Scripophily

Scripophily is the study and collection of stock and bond certificates, a specialized field related to numismatics that developed as its own area of collecting because of the inherent beauty of certain historical certificates and the interest collectors take in the historical context of many of the documents. Some stock certificates are prized as fine examples of the engraver's art in their own right, and occasionally a collector finds an old certificate that still carries real value, representing actual shares in the original company or in a successor that it was later absorbed into. The hobby sits alongside currency and coin collecting as a way of preserving financial history as a physical, decorative artifact rather than as an investment instrument.