Boone sale 45 in mid-September

Mario Boone’s sale catalog #45 just arrived this morning. As we’ve come to expect, Mario’s catalogs and selections keep improving. This particular sale, slated for September 18 and 19, offers 1884 international lots covering every major business type.

Railroading is, as usual, well-represented. I count 96 lots dedicated to railroads in my specialty area of North America. Most everything I see from the U.S. is medium scarce. In other words, I don’t see anything particularly rare nor particularly common. While I cannot comment on non-railroad certificates, Mario’s price estimates for North American railroad certificates seem to reflect the reality of today’s market conditions. Consequently, I expect Boone’s sale will experience higher than normal sale rates.

Going through the catalog to write this blog article, I found two items that caught my eye. The first is the unissued red and black $50 bond of The People’s Railway Company of America (lot 1673). This company was dismissed in the early 1880s as fraudulent, but that would never have prevented stock or bond sales. Nonetheless, no issued examples have ever been reported and these borderline-rare items are known only in unissued form.

Another interesting item is an issued certificate (lot 1703) from the Del Norte & Humboldt Railroad Company. The design of the certificate for this California company is somewhat plain, but is clean, well-preserved and one of only five issued examples reported to me so far. I currently estimate fewer than ten examples exist. Mario’s €150 estimate is well below the $569 highest price recorded.

You may contact Mario Boone and his Scripophily Center at www.booneshares.com or call him at 0032-(0)9.386.90.91 to receive a copy of the catalog for the 45th Auction and Bourse to be held at the Crowne Plaza in Antwerp, Belgium.