Scripophily

Scripophily is the study of stock certificates, bonds, and related fiduciary instruments. You can pronounce it "scrip-o-filly" or "scrih-pofilly."  It is a subset of numismatics, the art and science that studies the forms and uses of money. Like coins, banknotes, checks (drafts), and tokens, stock certificates are artifacts of commerce, the basic data of enterprise and trade. Old stock certificates reveal the daily life and work of the times. And like other numismatic items, they can be highly artistic.

Paper certificates began to wane in 1971, with the founding of NASDAQ: National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. (The NASDAQ opened on February 8, 1971, as a computer bulletin board.) Full electronic automation of stock markets in the 1980s made these instruments obsolete. Today, you actually can get Disney, Apple, and other shares, but often the transaction fee is greater than the price of the stock. That makes these items highly valuable as collectibles. For the historian, a mixed lot of 100 average items will cost about $50 from a dealer. The better dealers are members of the American Numismatic Association, American Numismatic Society, or similar organization. 

• The Professional Scripophily Traders Association - www.psta.com 
• The Holabird-Kagin Americana - www.holabird.org
• ANA member and Certified Public Accountant Bob Kerstein runs two sites: www.scripophily.net and www.scripophily.com
• The International Bond and Share Society (IBSS) of Ashtead, Surrey, England - www.scripophily.org
• Numistoria SARL of Paris, France - www.numistoria.com
• Terry Cox, author of Collectible Stocks and Bonds from North American Railroads does not buy or sell certificates himself: he is a researcher and writer - www.coxrail.com

Vignette from a Reading Railroad Certificate

Some historians point to the Code of Hammurabi as evidence for the earliest recorded sales and purchases of debt. Republican Rome knew “corporations” as legal bodies on the same idea that a city or flock can be an entity independent of its changing members. Starting in 1171, the City of Venice borrowed at 5% in perpetuity by issuing bonds that became valuable in their own right, trading along with textiles and spices. The modern stock exchange is rooted in the commercial revolution of the Dutch Golden Age, in which blossomed both the Dutch East India Company and the Tulip Craze. Though the actual site of the first stock market is not known, a book from 1688, Confusion of Confusions by Joseph Penso dela Vega, presented a dialog that explained the buying and selling of shares, which it claimed had been going on since 1609. Ultimately, the London Stock Exchange was founded in Jonathan’s Coffeehouse in 1698. The New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1792.

Just as American coin collectors look to the works of Longacre and Saint Gaudens, so, too, is the broad mainstream of American scripohily the century from the 1850s to the 1950s. Railroads, steel mills, automobiles, airlines, electrical and electronics firms all date from those times. 

Fine Print on the Back of a Reading Railroad share.
(Not all certificates were explicit. Some referred to rules posted elsewhere.)

Just as the invention of coins about 550 BCE marked a commercial revolution that brought philosophy, geometry, and democracy to the ancient world, so, too, did the creation of joint stock companies announce the application of science to industry, universal franchise, and the end of slavery - and a worldview that encompassed atoms and galaxies.

The artistry of stock certificates is another attraction. Like coins, they often feature neo-classical, Graeco-Roman images of powerful gods and abundant goddesses. Sometimes they take on modern dress, wielding micrometers or reels of magnetic tape, or wearing communications headsets. Like banknotes, these large papers also feature scenes of agriculture and industry. 

International Telephone & Telegraph

On the instruments are the names of famous stock brokers of a bygone era: Bear Stearns, E. F. Hutton, Merrill Lynch, Paine-Weber, and Lehman Brothers. You can find endorsements from financiers such as the Rothschilds and industrialists like the DuPonts. Fans of the Parker Brothers Monopoly game can complete the four railroads: B&O, Pennsylvania, Reading, and Short Line.

The large format of these fiduciary instruments allowed for a full expression of the legal nuances that controlled their sale and ownership. When owned by two or more persons, a stock certificate may declare them to have “rights of survivorship and not tenants in common,” or to be “joint tenants.” Both of those are phrases directly from real estate law. Jurisprudence had not realized the novel and unique nature of financial markets. 

Watkins Johnson Company

Broadly speaking, common stocks are voting shares: one share one vote; 1000 shares, 1000 votes. Preferred stock has no voting rights, but does pay dividends. Bonds represent loans backed by the assets of the corporations. In case of bankruptcy or default, bond holders get first rights at repayment. A bond is always worth its face value – or at least promises to be. Stocks usually have no par value. However, within those broad latitudes, other options are possible. Common stock may or may not have a par value and may or may not promise dividend payments. Preferred stock may have a par value, as well. 

