What is "scripophily"

n. The hobby of collecting paper documents, particularly business stock certificates.

Scripophily is the study and collection of stock and bond certificates. A specialized field of numismatics, scripophily is an area of collecting due to both the inherent beauty of some historical documents as well as the interesting historical context of each document. Some stock certificates are excellent examples of engraving. Occasionally, an old stock certificate will be found that still has value as a stock in a successor company.