000 more had been authorized. The expenses of the state and local governments rose as rapidly as the debt, and while property steadily decreased in value, taxes soared. Presently confiscation, under the guise of taxation, was in operation in nearly every one of these states. Millions of acres were sold for taxes, and presently, ridiculously low as were the prices, buyers could not be found, for few could afford the luxury of land. Only the political redemption of the states averted utter and general financial ruin. Such were the circumstances attending the issue of the bonds. The facts were known to all the world at the time, for not only the Southern press, but the Northern as well, described conditions. Conservative conventions served notice to the world that the whole proceeding was illegal, and that when the inevitable overturn came it would be repudiated. The fraudulent character of the bonds was published to the world. On the stock markets the steadily falling prices indicated the lack of any public confidence in their ultimate value. The New York banking houses which handled the bonds did so with wide-open eyes, and in many instances were as deeply involved in the corruption as the carpet-baggers and their native allies. Gambling speculators bought them, but it is doubtful if there were many innocent purchasers in the legal meaning of the term. Certainly there were none who heeded the warning caveat emptor. The inevitable overturn came at last, and state after state was redeemed until in 1877 home rule was restored to all. The carpet-baggers fled to enjoy their profits in safe retirement and the South turned to the task of rehabilitation. It was no easy task. The debts hung about the necks of the economically prostrate states like proverbial mill-stones. The very governments which had issued the new debts had defaulted on them, and the interest on the valid debts had not been paid. One of the worst and most illegal of the Louisiana administrations had heavily scaled the debt of that state. South Carolina had done likewise and no man has ever known, or will ever know, how many South Carolina bonds were issued. Something had to be done quickly to restore credit and the methods chosen differed little in the several states. Mississippi and Texas repudiated no debts and, indeed, had escaped the extravagant issues which had threatened the others. In most of the states a careful attempt was made to distinguish between the valid and the fraudulent debt. This accomplished, the valid debt was scaled, in some instances after consultation with the bondholders, and refunded into new bonds. The carpet-bag debt was then utterly repudiated." This bond is 152 years old. I found an interest calculator, but it only goes up to 100 years... Using the "Rule of 72", the $1000 doubles every 12 years...which will be 13 times in 2025. $1000 doubled 13 times is...$8,192,000. Not bad for a $26 investment! I just gotta get the State of South Carolina to PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!!!
