Good evening everyone, This has been a marvelous month for my collection and I´m going to share now a story about one of my most precious items now connected to my collection. As some of you know I collect Icelandic merchant tokens and bread tokens. Most of these are rare and often impossible to find and in some cases even impossible to be able to see. The tokens I really do love and are one of my rarer ones are from the 1880´s to around 1905 from a merchant called Pjetur J Thorsteinsson. Now he is in my mind a true hero, he was smart, hardworking and a brilliant business man in a country ruled by the Danish and in a country almost impossible to make a buck on. I have read his biography which is 800 pages long many times and still enjoy the read. Stories of him taking long trips over the Atlantic ocean on an open boat full of the summers catch of fish so he could maximize the profits instead of selling it to merchants in Iceland is just one of many story’s that make this man great in my mind. So in a sense he is one of my all-time great hero and I admire the man immensely. Some months ago I thought how wonderful it would be to own his signature. And as all documents from his store is in a museum the only chance I thought would be on an old stock. As he owned many companies I really thought I had a shot. So I spoke to many people about it to gather information but was told right away by the most serious collectors that they had never seen any stocks with his name nore any of his companys. So I gave up the search and moved on. But................ Many months later I got a call from a gentleman who said he had something for me and this is it. When he showed me the stock I had forgot that I had been looking so I was all question marks as I don’t collect stocks but when I read the name of the owner on the header my jaw just fell on the ground and a loooooooong pause came. After I picked it up it it fell right away again as I realized it was one of his later company’s so I had in front of me his own personal stock with his signature witch is one the far left hand side. I actually had a hard time not screaming with excitement. I own this stock now and it was given to me as he said with a smile I would obviously enjoy it much more than him. It is being framed by a professional as I type this. Best regards Siggi
He started his store in the small town of bildudalur and had a merchant store " food,supplies,ect" as well as fishing company. He made his fortune with fish and owned the largest fleet in Iceland at the time. It took him if I remember correctly only 8 years to become the largerst fishing company in Iceland and owned the largest fleet as I said. Old ships he bought from the UK. He was a pionieer in storing and the processing of fish as well.
This, my friend, is what makes the hobby worth researching, worth doing, worth being a part of. Not making money. Congratulations.
Fantastic piece of luck in picking up this treasure for your collection Siggi. Sometimes during your life something you do or say sets off a chain of events that ends in a positive way like this did. Its happened to me a few times and there's no feeling as sweet as that. Maybe you can post another picture after it's framed and hung in a special place. Congratulations my friend. Bruce
Thats a great find my friend,,,,Its wonderful to add such a great item like this to your Icelandic token collection from this man. it makes your token collection that much nicer and you do have a great collection.,,,,Way tooo cool...congrad's
Thanks everyone, It was such a great thing to hold and to own. It´s a big part of my collection now Siggi
Outstanding piece for your collection. Do you know if that biography is available in English? Your description has me quite interested in Pjetur J Thorsteinsson.
