Scope and Contents Historical financial instruments, such as bonds, stock certificates, treasury notes, checks and a land patent, many bearing decorative engraved vignettes and associated with prominent events and persons in financial and political history. Some of the items include: a 1782 bond issued by France's King Louis XVI, secured by taxes on alcohol and salt, which were bitterly resented by the common people and contributed to the outbreak of the French Revolution; a 1795 certificate for...