This is the second part of a series in which we examine history from a different angle. The business card has been in its popular analog cardboard format for just over 200 years – a period in which society and scientific knowhow have moved at warp speed. The earliest card in our top 100 is that of James Watt (of steam engine fame), and at the other end of our list are a dozen people still handing out their cards to this day.
We'll be rolling out the Top 100 most valuable business cards (based on actual prices), 10 at a time over the coming weeks. It is a very compelling way to look at history, as it puts things in order of importance (or at least, on public perceptions of importance). The exercise started when we began assembling an article on the business cards of important scientists, and once we'd assembled the major prices, we realized how instructive this diverse list is.
So here's the second part of the Top 100 Cards, #11 to #20. We've converted sales prices to US dollars based on the total buy price on the day (including buyers premium), at the exchange rates on the same day or next day, to make the article easier to read. We've also linked to all the major sources of the article, so readers can easily dig deeper into any of the narratives behind these storied objects.
11 | $31,200 | Vladimir Putin (born 1952)
Sold: Finist Tsygankov | 23 October 2019
Russian president Vladimir Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He is the longest-serving Russian president since the independence of Russia from the Soviet Union. One of the 21st century’s most influential leaders, Putin has shaped his country’s political landscape for decades with a mix of strategic maneuvers, military aggression against Russia’s neighbors, and controversial policies.
The highest price we've been able to verify for a Putin business card is two million Russian Rubles ($31,200 based on the exchange rates of the day), but there have been others we know have been to auction, but cannot verify the price they fetched. Those cards may indeed have sold for more, and as Putin's role in history is far from finished, almost certainly higher prices will follow.
Russia's rulers seem to regularly generate outlier prices at auction. In 2010 a painting by Vladimir Putin fetched $1.23 million at a charity auction, and Putin's number two Dmitri Medvedev (who kept Putin's place as President of Russia) sold a photograph for 51 million rubles ($1.7 million).
12 | $27,500 | George Armstrong Custer (1839 – 1876)
Sold: University Archives | 29 September 2021
George Armstrong Custer (5 December 1839 – 25 June 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars.
On June 25, 1876, while leading the Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in the southeastern Montana Territory against a coalition of Western Native American tribes, he was killed along with every soldier of the five companies he led of his regiment. This event became known as "Custer's Last Stand."
Custer's dramatic and famous end at Little Big Horn was as controversial as the rest of his life and quite spectacular military career, and the reaction to his life remains divided, even 160 years later. Obviously they were no survivors to recount that day, but one of the greatest compliments possible was given by Sioux chief Red Horse during an 1877 interview.
Red Horse said: "Among the soldiers was an officer who rode a horse with four white feet. The Sioux have for a long time fought many brave men of different people, but the Sioux say this officer was the bravest man they had ever fought. I don’t know whether this was General Custer or not. Many of the Sioux men that I hear talking tell me it was. I saw this officer in the fight many times, but did not see his body. It has been told me that he was killed by a Santee Indian, who took his horse. This officer wore a large-brimmed hat and a deerskin coat. This officer saved the lives of many soldiers by turning his horse and covering the retreat. Sioux say this officer was the bravest man they ever fought."
13 | $27,500 | Brian Epstein (1934 – 1967)
Sold: GottaHaveRockandroll.com | 16 December 2023
Brian Epstein (19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music entrepreneur who managed The Beatles from 1961 until his death in 1967.
Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him in charge of their music shop, where he displayed a gift for talent-spotting. He first met The Beatles in 1961 at a lunchtime concert at Liverpool's Cavern Club. Although he had no experience with artist management, Epstein put them under contract and insisted that they abandon their scruffy image in favor of a new clean-cut style. He also attempted to get The Beatles a recording contract, eventually securing a deal with EMI's Parlophone label.
Within months, The Beatles were international stars. Some of Epstein's other young discoveries had also prospered under his management. They included Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas, Tommy Quickly, Cilla Black and The Big Three. In 1967, he died of a combined alcohol and barbiturate overdose, ruled as accidental, at the age of 32.
14 | $27,500 | Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)
Sold: Christies.com | 3 December 2010
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (30 January 1882 – 12 April 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving US president, and the only one to have served more than two terms. His first two terms were centered on combating the Great Depression, while his third and fourth saw him shift his focus to America's involvement in World War II.
A member of the prominent Delano and Roosevelt families, Roosevelt was elected to the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and was then the assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I. Roosevelt was James M. Cox's running mate on the Democratic Party's ticket in the 1920 US presidential election, but Cox lost to Republican nominee Warren G. Harding. In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness that permanently paralyzed his legs. Partly through the encouragement of his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, he returned to public office as governor of New York from 1929 to 1932, during which time he promoted programs to combat the Great Depression. In the 1932 presidential election, Roosevelt defeated president Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory.
15 | $25,000 | Sojourner Truth ( 1797 – 1883)
Sold: University Archives | 25 August 2021
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – 26 November 1883) was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women's rights, and alcohol temperance. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.
She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 after she became convinced that God had called her to leave the city and go into the countryside "testifying to the hope that was in her." Her best-known speech was delivered extemporaneously, in 1851, at the Ohio Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. The speech became widely known during the Civil War by the title "Ain't I a Woman?", a variation of the original speech that was published in 1863 as being spoken in a stereotypical Black dialect, then more commonly spoken in the South. Sojourner Truth, however, grew up speaking Dutch as her first language.
As her biographer Nell Irvin Painter wrote, "At a time when most Americans thought of slaves as male and women as white, Truth embodied a fact that still bears repeating: Among the blacks are women; among the women, there are blacks."
