{"product_id":"the-city-of-new-york-dock-improvement-bond-from-1929","title":"The City of New York Dock Improvement Bond Specimen from 1929","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis listing includes two color variants of an original bond from The City of New York, dated 1929. Available in blue or purple red, each featuring a top center oval vignette of an allegorical native American with a headdress. The lower center displays the New York City coat of arms with an eagle atop a shield. The word \u003cem\u003eSPECIMEN\u003c\/em\u003e is overprinted twice in red across the face, identifying this as a printer's or registrar's reference copy rather than a bond delivered to a bondholder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe document shows minor fold lines, with an embossed wafer seal on the left side of the face. The bond is cancelled with punch holes. Coupons numbered 92 through 100 remain attached. Offered as a collectible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1929, New York Harbor was the single busiest port in the world, moving more cargo than any other in the United States and handling the majority of the nation's trans-Atlantic trade. The dock improvement bonds issued by the City of New York financed the expansion and modernization of the piers, terminals, and warehouses along the Hudson and East Rivers that made that volume possible. At the time this bond was dated, \u003cstrong\u003eJimmy Walker\u003c\/strong\u003e served as Mayor of New York, a flamboyant Tammany Hall figure who presided over a city in the full fever of the Jazz Age, with municipal spending and civic ambition running in lockstep. The city's comptroller at the time was \u003cstrong\u003eCharles W. Berry\u003c\/strong\u003e, whose office oversaw the debt issuance machinery that produced bonds like this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Port of New York was administered through an infrastructure built over decades, but the late 1920s represented its commercial apex: the \u003cstrong\u003eHolland Tunnel \u003c\/strong\u003ehad opened in 1927, the West Side piers were expanding, and Brooklyn's waterfront was a hub of industrial shipping.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe confidence embedded in a fifty-year bond due December 1, 1979 would soon be tested — the stock market crashed just months after this bond was dated, beginning a decade that would strain New York's municipal finances severely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpecimen municipal bonds from New York City are collected for their graphic ambition as much as their historical weight, the city issued some of the most visually substantial public debt instruments of the era, and pieces tied to the port infrastructure carry particular appeal among collectors focused on New York history and the Golden Age of American maritime commerce.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ticker History","offers":[{"title":"Blue","offer_id":52808998355231,"sku":"GOVT-CNY-BI-BLU-1929-001-BLU","price":99.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Purple","offer_id":52808998387999,"sku":"GOVT-CNY-BI-BLU-1929-001-PRP","price":99.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0836\/8757\/1743\/files\/the-city-of-new-york-bond-1929-front-1.jpg?v=1787624752","url":"https:\/\/shop.tickerhistory.com\/products\/the-city-of-new-york-dock-improvement-bond-from-1929","provider":"Ticker History","version":"1.0","type":"link"}