Rare historically associated 1873 Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway Company stock certificate with exceptional transatlantic railroad-finance provenance.
Offered here is Certificate No. 9259 of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway Company, dated November 19, 1873, for 100 shares of $100 each.
The certificate features an especially attractive engraved design with a large early steam locomotive vignette, portrait vignette, sailing ship vignette, ornate border, and manuscript entries.
The certificate was originally issued to Alexander de Laski, a London-based financier associated with American railroad securities and international railroad financing.
Importantly, De Laski’s name appears as the registered shareholder; this is not represented as his autograph signature.
The reverse records transfer to three prominent British trustees:
Sir John Swinburne, Baronet
Sir George Balfour
Henry Wollaston Blake, Esquire
These individuals are named on the document as transferees/trustees; their names are manuscript entries and are not their signatures.
This combination of names is particularly significant because a contemporary 1874 Atlantic & Great Western Railroad financing notice identifies Swinburne, Balfour and H. Wollaston Blake as trustees holding shares of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad as collateral for the Atlantic & Great Western’s £480,000 Western Extension Trust Bond issue.
The presence of those same three trustees on the reverse of this CCC&I certificate provides unusually strong documentary evidence connecting this individual certificate with the broader Anglo-American railroad financing system of the 1870s.
The Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway was an important Midwestern railroad connecting major Ohio and Indiana markets and was eventually absorbed into the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway — the famous “Big Four” — and ultimately the New York Central system.
Unlike a typical surviving railroad certificate bearing only routine shareholder information, this example documents movement of American railroad equity into the hands of prominent British trustees involved in financing American railroad development.
Please note: Alexander de Laski, Sir John Swinburne and Sir George Balfour are historically significant named parties on the certificate, but their handwritten entries should not be construed as autograph signatures by those individuals.
Condition as shown in the photographs, with expected handling, folds, manuscript markings and age-related wear consistent with an original 1873 financial document. Please inspect all photographs carefully.
A particularly compelling example for collectors of railroad stocks and bonds, Ohio railroad history, the Big Four system, Victorian finance, British-American financial history, or 19th-century securities.