Usage of Egyptian hieroglyphs in the design of 19th and 20th century bond and share certificates

Antique securities from companies that operated in Egypt were typically illustrated with pharaonic themes and hieroglyphs. Standing on their own as true pieces of artwork, their mysterious designs made possible investors dreams of promising outcomes. People bought these share certificates in the 19th and 20th century when the stock exchanges of Alexandria and Cairo flourished. But are the hieroglyphs on these certificates actually legible?

With the help of Marleen De Meyer, who works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Archaeology with a specialty in Egyptology at KU Leuven University, several hieroglyphs have been identified.

During the last two hundred years, illustrators of bond and share certificates successfully used design elements like pyramids, sphinxes, and both pseudo-hieroglyphs and genuine hieroglyphs to attract potential investors.

You can read more about this topic in this blog article Hieroglyphs in scripophily deciphered!

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Reference: Franky Leeuwerck, Hieroglyphs in scripophily deciphered

This article formerly appeared on ScriptSource.