A 1956 stock certificate signed by Warren Buffett is being auctioned Oct. 17 in Wiesbaden, Germany, the auction house announced Friday.
HWPH AG, a leading auction house for scripophily, the collecting of old stock and bond certificates, is holding the auction. The auction also includes a note from Buffett, who may be history’s greatest stock picker.
The stock certificate was issued by the Graham-Newman Corporation. "The Graham-Newman Corporation was a stock company that essentially served as a hedge fund through which legendary investor Benjamin Graham managed money for his shareholders. It is the same firm where Warren Buffett worked in his twenties before moving back to Omaha and establishing the original seven partnerships upon which his fortune is based," says Joshua Kennon, the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Investing, 3rd Edition, at his website. Buffett himself described working for the company in an article for Forbes.
Bids, starting at 5,000 euros or about $5,700, for the stock certificate can be made online in real time at http://hwph.infinitebidding.com/. The certificate will be auctioned as Lot 512.
Included with the certificate is a letter Buffett sent in 2012 to the daughter of the original shareholder. “You have a wonderful collector’s item in the Graham-Newman certificate, but I’m afraid it has no intrinsic value,” says the note signed by Warren E. Buffett.
“This stock certificate is one of the outstanding items of the 20th century,” says auctioneer Matthias Schmitt. “It bears the original signature of the most successful investor of all time and was issued during the very early years of his phenomenal career. This historic certificate is the only one known to us.”