In 1966, the “dual fund” was created and the stock certificates of American Dual Vest are easily available singly or in bulk. This was a mutual fund. The firm created two forms of investment with a single instrument. Buyers could elect to be paid dividends or to forego them for the promise of “capital gains,” i.e., an increase in the market value of the basic instrument. Dual investment was successful, attracting $300 million in 1967. These close-end dual purpose mutual funds still are being created today.

500 Pounds Sterling 1869
Lent to the railroad by
Mrs. Janet Simpson
50 years before
the government
let her vote.

The miracle of collectibles is that the numismatic aftermarkets make treasures out of failed currencies. You can pay more for a nice old note from Brazil than it was ever worth on the street when it was issued. 

Make no mistake: this is all worthless paper. They are cancelled. Like checks, these instruments were issued to individuals, and then endorsed and cancelled when sold. Financial districts housed thousands of clerks who kept track of these papers. Sometimes, warrants were created, promises to deliver actual stock certificates at a later date when the document finally was available for issue.

Careful shopping pays. With computerized trading, millions of these came on the market as stock brokers emptied out their vault rooms. Sometimes, they surface in estate sales. Except for the oldest of these, and certain other rare issues, these items are largely as common as coins. In an online bidding war, you can pay $10 or more for a piece of paper that wholesales for $55 per hundred. Their worth is entirely subjective. 

You might tie it to another hobby. (I gave a certificate from The American Thread Company to a coworker who spins her own yarn.)  You might have an ancestor who worked in a steel mill or on a railroad. You might be a fan of Atlas Shrugged.  Whatever your motive, you should always shop with your head, not your heart.

Experienced numismatists know that books are the engines of value in the hobby. The Antique Stock Certificate Almanac by Fred Fuld, American Automotive Stock Certificates by Lawrence Falater and Stocks and Bonds of North American Railroads by Terry Cox are among the standard references. 

(This was based on an article that appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of the Mich-Matist, the news magazine of the Michigan State Numismatic Society.)

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS
The Art of Finance
Industrial Medals as a Currency of Fame
Sacred Silver from the Roof of the World
Tokens of Capitalism
Money as Speech and Press

"Anthem" as a Graphic Novel

The graphic novel adaptation of Ayn Rand's Anthem is a passable work that faithfully provides visual content to the story. Artists Charles Santino and Joe Staton both have created better works, but this still stands on its own merits as a worthy project. I wish that this were a full color publication, rather than line art.

Charles Santino's work as a writer includes "Toplin" a psychological horror (Dell/Abyss), co-authored with Michael McDowel. He also wrote a "Conan the Barbarian" (Marvel); and then for Fantagraphics he adapted, scripted, and packaged "Aesop’s Fables". (See the Graphic Novel Reporter interview here.)

Joe Staton worked for Charlton, Marvel and Warren during the 1970s; and then Paul Levitz of DC hired him for the revival of the Justice Society of America.(Wikipedia here.) Over forty years, Staton was the penciller for 800 issues including Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (1981), Power Girl (2006), The Essential Batman Encyclopedia (2008), Marvel Premiere Classics (2006) : #73 - "X-Men: Fallen Angels" and DC Comics Presents: #1 - "The Life Story of The Flash" (2012). (See the Joe Staton website here. )

ALSO ON NECESSARY FACTS
Firefly: Fact and Value Aboard Serenity
Reflections on Atlas Shrugged Part 1
Valentine's Day: Love and Money

Visualizing Complex Data

Edward R. Tufte's classic works - Envisioning Information, Visual Explanation, and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - are milestones in applied epistemology.  Drawings convey meanings across verbal barriers.  But at some level, they must be learned.  A Martian watching a baseball game could probably figure out about half of it in the first two innings. But the other "half" is actually the 90% that brings joy and sorrow to fans.  The classic No Parking sign seems universal, but could mean almost anything.  The Journal of Irreproducible Results published a textured, grainy, and striated image that could save you money by being included as an example in many kinds of research.  (Unfortunately, some scientists do re-use their data, and other people's data, in just such a manner.  See Misconduct in Scientific Research on this blog.)  Humor and fraud help define the limits of the acceptable interpretations of images.  Yet, like a linguistic gold standard, one picture remains worth 1000 words, no matter how many new words we invent.

