A major historical piece of Russo-British scripophily: a Share Warrant to Bearer for 5 shares of £1 each of The Lena Goldfields Limited, a British company operating the famous Lena gold mines in eastern Siberia. Capital divided into 4,105,000 shares of £1 numbered 1 to 4,105,000. Number B9495. Issued 28 June 1920 under the Company's common seal.

Lena Goldfields is infamously known for the 1912 strikers' massacre (the Lena massacre, on the Vitim River, more than 200 killed by Tsarist army gunfire), an event that contributed to political radicalization in pre-revolutionary Russia. Taken over by British capital after the 1917 Revolution under a Soviet concession in 1925, the company became a textbook case of foreign investment in the USSR and was the subject of a famous dispute (the Lena Goldfields Arbitration, 1930).

The certificate is splendid: a decorative green border with British coat of arms at the top, two red "shilling" discs, a central "share warrant" vignette in a heraldic cartouche. Bilingual English and French text. Original signatures (Secretary, Director). Dry seal, "Three Shillings" fiscal stamp.

Apparent condition: good, firm paper, well-preserved inks, light stains. An essential piece for collectors of Imperial Russia, gold mines, Siberia, or Soviet diplomatic history.