Name/Title
First Mortgage Bond for the Greenville & Columbia Railroad CompanyEntry/Object ID
2013.7.11Description
Paper bond for the Greenville & Columbia Railroad Company for the denomination of $500. The bond is printed in green and brown ink on yellowed paper, and the number 32 is stamped in red ink in several places. The left side of the bond has vignettes of a steam locomotive and a woman with a cornucopia, as well as markings of $500; the right side of the bond consists of 40 small coupons for $17.50, equal to seven percent interest on $500 for six months, with the explanation that each one is redeemable on January 1 or July 1 of the years 1876 until 1895.Context
Owners of the Greenville and Columbia Railroad mortgage bonds clipped coupons from their certificates every six months, which they sent to the issuer to receive interest payments. This bond came with forty coupons attached for semi-annual payments over twenty years.
Elected officials during Reconstruction created the Sinking Fund Commission to sell unused government property but promptly used the money from the sale to line their own pockets. They sold the state investment in the unprofitable Greenville and Columbia Railroad to themselves, then marketed bonds secured by a mortgage on the corporate assets.Dimensions
Height
14-3/4 inWidth
22-1/2 in
