Genuine, yes. Valuable, not so much. Selling bonds was a way to raise capital and expand/maintain your line, so just like any business, railroads wanted money in the bank they could work with.
This is actually just a coupon from a bond, not the bond itself. Coupon #1, as you can see in green at the center. Most bonds had 30, 60, sometimes 200 of these coupons, depending on the life of the bond (15 year, 30 year, etc.). These were clipped off every six months when the company made an interest payment. Yours has a cut cancel, so it appears to have been redeemed.
Very few serious bond collectors are interested in loose coupons, even if they are legitimately cancelled. Many bonds were redeemed and cancelled with plenty of coupons still attached. What some dealers have discovered is they can snip off remaining coupons and sell them to the unsuspecting, to make a few extra bucks. I'll attach an example of the front and back of another RR bond coupon, along with a full page attached to the bond.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but many thanks for posting this to help educate other collectors.
Posted 03/26/2017 9:17 pm
