Collectors in the paper money hobby recognize scrip as unofficial money.

Collectors in the stock and bond hobby recognize scrip as several different kinds of collectibles.

Confused? You should be. "Scrip" meant different things to different companies.

Scrip falls into five categories:

• partial shares of stock, or a receipt for money redeemable as stock (included in catalog)
• partial amounts of bonds, or a receipt for money redeemable as bonds (included in catalog)
• unofficial paper money (NOT included in this catalog)
• currency-sized tickets (NOT included in this catalog)
• checks issued in place of dividends, often redeemable in stocks or bonds (included in this catalog only when they DIRECTLY MENTION stock or bond ownership)

Obsolete currency causes the greatest confusion.

Scrip that was printed and circulated as paper money causes a huge number of questions. Here's the trick. Scrip was not legal tender, but circulated in its place, particularly in circumstances and places where legal tender was not available.

Here is a good rule of thumb.

If a certificate LOOKS like currency, it was almost certainly printed to circulate as currency and therefore out of the scope of this catalog.

Obsolete currency from the Philadelphia Newtown & New York Railroad Co. Items like this are NOT included in the database.

Most obsolete currency was printed before 1863. Railroad companies often printed certificates to resemble currency so they would circulate, thereby giving hard-to-find cash to the companies. They purposely (and deceptively) worded their currency to imply ownership similar to bonds. Some currency even promised to pay interest upon redemption within 6 months to two years.

I do not – and WILL NOT –include obsolete railroad currency in my catalog for these reasons:

• I firmly believe obsolete railroad currency was printed and issued strictly as paper money. I believe that some companies purposely titled some currency as "bonds" in order to fit through legal loopholes that legislated which businesses could legally issue paper money.
• I have not found a single piece of railroad currency that offered a contract to holders of its currency. No contract -- no bond!
• Obsolete railroad currency was already well-known and well-cataloged in the paper money hobby before I started this project in the late 1980s. The paper money hobby substantially predates the stock and bond hobby.
• Auction houses and curreny dealers normally sell obsolete currency as part of the paper money hobby. Researching and tracking prices of obsolete currency would be burdensome.

Railroad "Bond" currency. Here are a couple of examples of railroad currency that cause confusion. No matter how someone wants to stretch the definition, I do not believe any of these kinds of items constituted true "bonds."

Obsolete currency from The Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad Co. and the Columbus & Lake Erie Railroad. I DO NOT catalog items like this.

Were these items really railroad "bonds?"

No, not in my opinion. You are free to disagree. However, I have never discovered any evidence that has yet convinced me that these items are true bonds. Here's why.

Strictly speaking, a "bond" is a binding agreement between two or more parties. One party (the investor) agrees to loan money to the other party (the company). In return, the company "promises" to repay the investor with interest. With true bonds, bond holders were first in line in case companies defaulted on their promises. True bonds display specific contractual obligations between companies and investors. Bondholders could -- and did! -- demand that companies be liquidated when troubled companies defaulted on loan payments.

I have never seen a piece of railroad currency None of these items tell what would happen if companies defaulted. I have never seen anything that remotely implied a contract existed between company and bearer.

I fully recognize that some collectors disagree. However, I continue to believe that all forms of railroad currency were nothing more than "promissory notes."

Collecting railroad currency is a highly interesting endeavor.

See this list of recognized references to obsolete currency. Always buy the book before the collectible.

Do you think I SHOULD include railroad currency in my stock and bond project?

Please read a more detailed discussion HERE.