(FORTUNE Magazine) – If you have a predilection for fedoras, wingtips, cigars, and horseracing, you are probably as enamored of our red-blooded past as I am. If so, permit me to draw your attention to yet another piece of nostalgic manna you might want to seize as we hurtle toward the digitized 21st century: antique stock and bond certificates. These engraved parchments for railroads, steamship companies, mining outfits, and other rough-and-tumble enterprises are heirlooms of America's industrial adolescence, prized as much for their historical value as for their artistry. And though more and more people are acquiring these old securities--since 1982 collectors have grown from around 300 to 25,000--the hobby is still young enough to provide a lot of great deals, both from dealers and at auction, a dozen of which are held each year by various outfits.

To learn more about this budding trade, I recently visited the offices of R.M. Smythe, a 117-year-old enterprise in lower Manhattan whose eponymous founder became a legend on Wall Street at the turn of the century for his hatred of the telephone and his all-consuming passion for researching obsolete and obscure securities for clients. Today the firm continues to perform this research, but it also sells old stocks and bonds, bank notes, coins, antiquated financial documents--even old ticker tape machines. (In fact, the actual ticker tape reporting the first trades of October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday, was recently sold for $5,000.)

As Smythe's head dealer, Stephen L. Goldsmith, explains, you don't have to be versed in arcana to appreciate these documents (most of which have already been redeemed or outlived the companies). Many feature beautifully engraved vignettes of railroads or landscapes. An 1884 bond for the Brooklyn Elevated Train is a fine specimen, with a delicately engraved tableau of the railroad passing by the ferry terminal and horse-drawn streetcars; the Brooklyn Bridge towers in the background. And a 1960 certificate for 100 shares in the Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey circus has riotous illustrations of clowns and animals. Both are worth around $500. "This elaborate artwork wasn't done just for the sake of being pretty," says Goldsmith. "It helped sell the certificates. In fact, when Mattel merged with Ringling Bros. in 1971, many shareholders refused to trade in their circus stock for Mattel shares because they loved the artwork so much."

Other attractions might be connections to hometowns or perhaps a storied company where a grandfather or great-grandfather once toiled. Goldsmith, for example, likes to collect any certificate from Rockaway Beach, Queens, where he grew up. This paid off one day when he found an 1891 bond that helped finance the construction of a vessel that used to make excursions to Rockaway. The ship was the General Slocum, which burned and sank in 1904, the worst maritime disaster in New York history. That is just the kind of historical connection that can greatly increase a certificate's value.

Another good example is a rather plain 1794 bond for something called the Asylum Co. This unusual entity was founded by Robert Morris, the man who was called the financier of the American Revolution and who was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Apparently setting aside his antipathy toward monarch types during the French Revolution, Morris issued bonds to finance land deals in Pennsylvania, all in the hope he could sell plots to aristocrats fleeing the unpleasantness in Paris. "He ended up in debtors' prison," says Goldsmith. The certificate is worth $7,500.

Age, of course, also drives up the price, as does a famous signature. An 1878 stock certificate for 28 shares of Standard Oil signed by John D. Rockefeller Sr. is among the most valuable antique securities available today. With only 220 known to exist, these certificates go for $7,000 to $12,000 apiece. A more unusual scrawl is that of Warren G. Harding, derided as the country's worst President in history until Tricky Dick came along. Prior to and during his White House residency, Harding ran a publishing company in Marion, Ohio; certificates bearing his signature from 1915 can fetch $3,000 at auction. Why? Teapot Dome be damned, the man was President.

The all-time price record goes to a 1783 certificate for a single share in the Bank of North America, believed to be the first stock ever issued in the U.S.: $36,300. By and large, though, most certificates can be purchased for less than $1,000. Some of the best bargains are old auto company stocks: Studebaker, Packard, and Rickenbacker certificates cost less than $100.

And any auto buff would be interested in Goldsmith's latest discovery: a handful of 1947 certificates for Tucker Corp., which produced only 51 superstreamlined cars with the legendary cyclops headlamp before ceasing production. The certificates-- only nine are known to exist--are signed by the quixotic carmaker himself, Preston Tucker. His autograph is rare, and the certificates are worth $1,500 to $2,000. But their true value lies in their ability to evoke a tangible connection to America's atomic postwar era--an aesthetic reminder you'll never get from your electronically traded Cisco shares.

The next auction will be in Memphis on June 21; call R.M. Smythe in New York City for information (800-622-1880). Other dealers: Scott J. Winslow Associates, Bedford, New Hampshire (800-225-6233); the Scripophily Shop, London (011-44-171-433-3577).