Is Buying a Title of Nobility an Investment or a Scam?

So I get this email a couple of weeks ago:

I recently invested in a title of nobility through a private brokerage firm called (name deleted). Their site is (site deleted). Might be of some interest to your readers as I was able to receive a rewards discount being that I am a Centurion Card member and for those looking to diversify. They have a relationship with Centurion rewards at American Express.

I wasn't sure if this was legit, someone trying to promote a site they actually owned, or what in the Sam Brown was going on. But I was curious, so I replied:

How does an "investment" like this work?

He responded:

Considering titles are unique and historical, as time goes on they become more and more valuable (less and less are available on the market).

I bought a Scottish Barony in 1982 for a tiny sum of $8,000. I sold it in 1999 for $275,000. I wasn't planning on really ever selling it since it is a historical addition to my family, but it was too good to pass up.

At this point, both my BS (sounds too good to be true) and curiosity (wow, what a return!) meters were on overload. So I said:

Really? Care to write a post on it for my site? What you did, how you did it, etc. Maybe even a bit on what these go for now.

This was the response I received:

It was 1982 when I came across a growing market for titles of nobility. I purchased a Scottish Feudal Barony for my family for a paltry sum of $8,000. Initially I purchased the title as a historical addition to my family. In the late 90’s, a huge boom in value happened in the noble titles market. Similar Barony titles to the one I had were being sold for 20 to 30 times what I paid. In 1999, I sold my title for the sum of $275,000.

It wasn’t until the Spring of 2008 when I became interested again in titles of nobility due to the changing economy and the safety of my assets. I came to know a private brokerage firm through a friend. I was able to look over a small catalog of available titles of nobility. After over 3 months of thinking, I decided to go ahead with acquiring another title of nobility. With the changing global economy, titles of nobility I knew would always retain their value and most likely soar. I decided to invest $20,000 into a single low ranking title of nobility. Over about a 60 day period, I was kept informed by my agent of the status of the transfer of the title. As of August 2008, I am now the holder of a title of nobility once again.

The differentiating factor of the noble titles market from any other is every title is unique with their different histories. This is what allowed me to invest again. I was able to acquire a less historical title from the one I bought in 1982. I’d probably have to offer a much more significant amount than I sold the Barony for to get it back. There’s very few available in 2008. As time goes on, I hope the title I purchased will gain much in value. During this economic slump, now is a good time to acquire a title. A percentage of the market buys titles for just the historical or vanity value. Those are the people who are not looking for titles right now because of the economic slump. Investors can get into the market in several different budget areas. The title will always be unique and historical. I now await for the vanity and history based buyers to pump the market value of the title I purchased.

At this point, I went a googling and found the following at wikipedia under false titles of nobility:

Fake titles of nobility are supposed titles of nobility which have, in fact, been fabricated, and are not recognized by any government, or have not been so recognized in the past. They have received an increasing amount of press attention as the number of schemes which attempt to sell these titles has increased.

It is impossible to purchase genuine British titles of nobility or peerage titles directly, with one exception: it is possible to acquire a feudal title in the grade of baron in Scotland. Until the Abolition of Feudal Tenure (Scotland) Act of 2000, the transfer of such a barony required some interest in land, specifically the caput baronium (the seat of the barony), since the Act the titles stand on their own and transference by sale without land is legal. Scottish feudal baronies have been transferred by sale for well over half a millennium.

I also found this interesting piece on the nobility amendment to the US Constitution:

The Titles of Nobility Amendment (TONA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution dating from 1810. It was submitted to the state legislatures during the 2nd Session of the 11th Congress via a resolution offered by U.S. Senator Philip Reed of Maryland—and has not taken effect because it has not yet been ratified by the legislatures of enough states.

The text of the proposed amendment:

If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim, receive or retain, any title of nobility or honour, or shall, without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of them.

Yikes! I'd hate to buy an "investment" and lose my citizenship! Then again, the chance this will pass is virtually zero. After all, it's been almost 200 years since it was proposed.

And finally, to round out some information for those interested, here's a page on nobility in general.

Then I searched some more. If you want to see all the sites out there selling titles of nobility, go to Google and type in "titles of nobility for sale". Look at all the info (pro and con) on titles of nobility both in the search results and the Adwords ads (to the right). Play around with similar search terms and you'll find even more firms selling these (most of which look questionable in nature) as well as pieces saying they are scams.

Personally, I think this sounds a bit shady, but I'm open to learning something new. So I thought I'd post on this and see if anyone knows anything about titles of nobility for purchase and (especially) as an investment. Any thoughts out there?

Comments

[guinness416]

I'm an emigrant from Ireland and find that otherwise sensible people in this part of the world can get very romantic and starry eyed when it comes to their hyphenated heritages. There are many businesses taking advantage of that fact, but at least most of them aren't selling something that doesn't exist! Sad.

[Duane]

An investment should have some intrinsic ability to generate wealth. That is why we buy stock in corporations or lend money to them -- they make money and by extension we do also. A title may be worth more to someone else but you might as well speculate on your car becoming more valuable if you resell it.

This "investment" is otherwise known as the greater fool theory.

