Taking Stock

Numismatists collect coins. Philatelists deal in stamps.

So what do you call somebody who has a passion for acquiring old stocks and bonds?

Try scripophilists.

Scripophily, pronounced "scrip-af-il-ly," picked up steam as a serious collecting pursuit in the mid-1970s.

Today there are thousands of collectors worldwide in search of scarce, rare and popular stocks and bonds.

The word itself is a combination of English -- "scrip" represents an ownership right -- and Greek -- "philos" means to love.

One person in particular who loves to chase down old securities is Bob Kerstein, founder of Scripophily.com.

An accountant by trade, Kerstein turned his back on the corporate world in the mid-1990s to launch Scripophily, in order to turn his hobby into what is now the leading Web site for stock collectors.

"Over the years, there have been millions of companies which needed to raise money to get their businesses started," says the Virginia-based Kerstein. "Each company had their own story as to how they did it. These certificates give us a piece of that story."

A Good Time to Buy Enron Stock

Not every corporate story ends happily.

But just because a stock loses all its value on the open market does not mean that it's not worth anything.

According to Kerstein, some of his biggest sellers are stock certificates of failed dot-com companies, as well as huge financial frauds like Enron, the second-largest business failure in American history.

Scripophily offers a number of Enron stocks, including a rare engraved certificate from 1989 signed by its late CEO Kenneth Lay for $375.

The document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a man and the company logo.

	An Enron Stock Certificate

However, this particular stock does not have the telltale crooked "E," as it was issued before Enron switched to its now infamous logo.

And it's not just stocks.

Scripophilists search for many variations of equity and debt instruments such as preferred stocks, warrants, cumulative preferred, bonds, zero coupon bonds and long-term bonds.

And like classic baseball cards or antique stamps, there are many factors that determine the value of an antique financial document including condition, age, historical significance, rarity and the type of engraving process.

Signatures are also very important in assessing the value of a document, which is why Scripophily is also a popular arena for autograph collectors.