The 5 Pound bond has been sold. The Buy Now price is for a VERY RARE Suite of 3 bonds consisting of 1) 10 Pound (scarce), 2) 50 Pounds (very scarce!) and 3) 100 Pounds (rare!). Serial number may vary on 1-2 bonds.
CHINA SKODA BOND TRIO
Underwritten by Jacob Arnhold's Company
(Pioneer German Jewish Banker!!)
to raise money for MILITARY EQUIPMENT & AMMUNITION
for the CHINESE GOVERNMENT During Revolution of 1925-27
INCLUDES RARE £50 and £100 DENOMINATIONS!!
These enormous antique Chinese Financial Bonds are enormously historic and rare, with a total issue for ALL denominations and ALL redemption periods of just 27,000 bonds of which scant few survive in good condition.
These are known as the "Skoda" Bonds. They were the brainchild of the company founded by Jacob Arnhold, a prominent German Jewish financier and his Danish partner, Peter Karburg. Jacob founded the company, one of the first foreign trading companies in China, in 1857!! His company still continues today under the name Arnhold Holdings as a major supplier of construction materials to Communist China (see unique history below).
In the years 1925-27 China underwent its Second Revolution. The first in 1911 had deposed Imperial rule and established the Republic of China. The Second launched what became a decades-long struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists. The Central Chinese Government was strapped for cash to pay interest on its earlier debt (such as the Petchili and Re-organization Loans of 1913) let alone for military equipment needed to quell the Revolution.
These bonds served the dual purpose of paying down foreign debt and arming the Government!! The first paragraph of the text states the bond is in substitution of and extension of 7 national bonds dated 1912-1916!! The bond was secured by taxes on real estate!!
The bonds were payable in Pounds Sterling and guaranteed, signed and sealed (with a red chop!) by the Chinese Minister of Finance!! Interest was payable at Credito Italiano and J. Hambro & Sons, London (illustrious financial names in and of themselves!).
Elaborately engraved in multiple colors, the bonds are a work of art with intricately ornate design elements and a large blue underprint. These are overstamped with a huge dynamic red chop at the center!! All original coupons are present on an attached sheet! (partial scan of each type attached) Finally there is a large fancy UK revenue stamp in the upper right corner (a French Treasury seal appears at the upper left on the 50). A truly international amalgam!
SOLD!! The 5 GBP Bond is purple and blue, with a red UK Revenue stamp and purple and blue coupons SOLD!
You will receive the following 3 bonds:
The 10 Pound Bond is fuchsia and blue with orange UK Revenue stamp and purple/blue coupons.
The scarce 50 GBP Bond is Green and Blue with Lavender Revenue stamp and orange/blue coupons.
The rare 100 GBP Bond is light fuchsia-lavender, brown and blue with a green UK Revenue stamp and red/blue coupons.
You will receive one each of the 3 listed bonds (3 total) in excellent clean condition ranging from crisp Very Fine plus all the way to Choice Crisp About Uncirculated. VERY RARE CONDITION FOR THESE RARE BONDS!
Seldom seen, gigantic size, beautifully engraved and ULTRA historic ORIGINAL China Skoda bonds in terrific condition. Last 3 in our archives!!
Arnhold Holdings Ltd (Stock Code: SEHK 0102) is a publicly listed company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is a leading name in the distribution of building materials and engineering equipment the People's Republic of China. It is the corporate descendant of Arnhold, Karberg & Co., a company that was founded in 1857, which was prominent "amongst the merchants who have contributed largely to the development of China's commerce" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Employing more than 650 employees, its headquarters has been in Hong Kong since 1949, with sales offices in both Shanghai and Macau.
Though Germany was not a prominent colonial power in Asia, its merchants carried on an active trade there. Throughout the nineteenth century, German firms became increasingly competitive with those of other western countries. In the opening decades of the century Canton was the centre for trade, but it declined in importance when the ports at Hong Kong and Shanghai developed.
Arnhold & Karberg & Co. (德商瑞记洋行) was founded by Jacob Arnhold, a German Jewish businessman, and Peter Karberg, a Danish merchant, as a German-registered trading company in September 1866 on Honam island, opposite to the city of Canton, where all the foreign offices were then located. The firm relocated to Shameen Island when Britain and France located concessions there in 1859.