[JimmyDaGeek]

Hear! Hear! Duane

Titles are landed or not. Without land, it's pure vanity and has no intrinsic value. I suppose you could be called a Scottish peer, but to what advantage? So you can get a discount on goods and services? Join AARP or AAA for that or buy a coupon book! ;)

[Rod Ferguson]

I had also looked into buying a Scottish peerage back in 2000 (another family ancestry thing). While I didn't (far too cost prohibitive) I did notice that with the titles went the lands they controlled. I wouldn't trust just buying the title; besides, if the title doesn't have any real assets associated with it, what's the purpose? As an investment, it's on par with buying Beanie Babies or comic books as an "investment".

[David]

Why buy a mere title of nobility when you can purchase a whole bridge in Brooklyn for less than half the price?

[ekrabs]

Wow! That has to be, by far, the most fascinating "intellectual property investment" I've ever heard so far. Thanks for sharing this!

Obviously, I think you should listen to your BS detector on this one. Even if this turns out to be legit, it's hard to even tell if you will indeed make money on this into the future.

Personally, I think a bunch of Scots are have a round of good laugh and beer that they were able to sucker some Americans into buying something that doesn't mean anything to anyone else anymore. Or is that Nigerians?

[BB]

Hey - this guy made money on it. I agree it is something most people would consider worthless - like beanie babies. But hey - people made money selling those too!!

[Sarah]

Scammity scam, wonderful scam...

[Paul]

People also make money by selling the naming rights of stars (however that is governed) to individuals. You might as well buy a pet rock.

[Eric N.]

This has got to be one of the most bizarre things I've read in a long time. O_O

[Zev Steinhardt]

"Then again, the chance this will pass is virtually zero. After all, it's been almost 200 years since it was proposed."

That's what people said about the proposed amendment to prevent Congress from changing their wages in mid-term...

Zev Steinhardt

[Trevor Nelson]

As I understand it, the amendment was originally proposed to prevent creating another Empire/class system, which is what we were just getting out away from. It remains on the books, but has been intentionally ignored and not ratified in consideration of our ally nations. This is what allows Presidents (Reagan) and citizens (Bill Gates, Rudy Giuliani) to be knighted etc. with no problems regarding citizenship. The awards are consequently considered honorary in the US but are quite legitimate in the awarding country.
If ratified, no outside nation would ever be allowed to honor our citizens in their custom.

[MtoLondon]

As someone with a legitimate title, I find these types of scams highly offensive. You can buy all the titles you want, but unless you have the blood to back them up- they are worthless. Furthermore, no business can sell a title of that nature. They have to be ratified by a sitting monarch and/or the Pope. European countries are cracking down on scams like this and unfortunately, Americans keep buying into them. Titles do not mean big castles in some far off place and loads of treasure in a vault. They're about family, history and tradition- all of which are non-transferrable.

As for as being Knighted- Knights were the lowest of the aristocracy. One could become a Knight with lifetime of hard, diligent work. However, the only way one could hope to become one of the higher ranks is to marry into them. Otherwise, you have to be BORN into it. All the money in the world won't allow you to change who you were born to.

My family has had many ups and downs over the centuries, yet people still believe we were immune to bad decisions or heartbreak. It's not the case- believe me. Be proud of your family and where you come from and love them with every fiber of your being and I promise, you'll have more than most Dukes or Duchesses ever dreamt of having.

Oh as a side note, having a title doesn't mean you're instantaneously wealthy either. There are many a Duke, Lady, and Baron who have to work just like the rest of the world now.

[fathersez]

Malaysians also have a thing about titles, though these titles are not "tradeable". The rulers award these titles on their birthdays and we have a great number of people walking around with some title or the other.

I would not be surprised if some of them paraded themselves off as a monarchy to unsuspecting westerners.

At least the sale of these titles are not out in the open yet.

[Clark]

While it's generally accepted that British titles cannot be purchased, there are jurisdictions where acquisition of titles of nobility are sanctioned.

One (micro) nation that offers titles of nobility is the Duchy of Bohemia. HSH Herzog Stephan, 36th Duke of Bohemia supports the Duchy's operations by grant of titles and knighthood to worthy and deserving individuals.

[wilhelm von treheim]

Unfortunately Herzog Stephan forgot to mention that his family tree does not bear out hid claims as the title ended in 1611. Also, he does not have the right of fons honorum to grant titles as he is not a reigning monarch. Part with money on this one and you can kiss it goodbye.

[Palace Historian]

This sounds like it started off as a marketing blog and the name of the seller got deleted.

[freud99]

The narrow minded policies on title are mainly a terrestial phenomenon. I purchased my title, Grand Duke of Pluto, in 1995 from the Royal Federation of the Universe for $5239.99. It was marked down from over $25,000 for some reason that I cannot recall. Over the years the Royal Federation has kept me up-to-date on the price appreciation of my title through their newsletter, The Title Universe ($179/year). It gradually appreciated and it was worth over $1 million by 2005. However, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) (a fringe group of crackpot so-called "astronomers") "reclassified" it as a "dwarf planet." Overnight, the price plummeted to approximately $25,000 according to the newsletter. The Royal Federation is fighting this "demotion." Unfortunately this is quite expensive and I am paying an extra assessment of $500/year in addition to my regular $300/year title maintenance fee. I should have sold the thing when it was worth $1 million but I expected it to go up further. I now plan to sell it just as soon as it hits $1 million again.

All the best,

Charon Von Pluto XXI
Grand Dule of Pluto

[Lord George]

How did you get the title of Grand Duke of Pluto is it recgonized. Does the seller have a site

[captainsmartass]

MtoLondon, the Duke of Wellington scoffs at your insistence that you must be born to a title and you can't earn one through hard work.