Many philosophical Objectivists easily assert that in the hierarchy of knowledge metaphysics is the base upon which epistemology rests. However, Leonard Peikoff wrote that the two studies are dependent on each other.

With the Yin-Yang of Metaphysics-Epistemology at the core
the orbiting body could be ethics (morality)
and the field that it generates would be politics.

Computers store information and we connect them in many convenient topologies. Knowledge could be mapped the same way. 

Is the connection geology-geography-geophysics-physics-chemistry a ring or a tree or a mesh?

A Historical Map of Philosophers by Simon Raper at the "Drunks and Lampposts" blog. Raper used a mathematical visualization tool called gephi (see the website here). 

The Continental Tradition is green. Purple dots are British Empiricists 

(including those not actually from the UK such as William James).  

He derived his data from Wikipedia articles citing the influence of one philosopher's work from and then to others, as easily, Plato and Aristotle, Leibniz and Descartes (teal).

The Klein Bottle is to three dimensions what the Moebius strip is to two: it folds into itself, forming a continuous space (or surface).  Here, three Klein Bottles are interconnected. Could this map the way that planetary geology suggests the changes in weather and climate that alter ecological and economic possibilities, causing political changes in social organizations and institutions?

Although he claimed to distrust philosophy, Richard Feynman was not alone among the empirical scientists who suggested that what we perceive as "particles" or "statistical waves" are only the fields which are themselves manifestations of something "deeper" or "beyond." 

In business, firms merge and divest, departments are reorganized, investors take or sell off large interests. In the multi-party politics of Europe, alliances over issues come and go. Consequences that have not been foreseen might not be mappable until after the fact.  

Previously on Necessary Facts
Knowledge Maps
The Genius of Design
Objectified
Art and Copy
Start the Presses: Typeface

Numismatics: History as Market

Most people call it “coin collecting” but numismatics is the art and science that studies the forms and uses of money. This includes stock certificates, bank drafts, military decorations and fine art medals as well as coins, which, after 2500 years, are still the most common form of money. “Coins are history you can hold in your hand,” is a common saying in numismatics.  You can own a coin struck by Philip II of Macedon and believe within reason that it might have been given to Aristotle.

 

Miletos 1/12 stater: lifetime of Thales
(0.9 cm; 1.1 grams)

Back in the 1990s, inspired by the episode “Backbone of the Night” from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos broadcasts, I assembled about 25 ancient coins from the towns and times of famous philosophers, from Thales to Hypatia. Except for the Owl of Athens and a tetradrachm from Alexandria in Egypt, none cost more than $200 and most cost less than $100 at the time.

Middlesex DH 1033a:
Sir Isaac Newton
Half Penny Token

The political leaders of the American Revolution who signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, also signed paper money. Many of these are available in middle collector grades, Very Good to Very Fine, for less than $500, sometimes surprising less.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the British royal treasury was nearly empty, yet the benefits of capitalism were everywhere. Taverns and merchants issued their own bronze penny and halfpenny tokens. Hundreds of types and thousands of varieties are known. Many of them celebrate trade, commerce, peace, and prosperity.

Reverse of DH 1033a
about the size of a
US Quarter

In America, from about 1834 to about 1844, a series of economic changes brought “hard times” and Hard Times Tokens. These privately minted coins stand out as being pointedly political, for or against Jackson, Van Buren or Daniel Webster. There were even Abolitionist tokens. These all circulated in daily trade. Many are also advertising cards, for instance for Van Nostrand, which then was only a bookstore in New York.

 

Canadian tokens of the 1840s were part of the social fabric that led to The Rebellions and ultimately to the burning of the Parliament at Montreal. Other Canadian tokens from the Maritime Provinces explicitly honor Trade and Commerce, and state “Pure Copper is Preferable to Paper,” and assert, “More Trade, Fewer Taxes.” 

During the early 19th century, private banks in America often displayed vignettes of Spanish and Mexican coins.  Promising to pay "25 cents" or "50 cents" the pictures would be of one- and two-reales coins.  (See Spanish Coins on American Notes here.)

Stock certificates from the Edison Companies are always in greater demand, and certificates from the mid-1800s cost much more than those from the early 20th century. However, the Erie Railroad, the New York Central, Bethlehem Steel, and the many Edison Electric companies left us legacies that are very affordable. 

