Colourful financial documents that languished in dusty filing cabinets and drawers are coming back to life. People are now buying and selling antique or vintage stock certificates, bank passbooks, bonds, cancelled checks, and antique money for much more than their face value. They share stories of economic booms, well-known business names, and design changes which provide evidence of various time periods. Some of them are even elaborately decorated with detailed graphics like in historical prints.
Vintage Stock Certificates
Old stock certificates are beautiful collectibles, due to varying colors on the sides, engraved pictures and signatures. They include a lot of companies that have created industries, or which have vanished from the record over a long time ago, thus providing a sense of history to every piece.
Antique Bank Passbooks
Digital banking preceded passbooks that would manually record each deposit and withdrawal. Everyday financial advice from decades ago comes through in their eroded pages, in the hand-written notes.
Historic Government Bonds
Vintage bonds are desirable because of their beautiful styling and association with significant moments in history. Though not savable, they are still important pieces of monetary legacy.
Canceled Checks
Checks can be signed by business leaders or from a famous company that can be collectibles. Items such as stamps and old logos enhance their significance.
Old Paper Currency
When Banknotes are retired, they can be sought after for collectors by having rare serial numbers, printing mistakes or discontinued designs that have never been in circulation.
Savings Certificates
The savings certificate used to be a very strong way to save in many homes – for the future it is. Today, these documents serve as personal achievements and new generation financial habits.
Financial Ledgers
Businesses used to do business with accounting books which are completed by hand. Their orderliness is interesting if you compare its entries and aging pages with that of the modern business bookkeeper.
Shareholder Documents
Annual meeting invitations, dividend records and letters to shareholders contain information about the company’s history and are worthy additions to financial papers.
Decorative Bond Art
Many antiquated financial papers contain elaborate drawings, designs and symbols. Some use them for frames and make them vintage decoration instead of putting them into albums.
A Growing Hobby
The joy of the discarded bank notes is in their history. Every document shows a moment in economic history and makes ordinary paper into a collectible that draws relations between the past and present fascination with finance, business and design.
