For over 100 years, the sign you see here stood at the corner of Broad and Wall Streets, in front of the House of Morgan. It was pockmarked by shrapnel from the Wall Street bombing of 1920, witnessed the stock-market crash of 1929, and most recently, cast a shadow over the hundreds of anonymous bankers whose shortsighted bets on the housing market drove the economy into the ground. Tomorrow this totem of American financial history will be sold by the auction house Christie’s for an estimated $60,000 to $80,000 — a relatively low price, one that puts it well within reach of an ironic Chinese person.
Wall St. and Broad St. Original post-top style intersection street sign. Late-19th to early-20th Century [Christie’s]
