THE EVOLUTION OF SECURITIES 
2 
Transfer need not necessarily occur at once, and often does not 
until it becomes desirable to change the entry on the register 
in order to avoid complications with dividend checks. For this 
reason, in Wall Street transfers are apt to be particularly heavy 
in a stock issue just before the “books close for dividends.” 
Between these dividend periods, registered certificates may 
circulate in the market made out in the name of an original 
holder, and each subsequent seller (provided they are regular 
security dealers there) simply stamps or signs his successive 
endorsement on the back of the certificate. Certificates of this 
sort, made out in the name of some Stock Exchange house, 
are called “Street certificates.” Often, but by no means invari- 
ably, registered certificates in the name of a Stock Exchange 
firm represent stock held by a brokerage customer on margin, 
while those in an individual name represent stock held outright 
hy some investing person or concern. This practice, mainly 
confined to America, makes our registered issues almost as 
readily negotiable as bearer issues, and still retains for their 
owners the very great protection against theft or loss inherent 
in the registered form of certificates. Registered certificates 
in other countries may be as safe as ours, but nowhere can 
they be negotiated so readily and efficiently. 
Bearer Securities. Bearer securities, as their name im- 
lies, are the property of their holder, like bank notes; no 
register of their holders is or could be kept, and no names of 
holders appear on their certificates. Abroad, bearer securities 
are the rule, both for bonds and shares, in all Continental coun- 
tries, and they are also widely used in Great Britain. In the 
United States, almost all bonds are in bearer form, and only 
occasionally are bonds registered. But the European form of 
“bearer share” is unknown among American companies, and 
the only examples of such certificates in New York are foreign 
securities imported from abroad. So completely has this coun- 
try followed British precedents favoring registered shares, that 
until recently it was even a controversial question whether