Our History

How It All Began

The National Stock and Bond Show has its roots in a sparsely attended meeting of about a half dozen or so members of the International Bond and Share Society in June of 1987. At a meeting held during the well-known Memphis Paper Money Show, John Herzog presented to those of us in attendance the idea of holding a stock and bond show at the Strasburg Inn in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. While seemingly a less than prolific location, John held an interest in the property and was able to arrange an affordable bourse and guest room rate which would enable the show to take place.

The germination of this idea became a realty just 7 months later with the first stock and bond show at the Strasburg Inn taking place in (Jan – Feb) of 1988. A two day bourse accompanied by an R. M. Smythe & Company Public Auction was held. From this it grew to become the most important annual event for collectors of historical stock certificates and bonds now entering its 38th consecutive year as an annual show, save for a one year interruption due to Covid.

Following the discontinuance of the Strasburg show as R. M. Smythe’s operations were winding down, longtime collectors and dealers Bob and Judy Schell took up the mantle to continue the tradition of holding an annual show, moving it to a locale closer to their home in Virginia. After 24 years of running the show and navigating the multitude of complexities involved in running a show (along with the countless foibles of Scripophily Dealers and Collectors alike), Bob and Judy made the difficult decision to retire from the management of the show. The annual show remains as an important component contributing to the larger Scripophily community as a whole. As Bob and Judy have passed on the mantle to me, it is my hope to keep the tradition alive for many years to come.

Scott Winslow

The Historic Strasburg Inn
Site of the Early Shows

"It is of the greatest consequence that the debt should, with the consent of the creditors, be remoulded into such a shape as will bring the expenditure of the nation to a level with its income. Till this shall be accomplished, the finances of the United States will never wear a proper countenance. Arrears of interest, continually accruing, will be as continual a monument, either of inability, or of ill faith and will not cease to have an evil influence on public credit...."

Alexander Hamilton

John Herzog

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The Team at R. M. Smythe Responsible for the Early Shows in Strasburg Pennsylvania

Left to Right: Dr. Douglas Ball, Steve Goldsmith, Diana Herzog, John Herzog

Bourse Activity at an Early Strasburg Show

John Herzog is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Museum of American Finance and Chairman Emeritus of Spink/Smythe, an auction house specializing in antique stocks and bonds, bank notes, coins, autographs and photographs. Formerly he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Herzog Heine Geduld, Inc. He is a member of the Board of Overseers at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Strasburg - The Early Years

Pioneer Dealer and Collector John Herzog Founder and Promoter of the First Scripophily Shows in America

Bob and Judy Schell

Bob Schell's Story...

For the first show, I spent hours searching the near-to-home Washington DC area for a reasonable but yet acceptable place for a show. My initial (cheap) idea was to hold the show in a Fire Department hall. Although there were ideal (and again-cheap) firehalls available, that avenue got nixed when there wasn't a hotel nearby for out-of-town attendees. I toured many hotels that had meeting/ballrooms that would accommodate my then unknown number of tables but they had to be lit well enough to read the certificates on display. You can't imagine how many dark ballrooms there are in that three-state area ---maybe it makes for better unnoticed misbehavior on the dancefloor. After a long search, I found a promising cheap hotel ballroom and booked the show allowing for us to only charge $30 for dealer tables.

Twenty four years ago, my wife Judy and I held the first "Northern Virginia Stock and Bond Show" at the Homestyle Inn in Alexandria Virginia. Looking back, the place was really a disaster. After booking and before the show date the hotel closed down their restaurant and Judy and I had to provide a Virginia ham dinner and pizza for lunch for out-of-town dealers. To encourage prominent dealers to attend we provided lodging to Cliff Priest, Sam Withers and Larry Falater at our nearby home. That first year we had 30 tables with 17 dealers setup from all over the states as well as Stefan Adam from Germany. Probably the most memorable event in those first few years was the year we had an ice/snow storm and no one could leave because the hotel didn't plow the parking lot. I think it was David Strebe, Scott Winslow and I that had to help push attendees' cars out of the ice rink of a lot. Things did get better, after three years we moved on to the Marriott and then the Doubletree chain, both of which was like working with the federal government. At the Doubletree, they had a sales manager problem-- I dealt with 7 different sales managers in the span of 8 months. One of the many managers wanted to move the show to the pool area because they had double booked a wedding in the ballroom I had reserved. Can you imagine handling all those damp certificates if that situation had developed.

Finally, in 2007 we moved the 61 table show to the current Crowne Plaza location, and renamed it the "National Stock and Bond Show". Here we have had the same sales manager and set up crew for the past 17 years. Over the years this hotel has worked out very well with very few complaints. It has free parking, free shuttle service from Dulles Airport and the Metro system, and a very good inhouse restaurant.

Washington and Herndon

Scenes From Previous Shows