Antique 1913 New York Central Railroad 1000 Gold Bond 📜 Certificate, Consolidation Mortgage Series A, American Bank Note Co.

Why Is a 1913 New York Central Gold Bond Signed by Penn Central? 📜 An Antique 1913 New York Central Railroad $1,000 Consolidation Mortgage Gold Bond, Series A

Size: 13 1/2" x 9 1/2"

A real, issued registered bond of The New York Central Railroad Company: FOUR PER CENT. CONSOLIDATION MORTGAGE GOLD BOND, SERIES A, ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS, "Dated as of the first day of August, Nineteen Hundred and Thirteen" and DUE FEBRUARY 1st 1998, printed in blue and black by the AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY with a laurel-crowned classical head between two 1,000 panels. It promises payment "in gold coin of the United States" at the standard of August 1, 1913, names Bankers Trust Company of New York as trustee, carries STATE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF ILLINOIS; AUTHORIZATION NUMBER 72, 1914 and CUSIP 649415 JV 9 - and it's signed for PENN CENTRAL TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, Successor to THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY, under a Penn Central seal. They were punch-cancelled when they were turned in.

🚂 A 1913 bond on Penn Central paper

Here's the part I love. The bond is dated as of 1913, but these sheets were printed long after. The early printings of this same issue carry a train on the High Bridge; these carry the classical head, a CUSIP number (those started in December 1968), and the Penn Central name, which only existed from October 1969. The merged railroad kept issuing registered certificates on the old New York Central mortgage, and Penn Central's seal on them even carries 1846 - the founding year of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Central's old rival, because Penn Central was the Pennsy's corporation renamed. And that gold-coin promise? Congress outlawed gold clauses in 1933, and the Supreme Court upheld it in 1935 in a railroad gold-bond case, Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio - so by the time these were printed, the gold promise had been a dead letter for decades.

🏛️ The New York Central and Grand Central

The 1913 mortgage financed the Central in its prime. Grand Central Terminal opened on February 2, 1913, and old-timers who worked there loved to tell newcomers that the painted sky on the ceiling runs backward - legend has it a commuter spotted it within a couple of months, and the stock answer was that it shows the heavens as God sees them. The bond itself recites how the New York Central was formed in 1914 by consolidating the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and others. Its 20th Century Limited ran New York to Chicago from 1902 to 1967, and the red carpet rolled out for it at Grand Central gave us the red carpet treatment. Old-timers along the water-level route used to say you could set your watch by the Central's expresses.

Then came the end. On February 1, 1968, the Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad; Penn Central went bankrupt on June 21, 1970, the biggest bankruptcy in American history up to then; its passenger trains went to Amtrak in May 1971 and its railroad to Conrail in April 1976.

📅 How old is it?

The bond issue is dated 1913, printed right on it - that's the date on the title. The sheets themselves were printed and issued by Penn Central around 1970. The one you get will carry its own number, owner, dates and stamps, and may look a little different from the one in my pictures. The Grand Central photographs at the end are there for history only and aren't included.

📜 About these bonds

They're 13 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches, engraved on heavy bond paper, with the punch cancellations of real use. It's a great one for a New York Central or Penn Central fan, a Grand Central lover, a banker or a train room. The supply is finite - neither railroad exists anymore, nobody's issuing these again, and once these last ones are framed, they'll be very difficult to acquire.