Initially the firm operated on a "small scale", but "by perseverance, acumen, and integrity it rapidly increased its business and expanded its sphere." The firm opened its first branch in Hong Kong in 1867, and its next in Shanghai on 1 January 1881. By 1901 the firm had 37 branches throughout the Chinese empire, including branches with European staff in Tientsin, Hankow, Tsingtau, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Newchwang, Chungking, and Mukden, while branches with Chinese only staff in Peking, Tsinanfu, and Kirin, among others. Additionally the firm had "numerous Chinese agencies."
From 1897 to 1910, at least one of the Arnhold family was chairman of the company's board of directors: Jacob Arnhold (1897–1900), Philipp Arnhold (1900–1905; and 1906–1910); and Harry Edward Arnhold (1905–1906).
In 1908 the chief compradore of Arnold, Karberg was the 58 year-old Woo Chau Chin, who was appointed to that position in 1896, and was assisted by his son, Woo Ton Yin.
The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 had a profound affect on Arnold, Karsberg. Carl Smith explains:
When war was declared between Britain and Germany in August 1914 citizens of enemy countries were placed under parole but in October 1914 new laws were enacted enabling the Hong Kong Government to place German nationals who held reserve status in the military to be interned. Representatives of German businesses in Hong Kong sent a letter dated 30 October to the American Consul General there asking him to submit it to the British authorities. The merchants appealed for a reversal of the orders on the grounds that they had contributed through the years to the economic growth ol the colony "While naturally trading for their own benefit, they think that they may justly claim to have contributed in no small way to the development, growth of prosperity of the Colony, and in their capacity as peaceful traders they consider themselves and their businesses a valuable asset to the community It has taken decades of hard work to create such an asset which they consider particularly valuable to the Colony since they have as impartial traders been instrumental to a great extent in attracting to this part business from all quarters of the globe thereby promoting British trade more than that of another nation." As reasonable as this argument might seem to those who could differentiate between trade and politics, it found no sympathetic response among those who were responsible for the defence of the island and the patriotic call of God and King.
Due to hostility to German companies as a consequence of World War I, and the seizure of German companies by the British and their allies, Harry Arnhold and his brother, Charles Herbert Arnhold, "advertised themselves out of the well-known Anglo-German concern, Arnhold, Karberg & Co.".Arnhold, Karberg had four partners: the two Arnhold brothers, who held 43% of the shares; Ernest Goetz, a Swiss born German subject; and Max Niclassen, of Berlin, Germany.
Initially they formed the firm of Messrs. H.E. Arnhold (China).
On 1 October 1917, they incorporated Arnhold Brothers Limited (China), in Hong Kong, under the British ordinances, but with headquarters in Shanghai, (which was reconstituted as a British company after 1919. Sir Victor Sassoon became the majority shareholder in 1923 after a merger. According to Stella Dong, its "most attractive asset was the Cathay Land Company, ownership of which gave Sir Victor control of a number of apartment buildings and a hotel in the International Settlement as well as choice housing estates in the French Concession." Arnhold's served as a front for Sassoon's political interests in the International Settlement.
Harry Edward Arnhold was the initial chairman of Arnhold & Company, a trading company that became a leading distributor of building materials and engineering equipment.
Headquartered in the Arnhold Building at 6 Kiukiang Road, Shanghai until its relocation in 1930 to the third floor of Sassoon House at 1 Nanking Road. Arnhold & Co. flourished until 1949 when, with the change of Government in China, the headquarters relocated to Hong Kong. Mr. Maurice Green who had been associated with the company since the Sassoon takeover, acquired the controlling interest in Arnhold in 1957.
Arnhold employs over 650 people in Hong Kong and the Mainland. The group owns and operates a stone processing factory in Xiegang, Guangdong province, in the People's Republic of China. Sales of the Arnhold Group are derived from two main businesses areas - building materials and engineering equipment. The group serves an extensive network of customers in Hong Kong, Macau and the Mainland including property developers, contractors, utility companies and government departments.