Numismatics is one of the last unregulated markets. In the USA, no government licenses or special regulations exist to define who is a numismatist.  (Specific laws do define “coins” and otherwise regulate the creation and production of money objects and money substitutes.)  The very few college courses in numismatics on American campuses are fleeting at best, though in Europe such studies are recognized. In this market, anyone can claim to be anything. Validation, such as it is, is by ad hoc standards of conduct set within the hobby by private organizations: the American Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, the International Association of Professional Numismatists, and the Professional Numismatists Guild. These groups set standards far above any government laws. For instance an ANA dealer can be banned from membership for selling a single counterfeit item, and ignorance is not an excuse.

Realize that even among the oldest known examples, few types of coins are objectively rare. In fact, demand drives price.  So, an ancient Roman coin, known only from a museum catalog, will be dirt cheap compared to a so-called “rare” American coin with a certified population in the tens of thousands.  Coins, stock certificates, bank drafts, and other monetary media always were  intended to be common. Coins are easily the most common artifact of any civilization - and even so-called "primitive" societies have objects of social status that serve some of the purposes of money. 

We have a slogan in numismatics: Buy the book before you buy the coin. It is a general warning that this is a hobby where knowledge and money are identical. Numismatics is a hobby that actively rewards greed. 

If you have a passion for a time and place in history, such as the American Revolution or the Golden Age of Athens, you will enjoy your acquisitions - but you may not find another buyer later.  In a previous generation, most American collectors accumulated circulating American coins.   Today, collectors tend to become specialists. 

The American Numismatic Association offers two sequential week-long seminars on its Colorado Springs campus. They also provide a range of self-study materials; and they grant a master’s certificate in numismatics.  Numismatists are autodidacts.

My interest, of course, goes back to reading Atlas Shrugged as a teenager.  But it was not until 30 years later that I became active in the hobby.  I wrote magazine articles and then joined Coin World as their international editor for a year.  After that, I stopped collecting entirely, sold off my inventory, and focused on research and reporting.  (See Forgery and Fraud in Numismatics here on Necessary Facts.)

I have been editor and webmaster for the Michigan State Numismatic Society (2004-2011) and for seven years (2003-2010), I wrote the “Internet Connections” column for The Numismatist.  Below are some of the trusted resources that will help you find your own interests in this huge, unregulated market for the material artifacts of trade and commerce.

The American Numismatic Association was founded in 1891, and chartered by Congress in 1912.  Congress declared the charter permanent in 1962.  At semi-annual ANA conventions, about 300 dealers from around the world come to meet several thousand collectors.  You also will find sales booths for private and government mints from around the world, as well as educational seminars, museum-quality educational displays and judged exhibits, various auctions, and nightly awards dinners and celebratory parties.  You can find local member dealers via the ANA website.

The American Numismatic Society  was founded in 1859 and is considered the more scholarly of the two national American organizations. The ANS is focused closely on colonial and early republic American coins and paper money, ancient coins, and similar topics. 

Eugen Böhm-Bawerk founder of Austrian economics

• The Wildwinds database of auctions of ancient coins is highly regarded.
• Coin Archives posts auction results for a small group of dealers in ancient and world coins.  These firms are members of the Professional Numismatists Guild, the ANA, and other similar societies.
• The International Banknote Society  provides a very active resource for hobbyists.
• The VCoins dealer ring was founded over ten years ago to overcome the distressing lack of trustworthy online auctions.  Their dealers are typically members of other professional societies as well.

For several years, Clinton Hollins ran classified ads selling 100 different stock certificates for $55.  After he passed, his wife took over the business.  They also sold the standard catalog for American stocks and bonds.  Scripophily is the formal name for the study of stocks, bonds, and fiduciary instruments; and specialty clubs and other resources are out there.  Find the Professional Scripophily Trade Association here. 

• Whitman Publishing  https://www.whitman.com/store
• Krause Books http://www.krausebooks.com/
• Amos Press http://www.amospress.com/
• Stanton Publishing http://www.stantonbooks.com/
• Coin World newspaper (Amos Press)  http://www.coinworld.com/
• Numismatic News (Krause Books)  http://www.numismaticnews.net/

These discussion boards are trusted places for new and experienced collectors to share information, news, and gossip.  

• Coin Talk: http://www.cointalk.com/
• Coin People: http://www.coinpeople.com/
• Numis Society: http://numissociety.com/
• Coins are Fun http://www.coinsarefun.com/

 (This article was based on a similar post for Rebirth of Reason website, Monday March 21, 2005.)

