State Of Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley Railroad Company

Here is an interesting Stock Certificate for two shares of this company.





Dave

That's from where I live! :)

Interesting certificate. I hadn't seen it before, but according to the (wonderful) online catalog of railroad scripophily at www.coxrail.com, the company had every denomination from 1-9 shares printed as a separate certificate, and then in tens from 10-100. Very unusual. Something new to look for...

That sure is a horrible font at the top. Even though I know what it says, I still can't read it.

TomSwift, I totally agree, even tho I know like you do what it says. And I'm the owner of this stock certificate. Perhaps you can also tell, the certificate itself is in shop worn condition.

Dave

I think that "shop wear" is from a stub that was removed. Typically, when the certificate was redeemed and cancelled the company would paste the stub back onto the left side. The glue was usually water soluable so dealers or collectors would soak them back off again. IMHO, they look better without the stub, even if it leaves a little staining.

GregAlex, sorry, I had not described "Shop Worn", I assumed everybody knew what shop worn means.

Your mistake was compounded by my assuming!

The Stock Certificate in question has at least 6 creases, one or two thin spots, reverse is soiled, there are small tears, and water damage, i.e. shop worn!

Cheers

Dave

If we are going to get technical about definitions, unless the defects resulted from being on display too long in a store, the certificate may be defective or damaged but it is not "shopworn."

Shop worn has always meant as long as I've been a stamp collector instead of listing all the faults, when there is a lot of them, just describe it as "shop worn"!

Dave

I'd never heard the expression before. While not mint or even excellent, I have seen many, many stock certificates in far worse condition.

The condition of the certificate itself is likely more critical to scripophilists (stock certificate collectors) than philatelists.

All I can say about the meaning of "shop worn" is that where I started stamp collecting, all the dealers both small and some what large, the stamp shows I've attended where the dealer would sometimes describe a faulty item as shop worn (too many faults to mention). I've worked for dealers, I've lived in other countries, especially England, and shop worn is used there also to describe faulty stamp(s).

So perhaps and this is just my guess everybody who have never heard of this expression before (shop worn), or who says "If we are going to get technical about definitions . . .", we all started and experienced stamp collecting in different ways, during different times, and maybe different parts of the country and world.

Shop worn is not a technical definition, rather it is a term used to save listing all the faults on a stamp, document, instrument, etc. Perhaps shop worn is too difficult a term to be used to reflects faults, maybe it is better to say: This stock certificate is in the following conditions torn, thinned, water damage, creased, soiled, buyer be aware!

I think any reasonable person would rather just say shop worn!

Dave

Very nice items, I just recently started collecting these items, not sure why but they are very nice and great history. I have been able to purchase common ones for $1 apiece.