Two Interesting Civil War Stock Certificates

Just got these two in this week.

This first one is a nice early usage of a tougher imperf (R36a catalogs $500). What I don't quite get is the tax rate. A certificate tax for an incorporated company should have been 25 cents, whereas the 10-cent rate was reserved for unincorporated companies and "other" usages.




This next one is less about the philatelic aspects than it is about the document itself. Stock certificates are almost always printed. An entirely handwritten stock certificate with written seal is very scarce. Forget about just from this company but across all industries... they just don't exist. When I described this stock certificate to a dealer I know who specializes in Indiana-related paper, he was foaming at the mouth.

Wow nice!

The reason for the ten cent tax is because the first is not a stock certificate. It is scrip for the transfer of 15 shares of stock from one person to another. This was a Power of Attorney tax, which was 10 cents up to $50 value after March 3, 1863. Before that it was 25 cents. Although it was signed in November of 1862, a careful reading of the document states that the shares will not be transferred until all the monies have been paid. If that did not occur until after the March date, the tax on the actual transfer would have been the rate at that time, ten cents.
The second document is also a Power of Attorney document, it is a transfer of stock, not the stock itself. Twenty-five cents is the correct tax on this document.

My understanding is that stock scrip is not a stock transfer from person to person, but rather a mechanism for a company to pay dividends in the form of stock shares rather than dollars. If you read the text, it doesn't say anything about a stock transfer. The date of the manuscript cancel on the stamp is January X, 1863.

The second document also does not say anything about a transfer of stock. It is standard stock certificate (issuance of stock) boilerplate language.

Both documents are listed in Cox's Railroad stock and bond catalog.

Cox does list scrip in some cases. The first one is scrip (it is identified as such on the document); Cox generally defines scrip as certificates for partial shares of stock or documents that were issued in lieu of payment of dividends. The first document shows partial payment of shares.

The Cox catalog is online (coxrail.com) and it is a wonderful resources.

It says the person maned is entitled to 15 shares of stock in the railroad. It also says that after the payment of the last installment and completion of the payments the stock will be issued. That is a stock transfer, whether those specific words are used or not. The stamp might have been backdated for some reason, or they might have misunderstood the tax rate, but it is a power of attorney usage, for which scrip is specifically mentioned. Dividends are included in that tax, they are a form of transfer.
I misread something on the second document, it is a stock certificate.