Bonds

• Bonds can only be issued by the SNCF during the Emergency Money Raising step; the SNCF may not voluntarily sell its own Bonds from its Treasury. The sentence on page 11 of the 0.35 version of the rule book under the section:-

  The Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français "Bonds may be bought from or sold to the Bank Pool by players or the SNCF at their face value of F100."

  is incorrect and should read
  "Bonds may be bought from or sold to the Bank Pool by players at their face value of F100. The SNCF may redeem its Bonds but not issue them."

• Players can buy or sell Bonds from the Bank Pool during a Stock Round. Either counts as an action (i.e. if a player buys or sells just a SNCF Bond, then this will keep the Stock Round open) [Provisional Ruling]. A single Bond may be purchased or one or more Bonds may be sold. Bonds held by Players do not count towards their Certificate limit.
• Players may not purchase Bonds from the SNCF Treasury, even if available. The only way Bonds come out of the SNCF Treasury is when the SNCF forms or during an Emergency Money Raising step when forced to purchase a train or pay interest.
• If a Player owns a Bond at the end of a game then it is worth face value of F100 towards the players score.
• It is possible for the SNCF to issue Bonds during an Emergency Money Raising step and then (if a Loan had to be also taken) purchase the same Bonds back during the SNCF Bond Redemption step.

• Loans may not be taken out voluntarily; they may only be taken out during the Emergency Money Raising step when either forced to purchase a train or pay interest. The SNCF must first issue any Bonds it holds before it can take out a Loan.
• The action of taking a loan during the Emergency Money Raising step is atomic with the purchase of a train from the bank. If there is money left after this action, only then can a train be bought across (from another corporation) as per the normal rules.
• It is possible that when the Etat forms it inherits more than two Loans. If this does happen then discard any in excess of two. [Note, this ruling is yet to be confirmed]. The Etat, like any other corporation, may not hold more than two Loans. The rules do not actually mention what happens to the Loans of the precursor corporations, it is currently assumed that they are transferred to the Etat Treasury along with the other assets.
• The first Loan costs F50 in interest, the second also costs F50 (for a total of F100). The double sided Loan markers supplied with the game show how much interest is due in total. It is not meant to imply that if a corporation has two loans it pays F150 in interest.

• When a Corporation makes its destination then it is optional to convert to a 10 share corporation. The President decides during the Destination Check (just after placing track) if he wants to convert or not. This decision is revisited each time the 5 Share Corporation operates. If the destination was achieved during the turn of another corporation, then the decision to convert is delayed until it is the turn of the 5 Share Corporation.
• Once the President decides to convert to a 10 Share Corporation, then the remaining 5 shares (marked 'One Share 10%') are placed in the Treasury. This can mean that up to 80% of the stock is held in the Corporation Treasury and the President may have as little as 20% (in practice, the President will usually hold 30% and the treasury 50% to 70%).

  Example
  A Player has floated a 5 Share Corporation and has at some point sold his own holdings down to 40% while the other 60% is in the treasury. If this corporation now converts to a 10 Share Corporation then the President (who has only the President's Certificate) now has 20%, the remaining 50% is transferred into the treasury and joins the existing 30% previously held in there.

  Note, shares are not swapped 2 for 1 (unlike the Etat and SNCF mergers) but revert from 1 share = 20% to 1 share = 10%

• Even though there may be as little as 20% stock outside the Treasury, the corporations does not 'unfloat' or stop operating; it continues to run as normal. As the conversion is performed immediately after track placement, it does mean that the corporation receives dividends from the extra 50% stock that have just appeared and it may sell the new stock during the Corporation Stock Selling and Buying step. Note, if a corporation connects to its destination and converts on its very first operating turn, then the prohibition from selling stock during this turn still applies to the additional 50% stock as well.

  Note, the return on investment from a corporation that converts is effectively halved. This is because a share before conversion was earning 20% of the revenue while after conversion the same share is earning only 10%.

• If a corporation wishes to float but is already connected to its destination then it must start as a 10 Share Corporation. The President does not have an option to start it as a 5 Share Corporation. After Phase 6H this applies to any corporation even if not connected to its destination.

• As soon as the first 10H train is purchased, all remaining 5 Share Corporations must convert to 10 Share Corporations immediately. This is not optional. It happens during the Train Buying step of the corporation which purchased the first 10H train. The rules for forming the SNCF start with the conversion of all 5 Share Corporations which are merging into it, but there can't be any at this point.

• To float a 5 Share Corporation, three shares are required to be purchased. Please note that a single share of "Preferred Stock" from the 5 Share Corporation is 20% not the usual 10%. Therefore, the President's Certificate is 40%.

  Example
  A Player decides to purchase the President's certificate of the Grand Central at the start of the game. He declares the starting price to be F75 and pays F150 to the bank for the 40% President's Certificate. On his next turn of the stock round he purchases one more share (his third) for F75. This floats the GC for a total outlay of F225. The player now has 60% of the GC stock so may not purchase any more. The remaining 40% (2 shares) are transferred to the Treasury along with F225.

