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Keely Motor Co., 1880, I/U Stock Certificate - Scam Scheme

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Stock & Bond - Certificates Start Price:60.00 USD Estimated At:110.00 - 220.00 USD
Keely Motor Co., 1880, I/U Stock Certificate - Scam Scheme
SOLD
100.00USD+ buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2023 Sep 12 @ 16:39UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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The auction will take place on September 12, 2023 at AIA's office located at 1060 Main St., Suite #202, River Edge, NJ 07661 beginning at 11:00 AM
Philadelphia...., Pennsylvania, 1880. 40 Shares I/U Capital Stock Certificate, Black on green border, Portrait of Keely at bottom and allegorical woman at top beside ornate motor, S/N 958, Fine to VF with stain on right vertical fold edge and faults and tear at top, National BNC. Lot also includes Newspaper clipping from 1910 discussing the fraud. John Ernst Worrell Keely (September 3, 1837 – November 18, 1898) was an American fraudster and self-proclaimed inventor from Philadelphia who claimed to have discovered a new motive power which was originally described as "vaporic" or "etheric" force, and later as an unnamed force based on "vibratory sympathy", by which he produced "interatomic ether" from water and air. Keely secured substantial investments from many people, including John Jacob Astor IV. Despite numerous requests from the stockholders of the Keely Motor Company, which had been established to produce a practicable motor based on his work, he consistently refused to the fully discuss principles on which his motor supposedly operated, and also repeatedly refused demands to produce a marketable product by claiming that he needed to perfect his inventions. He became embroiled in several lawsuits, and after Keely's death evidence of his elaborate fraud was discovered. (ex. John E. Herzog Collection)