Between November 18th and 21st, 2015, the Poznań International STONE Fair, hosted an exhibition titled "Securities of the Stone Industry in Poland and Worldwide" featuring the collection of Tomasz Staniszewski. The exhibition was under the patronage of the Association of Collectors of Historical Securities (Stowarzyszenie Kolekcjonerów Historycznych Papierów Wartościowych) and the Polish Employers' Association of the Stone Industry (Związek Pracodawców Branży Kamieniarskiej w Polsce). The Poznań International Fair, as the main sponsor, financed the exhibition's setup and ensured its adequate advertising and media promotion.

The exhibition was the main accompanying event of the STONE 2015 Fair and garnered significant interest from both domestic and international visitors. The annual STONE Fair is aimed at all those for whom stone is the basis or part of their business, including stonemasons, stone suppliers, architects, and representatives of the broader construction industry. The fair is attended by companies involved in the extraction and import of natural stone, as well as manufacturers and distributors of machinery and equipment for its processing.

The exhibition was ceremoniously opened by Leszek Koziorowski, President of the Association of Collectors of Historical Securities (Stowarzyszenie Kolekcjonerów Historycznych Papierów Wartościowych), in the presence of Przemysław Trawa, President of the Poznań International Fair, and numerous other invited guests, both from the stone industry and enthusiasts of economic history.

Due to its educational value, the exhibition also attracted admirers of economic history, including collectors of old securities themselves.

A few words about the exhibition itself. The idea for the exhibition was born at the end of 2014 when the undersigned owner of the collection decided to celebrate his 20th anniversary in the stone industry in a special way. The presented collection is part of a larger collection of over 300 items of various securities related to the stone industry. The vast majority of them are shares of companies and associations that exploit and process natural stones such as granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, and shale. Some of these companies also issued bonds and mortgages, examples of which perfectly complemented the prepared exhibition.

The entire constantly expanding collection is the result of the author's research and searches conducted over the past 8 years of his professional career.

Due to limited exhibition space, 179 of the most interesting historical documents were ultimately selected to fill 15 large, hanging display cases. The archival materials were complemented by photographs and documents related to the activities of selected companies. The frames of the display cases featured descriptions of former companies and associations, along with their translations into English and German. The presented collection was divided into several sections distinguished by linguistic and geographic criteria. The first panels contained shares of Francophone countries (Belgium, France), followed by Germanic countries (Germany, Switzerland), Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Finland), and then POLAND. Subsequently, Anglophone countries (Great Britain, South Africa, and the USA) were showcased, and finally, the section titled "The World" featured individual securities from countries such as Argentina, Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt, Japan, and Italy.

All presented documents were originals, with the exception of shares of the Polish company Wapienniki i Kamieniołomy Liban i Ehrenpreis S.A. in Krakow, which was a facsimile provided by Professor Leszek Kałkowski as a significant example of Jewish capital involvement in the Polish stone industry.

It should be emphasized that the entire collection, and the exhibits presented within it, constitute a unique collection of its kind on at least a European scale. No other collector of historical securities in Poland, and very likely not in Europe, specializes in this topic and possesses such a diverse collection, including a whole range of outstanding European auction items, such as shares of Compagnie Hellenique des Marbres de Paros S.A. (a French company exploiting marbles on the Greek island of Paros) from 1882, Piedra Arenisca S.A. (an Argentine company extracting sandstone) from 1913, Granitwerke Steinerne Renne AG (a stone company from the German city of Hasserode) from 1899, or Finnish GRANIT Oy AB from 1934 (an exceptionally decorative share designed in 1886 by the famous Finnish graphic artist Alex Federley).

The exhibition would not have been possible without a strong Polish representation. The exhibition's curator pays tribute to the late Ryszard Kowalczuk, thanks to whom it was possible to acquire extremely rare Polish securities related to the stone industry, namely: shares of the Towarzystwo Eksploatacji Kamieniołomów S.A. in Krakow, and branded share issues of Marmury Kieleckie S.A. and Fabryka Wapna i Cementu w Piechcinie S.A. Among the Polish documents presented were also documents of companies that, despite their primary activities, also operated quarries in Volhynia (M. Łempicki S.A.), the Krakow Basin (TEPEGE S.A.), and the Old Polish Basin (WITULIN SA - ruble and branded issues). Among these entities were also powerful construction companies of the Second Polish Republic, such as Polskie Towarzystwo Budowlane S.A. and Powszechne Zakłady Budowlane S.A.

The time period from which the presented securities originated was very interesting. The oldest document on display was a share of the American company Frankfort Granite from Boston, dating back to 1837! The "newest" item was a share of the Greek company Dionyssos-Pentelicon Commercial and Industrial Marble Company SA from 1973, which still operates quarries of the most famous white marble from the slopes of Pentelicon, the primary building material of the ancient Acropolis and Athens itself. Historically, in countries with a higher level of industrialization and rich natural stone resources, the development of the stone industry was strongest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it is from this period that most of the presented securities originate.

The construction and operation of quarries required enormous capital investment, hence the joint-stock company form favored the development of the stone industry. Unfortunately, with the development of new technologies in construction, especially the emergence of industrialized production of concrete and building ceramics, the importance of natural stone decreased significantly in construction, and as early as the 1920s and 1930s, it led to the collapse of many companies and associations in the natural stone industry. These companies often ran into financial difficulties after only a few years of operation. Traces of these economic dramas are reflected in the presented shares, which were often canceled by decision of their shareholders or creditors, as evidenced by appropriate annotations (stamps or imprints) or perforation (sometimes cutting).

Old securities also carry many other interesting pieces of information. Bearer documents, which were the subject of stock exchange trading, had appropriate stamps or marks of stock exchanges in Paris, Brussels, London, and even very small ones like Liege, indicating the often cross-border movement of capital. In the case of registered securities, the assignments of ownership on the back of the shares are a real treat for collectors of autographs of old industrial and landed families.