✅ SOLVED 1893/1923 $500 WA & Chesapeake Beach Railway Co Bond w/ Sinking Fund

[Trash404]

Hello, fellow treasure hunters!

II recently found & purchased an extra large binder with newspaper articles/clippings, & this was bond was randomly in the middle. Could y'all help me sort out some details?

1. Is it real? How can you tell if one is real or not?
   • If it is real, is it worth anything (see question 3 also, please)
2. While doing my own recent research, I noticed notes on bonds similar to this one that would say "Cancelled" or "Not Cancelled" but what exactly does that mean when it comes to bonds?
3. Actually, I'll take ANY history facts or fun facts in about bonds in general... so if you have any details, I'd love to hear about them!

Thank you in advance for any guidance or shared knowledge.... this is why y'all are my favorite! Thank you!!

~ Trash404

 

[robertk]

Well, there was one just like it -- and I mean just like it, right down to the serial number -- that recently sold for $32. See this link.

That railroad is defunct, so there's no redeeming it. But if it's real, it could have value to collectors. An eBay search found an older $100 bond for that railroad listed for $220, but age and rarity are always a factor, so who knows?

 

[Red-Coat]

LaBarre Galleries sells these kinds of documents, although they’re currently out of stock for that particular one, so no price is given. I would have thought the price at the link @robertk provided is a pretty fair price. They typically sell for up to about $50 or so and make interesting wall-hangings when framed but mostly were issued in sufficient numbers to be not tremendously valuable. There are of course always exceptions for rare issues in smaller numbers.

https://www.glabarre.com/item/Washi...aryland_Railroad_Bond_Uncanceled_/2374/p64c30

From the spiel on their website:

"The Chesapeake Beach Railway (CBR), now defunct, was an American railroad of southern Maryland and Washington, D.C., built in the 19th century. The CBR ran 27.629 miles from Washington, D.C., on tracks formerly owned by the Southern Maryland Railroad and then on its own single track through Maryland farm country to a resort at Chesapeake Beach. It was built by Otto Mears, a Colorado railroad builder, who planned a shoreline resort with railroad service from Washington and Baltimore. It served Washington and Chesapeake Beach for almost 35 years, but the Great Depression and the rise of the automobile marked the end of the CBR. The last train left the station on April 15, 1935. Parts of the right-of-way are now used for roads and a future rail trail.

In 1891, Baltimore lawyer (and later Maryland governor) Edwin Warfield and others organized the Washington & Chesapeake Beach Railway to connect Washington, D.C., with 3,000 acres (12 km²) of virgin bay front property at Fishing Creek where they would build a resort. Their Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, resort was to be a vacation spot for the rich and middle class alike, with two grand hotels, a boardwalk, racetrack, and amusements. A pier would accommodate Chesapeake Bay excursion steamers from Baltimore, Annapolis, and Eastern Shore points. In 1894 the W&CBR was granted a charter to incorporate the Town of Chesapeake Beach. The grand schemes of the W&CBR were never to be implemented, however and the railway was placed in receivership in 1895. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_Beach_Railway

A bond is a document of title for a loan. Bonds are issued, not only by businesses, but also by national, state or city governments, or other public bodies, or sometimes by individuals. Bonds are a loan to the company or other body. They are normally repayable within a stated period of time. Bonds earn interest at a fixed rate, which must usually be paid by the undertaking regardless of its financial results. A bondholder is a creditor of the undertaking."

When a bond is ‘cancelled’, it means the loan agreement has been terminated, and collectors are less keen on these because cancellation is usually effected by punching holes in the certificate or otherwise defacing it… like this one from Chesapeake & Ohio:

 

[Trash404]

LaBarre Galleries sells these kinds of documents, although they’re currently out of stock for that particular one, so no price is given. I would have thought the price at the link @robertk provided is a pretty fair price. They typically sell for up to about $50 or so and make interesting wall-hangings when framed but mostly were issued in sufficient numbers to be not tremendously valuable. There are of course always exceptions for rare issues in smaller numbers.

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https://www.glabarre.com/item/Washi...aryland_Railroad_Bond_Uncanceled_/2374/p64c30

Thank you for this site! It is very helpful!