This ornately designed stock certificate was issued by the St. Louis Browns in 1911. The official receipt was awarded to one Louis Caesar, whose investment of $2,600 – for twenty-six shares – would probably have been better applied elsewhere. (The lamentable Browns finished in 7th or 8th place in half of their fifty-six annual campaigns.) Nonetheless, this is a splendidly lavish document, and a piece that's thoroughly stylized by regal ornamentation. The stock bears the official signature of Robert Hedges, President of the club, and was ultimately relinquished by Caesar (as documented, without date, on the reverse). This is a highly visual relic dating to the early experience of the hapless St. Louis Browns.

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