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Erie Railway Pass Signed by Jay Gould & Revenue-Imprinted (1872)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Railroadiana, Trains Start Price:750.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Erie Railway Pass Signed by Jay Gould & Revenue-Imprinted (1872)
SOLD
1,050.00USD+ (252.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2016 Sep 30 @ 10:07UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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One of the all-time sought after American railroad passes! A railroad pass that is also an autograph piece and a revenue piece.. No. 1927, issued for 1872 to A.H. Baldwin, vice president of the West Wisconsin Railway. Signed by Jay Gould as President. Reverse has RN-Q1 revenue imprint. Ornate blue border and allegorical vignette. Printed on cardstock by National Bank Note Co., New York. Minor wear around the edges and light soiling.



This railway was the center of a battle between some of the most powerful men in the country in the 1860s. Known now as the "Erie War," the conflict for control pitted Cornelius Vanderbilt against Jay Gould, Daniel Drew, and James Fisk. It started when Drew acquired the railroad in the 1850s and amassed a fortune by manipulating its shares on the New York Stock Exchange. This caught the attention of Vanderbilt, who quietly bought up shares in 1866 and took control of the company. He kept Drew on as treasurer. Drew then decided to conspire with Gould & Fisk to regain control. From 1866-68, they issued phony shares to water down the stock, and Vanderbilt bought these shares unsuspectingly, ultimately losing $7 million. Vanderbilt got Gould to later return most of that money through litigation, but conceded control of the railroad to the trio (Gould, Drew & Fisk). They were associated with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine and even made Boss Tweed a director of the railroad. Tweed repaid the favor by passing legislation to legitimize the stock shares. The battle for control of the railroad was not over. Gould & Fisk again manipulated shares to bankrupt Drew, who lost $1.5 million. (He eventually died broke in 1879). Gould had regained control, but his luck ran out when he himself lost $1 million in company stock to British confidence man Lord Gordon-Gordon. In 1872-73, he gave up control of the railroad. After declaring bankruptcy, the railroad became the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway Company in 1878.



Jay Gould (1836-1892) is known as one of the "robber barons" of the Gilded Age. His career in railroad and stock speculation began in 1859. Gould & Fisk were also implicit in what is known as Black Friday (1869). Their plan was to buy enough gold to drive the price of gold way up, then forcing wheat farmers to sell their supply which would provide increased freight service for Gould's Eastern railroads. Gould even used President Ulysses S. Grant's brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, to try and influence Grant and his cabinet. When the premium over face value on a gold Double Eagle fell from 62 percent to 35 percent, it caused a panic in the financial markets (Black Friday). While Gould & Fisk made a small amount of money from the deal, Gould eventually lost it with lawsuits and the scandal tarnished his image with the public. After leaving the Erie Railway, Gould turned his eye toward Western railways. He took control of Union Pacific in 1873, and was also involved in the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Western Union, greatly increasing his wealth. He died in 1892 from tuberculosis. (Prag Collection) City: State: Date: Inventory# 39347