LOT Heritage Rare Coin Galleries  /  2007 Long Beach, CA Sig. Coin Auction #430  / 

312

(1837) Merchants Exchange, New York, NY, Low-98, HT-294

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
(1837) Merchants Exchange, New York, NY, Low-98, HT-294
<B>(1837) Merchants Exchange, New York, NY, Low-98, HT-294, R.1, MS64 Brown NGC.</B></I> A light-chocolate piece with a hint of original mint luster between some letters. Still a desirable grade and a piece that would make a great addition to one's Hard Times collection. This piece mentions both the Merchants Exchange and the Tontine Building, a fascinating bit of early New York commercial history. A "tontine" is a legal device whereby survivors divide an investment and/or its dividends at some specified future point, while those who have died (or, more properly, their heirs) receive nothing. The Tontine Building was capitalized by 203 initial merchants, who devised a tontine to divide the money when the survivors numbered only seven persons remaining! The scheme is now banned in both the United States and Great Britain, because it provides a powerful incentive for investors to kill one another.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coin/Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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