A memorial bust of Truth was unveiled in 2009 in Emancipation Hall in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. She is the first African American woman to have a statue in the Capitol building. In 2014, Truth was included in Smithsonian magazine's list of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time".
16 | $24,560 | Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849)
Sold: Sothebys.com | 8 June 2011
Frédéric Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading composer of his era whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation."
Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola and grew up in Warsaw, which in 1815 became part of Congress Poland. A child prodigy, he completed his musical education and composed his early works in Warsaw before leaving Poland at age 20, less than a month before the outbreak of the November 1830 Uprising. At 21, he settled in Paris. Thereafter he gave only 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon. He supported himself, selling his compositions and giving piano lessons, for which he was in high demand.
Chopin formed a friendship with Franz Liszt and was admired by many musical contemporaries, including Robert Schumann. After a failed engagement to Maria Wodzińska from 1836 to 1837, he maintained an often troubled relationship with the French writer Aurore Dupin (known by her pen name George Sand). A brief and unhappy visit to Mallorca with Sand in 1838–39 proved one of his most productive periods of composition. In his final years he was supported financially by his admirer Jane Stirling. In poor health most of his life, Chopin died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.
All of Chopin's compositions feature the piano. Most are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos before leaving Warsaw, some chamber music, and 19 songs set to Polish lyrics. His piano pieces are technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument; his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin's major piano works include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, the instrumental ballade (which Chopin created as an instrumental genre), études, impromptus, scherzi, preludes, and sonatas, some published only posthumously.
Among the influences on his style of composition were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of Mozart and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons, of which he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, harmony, and musical form, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.
Chopin's music, his status as one of music's earliest celebrities, his indirect association with political insurrection, his high-profile love life, and his early death have made him a leading symbol of the Romantic era. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of numerous films and biographies of varying historical fidelity. Among his many memorials is the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, which was created by the Polish parliament to research and promote his life and works, and which hosts the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition, devoted entirely to his works.
17 | $20,000 | George Washington (1732 – 1799)
Sold: RRAuction.com | 13 September 2023
George Washington (11 February 1731 – 14 December 1799) was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire. He is commonly known as the Father of the Nation for his role in bringing about American independence.
Born in the Colony of Virginia, Washington became the commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War (1754–1763). He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, and opposed the perceived oppression of the American colonists by the British Crown. When the American Revolutionary War against the British began in 1775, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He directed a poorly organized and equipped force against disciplined British troops. Washington and his army achieved an early victory at the Siege of Boston in March 1776 but were forced to retreat from New York City in November.
Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the battles of Trenton in late 1776 and Princeton in early 1777, then lost the battles of Brandywine and Germantown later that year. He faced criticism of his command, low troop morale, and a lack of provisions for his forces as the war continued. Ultimately Washington led a combined French and American force to a decisive victory over the British at Yorktown in 1781. In the resulting Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British acknowledged the sovereign independence of the United States. Washington then served as president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which drafted the current Constitution of the United States.
Washington was unanimously elected the first US president by the Electoral College in 1788 and 1792. He implemented a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in the fierce rivalry that emerged within his cabinet between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he proclaimed a policy of neutrality while supporting the Jay Treaty with Britain.
Washington set enduring precedents for the office of president, including republicanism, a peaceful transfer of power, the use of the title "Mr. President", and the two-term tradition. His 1796 farewell address became a preeminent statement on republicanism: Washington wrote about the importance of national unity and the dangers that regionalism, partisanship, and foreign influence pose to it. As a planter of tobacco and wheat at Mount Vernon, Washington owned many slaves. He began opposing slavery near the end of his life, and provided in his will for the manumission of his slaves.
Washington's image is an icon of American culture and he has been extensively memorialized; his namesakes include the national capital and the State of Washington. In both popular and scholarly polls, he is consistently considered one of the greatest presidents in American history.
18 | $17,269 | Patrick Bateman (fictional)
Sold: Propstore.com | 3 November 2022
This card was a prop from the 2002 feature film, American Psycho and it sold along with several others in a display case for that price at Propstore. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) and his colleagues competitively compared their business cards during a meeting at their company "Pierce & Pierce." Bateman's seething anger at having his card bested by that of his colleague Paul Allen (Jared Leto), despite the two cards looking almost identical, satirized the vacuous materialism of 1980s yuppie culture.
Bret Easton's black comedy American Psycho caused as much controversy as a film as it did in its original novel form. Along the way, it gave business cards the spotlight in this famous scene.
19 | $16,079 | Robert Gould Shaw (1837 – 1863)
Sold: RRAuction.com | 10 July 2024
Robert Gould Shaw (10 October 1837 – 18 July 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into an abolitionist family from the Boston upper class, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Massachusetts) in the Northeast. Supporting the promised equal treatment for his troops, he encouraged the men to refuse their pay until it was equal to that of white troops' wage.
He led his regiment at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. They attacked a beachhead near Charleston, South Carolina, and Shaw was shot and killed while leading his men to the parapet of the Confederate-held fort. Although the regiment was overwhelmed by firing from the defenses and driven back, suffering many casualties, Shaw's leadership and the regiment became legendary. They inspired hundreds of thousands more African Americans to enlist for the Union, helping to turn the tide of the war to its ultimate victory. Shaw's efforts and that of the 54th Massachusetts regiment were dramatized in the 1989 Oscar-winning film Glory.
20 | $15,375 | Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885)
Sold: Fleischer's Auction House | 14 May 2024
Ulysses S. Grant (27 April 1822 – 23 July 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War. A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and then elected president in 1868.