Stocks & bonds: What $72 million looks like

I'm going to revive this thread because a bond arrived in the mail this week that's a no-brainer to post here.

This is a 1948 specimen bond for the New York Bay Railroad, a short line in New Jersey operated by Pennsylvania RR. Specimens were typically printed by the bank note company as a example for the customer to review and for archive copies. At more than $14.5 million, this is the highest denomination bond I've ever owned or even seen. In today's dollars, that represents somewhere around $143 million.

The NY Times ran a small blurb regarding this transaction at the time:
"The Pennsylvania Railroad Company has asked for bids to be received on Nov. 16 for $14,518,000 of first mortgage bonds of the New York Bay Railroad. The bonds will be dated Oct. 1, 1948, and will mature on Oct. 1, 1973. They contain a provision for an annual sinking fund of $300,000 and will be guaranteed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as to principal, interest and sinking fund."

It appears that the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U.S., looking for a safe place to shelter its assets, answered the call of the PRR for the entire amount. That would indicate that just one bond like this was issued ... and this specimen is probably as close as any of us will ever get to seeing it.

 

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That is quite fascinating! Congrats on acquiring such an enormous denomination!

 

Seems like I don't come by these high-value stocks and bonds as often as I used to, but I nabbed one last week and it arrived today. Here's a stock cert for 173,290 shares of Standard Motor Products (SMP is still a viable company). When this was issued on Sept. 27, 1991 shares were around $12.50, making this certificate worth around $2.16 million. It was sold the following year for a loss of about $85,000. The current share price is $42.67, so it would be valued at around $7.4 million today, if it had been held.

 

That’s cool Greg. I sold Standard Motor Products for an independent Mom&Pop auto parts store for years. They were quality products competing with Delco-Remy, Motorcraft and other auto parts titans of the era.

 

I'm embarrassed to write I've never ever looked at the denomination of any bond that I have purchased.
I will now.

 

I especially like the railroad bond. It’s a really interesting piece of history. The Nikolaev Railroad is the Moscow-St. Petersburg line which was renamed the Oktyabrskiy after the revolution. I remember riding on the Nikolaevskii Express back in the late 90’s which was decorated with a pre-revolutionary theme. That was before the Sapsan high speed trains, when most of the trains were overnight sleepers. Last summer I took my daughter on the Sapsan which made the trip in under 4 hours. More convenience but less character.

 

I realized this is not the correct forum for this post. I attempted to delete it.
when editing the post I can't remove the photos. Posted it in the Beautiful Stocks and Bonds.

 

My favorite, Stutz. Jim

 

I love that Stutz certificate, @desertgem! It's a little off the specific topic here, but a beautiful piece. If you have other stocks/bonds you might want to post them on this thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/beautiful-stocks-and-bonds.163555
I have a number of auto-related certificates -- I might have to create a thread just for those!