Also on Necessary Facts

Forgery and Fraud in Numismatics 

Numismatics Informs Economics 

Numismatics: the Standard of Proof in Economics

Murray Rothbard: Fraud or Faker?

Money is Speech 

Money as Speech and Peacemaking 

To Make Money 

Objectivism and the Gold Standard 

The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism

On May 14 of this year, the Ayn Rand Institute announced total sales for all of the author’s books for the year 2012 at one million copies.  Of those, Atlas Shrugged sold 359,105 behind 2009 (best ever) and 2011 (second place).  According to them “Rand’s books have sold a total of 29,500,000 copies.”  I believe that total sales of all books by and about Ayn Rand probably exceed 40 million.  That said, the number of active “Rand fans” is probably one-tenth of that, at most.

The ARI released these sales tallies back on April 7, 2008:

1- We the Living - 3 million

2- Anthem- 4 million

3- The Fountainhead - 6.5 million

4- Atlas Shrugged - 6 million

5- For the New Intellectual - 1 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.5 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .650 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .350 million

Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart find the remnants of
John Galt's Motor in Atlas Shrugged, Part 1.

Since then, other sources such as The Economist reported "over half a million" copies of Atlas Shrugged sold in 2009. Similar reports gave 445 thousand for 2011.  The 2012 volume narrowly outpaced 2010’s purchases of 350,000.  That comes to 1.65 million, a 27% increase since 2008.  Extrapolating a 25% increase across the eight most popular books yields these estimates:

1- We the Living – 3.75 million

2- Anthem- 5 million

3- The Fountainhead – 8.1 million

4- Atlas Shrugged – 7.5 million

5- For the New Intellectual – 1.25 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.8 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .810 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .437 million

The total (28.647 million) is close to the ARI number of 29 million.  However, it does not take into account 30 other books. 

9. Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand

10. Philosophy: Who Needs It? by Ayn Rand

11. Return of the Primitive (formerly The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution) by Ayn Rand

12. The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought by Ayn Rand, et al

13. Early Ayn Rand vol. 1-

14. Three Plays- (Early Ayn Rand vol. 2)

15. The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z by Harry Binswanger

16. Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q&A by Robert Mayhew

17. Who is Ayn Rand? by Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden

18. The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand edited by by Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen

19. The Psychology of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden

20. What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi

21. Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (film and accompanying book) by Michael Paxton

22. Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

23. The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

24. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

25. The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics by James S. Valliant

26. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns

27. Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller

28. Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

29. It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

30. Is Objectivism a Religion? by Albert Ellis

31. Objectivism in One Lesson by Bernstein

32. On Ayn Rand by Gotthelf

33. Ayn Rand and Alienation by Greenberg

34. Ayn Rand and Business by Geiner and Rinni

35. The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

36. Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue by Gotthelf and Lennox

37. With Charity Toward None by William F. O'Neill

38. Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics by Tara Smith

39. Blue Water Comics Female Force #1 (May 2011): Ayn Rand by John Blundell, et al.
40. Anthem (Graphic Novel) Charles Santino and Joe Staton (New American Library).

[Addendum: Since the original posting, I found these, the first two of which I should have known.]
41. Ayn Rand Explained: From Tyranny to Tea Party (2012) Merrill, Ronald E., Chicago, IL : Open Court, 2012.
42.  Ayn Rand nation : the hidden struggle for America's soul (2012) Gary Weiss, New York : St. Martin's Press, 2012.
43. Ayn Rand and alienation : the Platonic idealism of the objectivist ethics and a rational alternative by Sid Greenberg. San Francisco : Greenberg, c1977.

[And again, at the library today (August 3), I found five more at the University of Texas library. In addition to Who is Ayn Rand? (#17 above), the Brandens also wrote three other books, one of which prompted another book in response.]
44.  The Ayn Rand Companion by Mimi Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
45.  Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand by Mini Reisel Gladstein
46.  Ayn Rand by Tibor Machan
47.  Essays on We the Living by Robert Mayhew
48.  The Fountainheads: Wright, Rand, the FBI and Hollywood by Donald Leslie Johnson
49.  Judgment Day by Nathaniel Branden
50.  My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden
51.  The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

[August 10, 2013]
52. Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words (DVD: 72 mins), John Little, Northern River Productions (2011).
53. Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed. Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, eds. Lexington Books, 2009.

