J.P. Morgan and Harris C. Fahnestock Signed New Jersey Junction Railroad Company Bond Certificate.

MORGAN, John Pierpont [J.P.}; Harris C. Fahnestock.

$8,800.00

Item Number: 146765

New York: American Bank Note Co, 1886.

Rare first mortgage bond signed by legendary investment banker J. P. Morgan. Oblong quarto, one page partially printed and accomplished in manuscript, the certificate is dated June 30, 1886 and issues a four per centum first mortgage bond for the New Jersey Junction Rail Road Co in the amount of $1000. Signed on the verso by J. P. Morgan and Harris C. Fahnestock as trustees of the NJJRC. The NJJRC was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River south to Jersey City. Incorporated in February of 1886 and on July 1 (the day after this certificate was issued), the railroad was leased for 100 years to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Matted and framed with a portrait of J. P. Morgan, a sheet of first mortgage bond coupons, and an informational placard. In fine condition. The piece measures 18.75 inches by 45.3 inches.

“Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you’ll be able to see farther" (J. P. Morgan). As a staple figure in corporate financial history, John Pierpont Morgan is known far and wide as America's "greatest banker" (Adrian Wooldridge). Morgan began his career in 1837 by joining the family bank, "House of Morgan," which grew large enough to save the federal reserve during the depression of 1890 by backing it with $62 million in gold bullion, a situation Morgan would become familiar with in his own leadership on Wall Street. Having formed several multinational corporations such as U. S. Steel through the merging of interests, Morgan held a colossal amount of power over capital markets in the United States and was able to save the American monetary system from collapse in the financial crisis of 1907.