One of the best parts of collecting are the friendship I’ve made, and The National always brings together people I don’t get to see often.

This year a buddy gifted me my first stock certificate, after I mentioned to him that, based on posts from Mantel, I was intrigued.

This certificate is from 1978. IBM. One share, which on the day it was issued was worth $8.44. The stock now trades at $191.75, which means it has underperformed the S&P by a good bit in that time.

I couldn’t find out much bio info on the person who purchased the share initially, but hopefully he didn’t hold the share for the last 40 years.

Really cool gift, and I suspect not my last stock certificate