Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 39

Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(CALIFORNIA.) Stock certificate for 50 shares in the Bodie Bluff Consolidation Mining Co., signed by Leland Stanford. Engraved certificate, 5½ x 10 inches, in red and black, numbered 372 and completed in manuscript, signed by secretary Frederick K. Bechtel and president Leland Stanford, and signed by the stockholder and a witness on verso; grazed on left edge, faint vertical wrinkle, minimal wear. Aurora, CA, 9 May 1863
Request Condition Report Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

The Californian gold mining town of Bodie on the Nevada line was founded in 1859. A handful of mines were launched there in its first ten years, none of them successful. One of them was the Bodie Bluff Consolidation Mining Company, which was formed in January 1863 to work claims bought by the famed robber baron Leland Stanford. He was at that point the state's sitting governor, but had not yet established Stanford University. After launching the company (and having these elaborate certificates engraved), Stanford soon lost patience, and the mines were abandoned.

This certificate is one of only two issued certificates signed by Stanford which has been traced at auction (pre-signed blanks are more often seen). A vignette of Bodie is emblazoned with the names of the company's 11 mines: Cumberland, Bunker Hill, North America, St. Charles, New Mexico, Main Top, Osceola, Mizzen Top, Fore Top, Oneida, and Isabella. This certificate was issued to shareholder Thomas J. Hubbard for 50 shares, valued at $100 each.

Bodie's glory days were a few years later, when successful mines boomed in the late 1870s. The town settled into a long slow decline by 1880, with the last mine closing in 1942. It is now an historic park and California's best-preserved ghost town.

Also in This Catalogue