BURMA RUBY MINES LTD.

Description: 18.. LONDON. Ordinary Shares of £1, specimen. black. Formed London, 1889. Liquidated 1925. Quote from the London Times on the issue of the company's shares: The latest London craze was finely exhibited at the recent allotment of shares in the Burmese Ruby Mines: "The mines may be immensely valuable, or perhaps not; no one can tell as to this until a year's work has been done upon them. All London rushed to get the prospectus, and the crowd began to collect in front of the Rothschild's offices long before they were open in the morning. The £1 shares went immediately to £4, and the total amount of stock offered was applied for many times over. These shares are "a pure gamble," even more than is usual in mining, though they have this advantage over most of the London mining stocks, that there is a possibility that they will pay, and pay largely, while the average London mining stock is absolutely certain never to pay anything." The concession was at Mogok, near Mandalay, and faced great difficulties from the beginning - accessibility, transport, flooding, lack of power, warlike local tribes, competition from synthetic stones, and serious competition (some called it sabotage) from de Beers. The company was liquidated in 1925, and the concession abandoned. No dividend was ever paid, of course.

Condition: EF