[September 14, 2014] On MSK's Objectivist Living site, contributor Jerry Biggers told of this:

54.  The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism, by Nathaniel Branden. LaissezFaire Books/Cobden Press, 2009. Also issued in Kindle eBook format on Amazon.com in 2014. This is a transcription of the original NBI set of lectures.

Through all of this, realize that the Ayn Rand Institute is the single largest consumer of books by Ayn Rand.  They buy them from the publisher and then give them away.

October 14, 2010 ARI Press release

ARI has given high school teachers more than 185,000 copies of “Atlas Shrugged” to date, and over 1.6 million copies of Rand’s “Anthem” and “The Fountainhead.”

Yet another detail expands the number of readers over the numbers of books sold. When teaching middle school in Albuquerque 2002-2003, I saw cartloads of Anthem coming and going as assigned reading along with other easy books such as Call of the Wild and Animal Farm. How many young people come to Ayn Rand's ideas via this route cannot be tallied by book sales alone.  Considering the assigned reading from middle school through college, we have to at least recognize the CliffsNotes, Monarch Notes, and Sparknotes for Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. 

A recent Zogby Poll raised more questions.  Touted by the ARI in a November 30, 2010 press release, the poll found “that 29 percent of the 2,100 adult respondents have read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.” Of those who read the book, 49 percent agreed that Atlas Shrugged changed the way they think about political or ethical issues….”

And that is all well and fine, but the same poll claimed: “… that 21 percent of respondents have read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead; 7 percent, Anthem; 4 percent, We the Living 3 percent, The Virtue of Selfishness; and 3 percent Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. “  Contrasted against the number of middle school and high school students who are assigned Anthem every year, those numbers seem like under-reports compared to the tallies for Atlas Shrugged.

The numbers at the top actually indicate that anyone who buys Anthem, The Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged will buy the other two, though not always.  Sales of Atlas slightly outpace the others. 

I also believe from the numbers that while only a few may buy Philosophy: Who Needs It? or Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology these are acquired by those who are interested in the technical philosophy having been introduced to it from the novels.  That points to the claim at the top that 40 million books sold might reveal only four million people with a passion for Ayn Rand: I own 20 different titles by and about. 

In addition, I have three copies of Atlas Shrugged: a 95-cent "gold cover" paper back 7th printing November 1960; another ppb to read and annotate; and the Highbridge Company audio tapes read by Edward Herrmann.  I have both ppb and hard cover editions of The Fountainhead, Anthem, Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal (I bought it as a first edition because I was taking the "Basic Principles" class when it came out.)  And not tallied above, I have a bootleg VHS tape of Ayn Rand's last public lecture. Among the other ephemera is a January 1944 Reader's Digest with Rand's essay, "The Only Path to Tomorrow: The Moral Basis of Individualism".   And I archive two copies of "Female Force" (in bags, with boards, of course).

(This post was edited from my April 6, 2013, commentary "Objectivism as a Strong Undercurrent" on the Rebirth of Reason website.)

Also on Necessary Facts

Ayn Rand and Star Trek

That Goddam Ayn Rand Book

Reflections on Atlas Shrugged Part 1 

Objectivism and the Gold Standard 

To Make Money 

Apollo 11: Task Accomplished

"That we had seen a demonstration of man at his best, no one could doubt—this was the cause of the event’s attraction and of the stunned numbed state in which it left us. And no one could doubt that we had seen an achievement of man in his capacity as a rational being—an achievement of reason, of logic, of mathematics, of total dedication to the absolutism of reality."-- Ayn Rand

Celebration at Mission Contol.
Note that the banner says "Task Accomplished"
but no day follows the month in the date.

Completing my master's I had a class in advanced criminology theory.  The professor, Gregg Barak, prided himself on engagement; and he varied his approaches to the material from class to class.  Our semester, we read post modernism: so-called "science" is only a Euro-centric, phallo-centric narrative denying voice to oppressed peoples. The scientific method, according to them, does not work and is not how scientists actually accomplish whatever it is they do.  My reply - which brought neither agreement nor denial from my classmates, only disinterested stares - was that when the elevator technician tunes the drive motors that bring us to the seventh floor without fail, she does not rely on an arbitrary narrative. And if the elevator should fail, a fail-safe mechanism prevents us from falling to our deaths, again, not a mere choice of ideological symbols. 

