Description
While most of the Beinecke’s holdings are by their nature dead — their original purpose being fulfilled — the water bond still pays annual interest.
Summary
- A living artifact from the Dutch Golden Age: In order to for the bond remain live, we need to take it to the issuing authority in the Netherlands every couple of decades to collect the interest, but unless we’re loaning an item to another institution, we don’t allow collection material to leave the library.” By 1944, there was no longer any space on the vellum to list interest payments.
- The Collection of Financial History also features a bond issued circa 1622 by the Dutch East India Company, the first modern corporation.