One of the best action movies I remember seeing as a teen was Die Hard, the Bruce Willis starrer that wowed me back then and introduce to the world of blasts and general kickass-ery. Sure, Bruce Willis was the star of the film as the smooth-talking, always fighting John McClane but I was more taken in by Hans Gruber. Alan Rickman delivered what I still consider to be an absolute tour de force in the field of villainy and he was one of the most menacing, suave and twisted minds I have ever seen on the silver screen. The movie was a hit, and for me what I remember as clearly as some of Willis’ line are Gruber’s plans; to ransack a king’s ransom in bearer bonds.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I realized that Bearer Bonds were precious and seriously valuable. Just like my John McClane figurine.
Die Hard was all about a bunch of ass-kicking guys (good and bad alike) that were with weapons and rifles of all sorts and they all had one thing on their minds; to get to those bearer bonds first and get it for themselves. As an impressionable teen that loved things that went boom, you only needed to tell me that the plot involved assault rifles and a plan to steal these pieces of paper to make me go “wow!” at the very mention of bearer bonds. Who needs those greenbacks anymore when bearer bonds are where the action is at? It took several years for me to realize bearer bonds are just bonds and plain boring really when compared to stocks or mutual funds and perhaps even commodities for that matter.
Bonds are simply a vehicle of debt for governments or any other organization and a bearer bond is different in that it has no owner that is registered to it. If you hold it (or are the bearer) and produce it before the authorities, you are deemed the owner. If it is sold on from one person to another, there is no need for a transfer of ownership on record or for any record of this sale. Its simplicity is its biggest asset and its biggest problem. If you want to transfer it, it’s easy to do so; if you lose it, it’s gone with the wind. The end as it were with no recourse in sight for getting it back and that in a very large nutshell is why Hans Gruber and John McClane wanted to get their dirty hands on those bearer bonds.