The supreme achievement of the Apollo missions - and the NASA space program in general; and, in fact, the entire global enterprise of space - is a singularity symbolizing all of the very many achievements the we create every day.  We deliver these to each other in exchange and all parties benefit incrementally.  We take that for granted.  But every now and then, it helps to ponder and reflect on the depth and complexity of our time spent at work.

Aboard the International Space Station July 19, 2013

Four page excerpt from "Apollo and Dionysus" from The Ayn Rand Reader by Gary Hull and Leonard Peikoff on Google Books here.
The recorded original lecture "Apollo and Dionysus" on the website of the Ayn Rand Institute here.

The Virtues of Aviation Culture

Aviation is unequivocal: flying your own airplane is forty-nine times more likely to result in your death than being a passenger in a commercial airliner. The facts of reality force an ethos on pilots. The virtues of aviation are Intelligence, Self-Control, Independent Judgment, and Honor.  Within these overlapping spheres are other concepts, often shades of meaning with arguable differentiations among them.

What is the culture of aviation? In what ways do pilots think, talk, and act differently from other people? What is good etiquette in aviation? When is a pilot behaving in a non-aviation or anti-aviation manner? What mechanisms inform us of aviation's unwritten rules and by what means is our behavior corrected when it strays from the expected or normal?

(This essay originally appeared on two webstites, www.studentpilot.com and www.aviatorwebsite.com in 2001 when I was learning to fly. My first flying lesson was in 1984 after reading The Right Stuff, but it was not until 1997 that I seriously pursued the requirements. I wanted to write a newspaper story about our local airport in Howell, Michigan, but getting the pilots to talk to me as a reporter was difficult. So, I started taking lessons. After half a dozen or so, meeting the local fliers became easier. I eventually sold a multi-page front page story for the Sunday edition of the Livingston County Press. From there, I continued writing and flying.)

In a Schleicher sailplane

One way to draw an outline of aviation culture is to look at its virtues. We all might want to be virtuous according to every standard.  However, humility is simply not a virtue in aviation. Bragging is not a virtue, either, and displaying humility is not necessarily wrong.  However, nothing in aviation implicitly demands and specifically rewards humility--even though a good dose of it might be a blessing. Other virtues such as charity or fidelity also might be nice to have, but aviation does not require them of you.

• Intelligence The primary virtue of any human. More than being born "smart" it means using what you have. Intelligence is thinking things through, knowing a tool when you see one and knowing when and whom to ask for help. Accompanying Intelligence are honesty, foresight, wisdom.
• Self-Control Aviation is scary. The question is whether or not you are ruled by your viscera. Other aspects of this are courage, fortitude, pride.
• Independent judgment The first Federal regulation of flying is that you can break any rule in order to maintain or achieve safety. This derives from the undisputable fact that the pilot is in command. Objectivity, conjectivity and integrity are corollaries.
• Honor The above are personal virtues. These here are social virtues. Generally speaking, the unequivocal nature of aviation—the fact that you can get killed—is the source of these honorable attributes. Other aspects of Honor are responsibility, trustworthiness, forthrightness, magnanimity, respect, courtesy, and humor.

 As an attribute of intelligence, honesty means more than not lying to other people.  It means recognizing the “primacy of existence”—in other words admitting what you know to be true (about the plane, about the weather, about yourself) no matter how much you wish it were not.

Pride is an aspect of self-control. Ultimately, pride may be considered the source of self-control.  In either case, the pride referred to is not just the external show of proper respect for your own achievements but the inner strength that causes and is rewarded by self-control.

Preflight inspection

Integrity makes independent judgment possible.  Not all pilots practice it, but aviation rewards it, nonetheless. Integrity is being who and what you are.  Independent judgment requires the objectivity (honesty) of recognizing the facts.  Conjectivity is the virtue of being willing to try something—especially when you are in trouble—to see if the effect is beneficial to you.

"We lived in fear of the mountains of Spain
over which we had to fly,
and in awe of our elders." Antoine Saint Exupery on France 50 Franc Note

The list of social virtues under Honor stem from the fact that no one else's opinion of you is as important as your own opinion of yourself.  We tend to gloss over this.  We are shy and we do not like to brag.  The bottom line is that every flight is a test flight. Flying is unequivocal: you cannot argue the facts away. We are reality-based and this colors all of our relationships. 

To act dishonorably, or irresponsibly, or disrespectfully is to fall from grace. Pilots act like angels because we live in the sky.

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1000 Words