  If when the GC operates it earns a revenue of F130 (a typical example from the first run), then it pays F26 per share. In the example above the President will receive F78 (3 shares or 60%) and the Corporation will receive F52 (2 shares or 40%).

• The Stock Price of a 5 Share Corporation does not go up if all shares are sold out.
• The Presidency of a 5 Share Corporation can be transferred to another player in the usual way, i.e. another player is required to hold 2 shares (40% in the case of 5 Share Corporations) before this can happen.

  Example
  Player A is the President of the GC and holds 40% (the President's Certificate), Player B also holds 40% (two 20% certificates), the Bank Pool holds the other single 20% share.

  Player A can sell a single share (20%) to the Bank Pool (he is not allowed to sell both shares as that would mean that the Bank Pool would exceed the 50% share limit), and transfer the Presidency of the GC to Player B. Player A swaps his President's Certificate of the GC for the two certificates belonging to Player B, and can now place one of these shares into the Bank Pool.

  The end result is that Player A now holds a single 20% share of the GC, Player B holds the President's 40% Certificate and the Bank Pool holds two 20% certificates.

• When performing the 2 for 1 share conversion during the formation of the Etat or SNCF it is based on Shares not Certificates.

  Examples
  A Player holds 60% of the GC (a 5 Share Corporation) which is about to merge into the Etat (along with at least one other corporation). As the player holds 3 shares, then he ends up with a single 10% Etat share and one share is discarded into the Bank Pool, where it will eventually be part of an exchange.

  A Player holds 60% of the GC and 20% of the Midi (both 5 Share Corporations). He ends up with 20% of Etat (as he did have 4 shares previously).

  A Player holds 60% of the GC (a 5 Share Corporation) and 10% of the P-O (a 10 Share Corporation), both of which are going to merge with the Etat. The player ends up with 20% of the Etat (again, he had 4 shares).

  A Player holds 60% of the GC and 20% of the Midi (both 5 share Corporations), both of which are going to merge with the SNCF. First the corporations are converted to 10 Share Corporations and then the player ends up with 20% of the SNCF (as he did hold 4 shares).

• The Etat does not run if there is less than 50% stock outside the Treasury. It is possible that the Etat forms but does not operate because not enough stock gets converted during the formation (it remains unfloated). While this may appear to be the opposite result when compared to corporations that convert from a 5 to 10 share corporation, the Etat is a new corporation that is created as opposed to an existing corporation that is converting. Since it is a new corporation then it is following the normal rules of requiring 50% before it can float and start to operate. It remains in this state until enough stock is purchased out from the Treasury during later Stock Rounds. The President may not partially operate the unformed Etat to sell treasury stock during a Corporation Stock Selling and Buying step.

  The situation can be easily resolved with some forward planning by ensuring that stock is sold out from the treasury of a potential merger candidate into the Bank Pool before the merger occurs.

  Note, this does not apply to the SNCF as its merger mechanism is slightly different; its treasury stock is transferred to the Bank Pool during formation.

• Corporations that haven't operated can't merge into the Etat or SNCF.
• The Etat inherits any Loans from the merging corporations; no special action is taken concerning these except that if there are more than two, then the excess Loans are simply discarded. [Note, this ruling is yet to be confirmed]

• A Corporation may hold more that 50% of its own stock in its Treasury. During the Corporation Stock Selling and Buying step, a corporation may purchase any amount of its own stock from the Bank Pool.
• The Bank Pool may not hold more than 50% of any one Corporation except as a result of a Bankruptcy step or the formation of the SNCF.

• Corporations may only place one station marker (token) each Operating Round. The initial token is placed on the home city when the corporation floats, and since this is done during the stock round, the corporation may place its second token the first time it operates.
• The number of tokens is fixed when the corporation floats and it doesn't change for the rest of the game. The Charters might imply that they do receive additional tokens but this isn't the case.

  Example
  At the start of the game, a 5-Share corporation receives three tokens. It does not receive another when it converts to a 10-Share corporation or a fifth at the start of Phase 10H.

• The cost of tokens is based from the nearest adjacent token belonging to that corporation (measured via track connection) not from the initial home token.
• The gamekit supplies a large number of SNCF and ETAT corporation logos for use on the tokens. The reason is that most corporations (with the exception of the Etat Belge) can merge into either the Etat or SNCF. If a corporation folds into either of these State railways, the tokens can remain on the map flipped over to show the correct logo. The rules state that the Etat can claim up to two tokens from each merging railway, while the SNCF can claim up to three. This is why the corporations have two Etat and three SNCF logos on the reverse side of the five tokens. The recommendation is that the three tokens with the SNCF tokens are used at the start of play, because the Etat only rarely starts while there is a greater chance that the SNCF will see the light of day. Instead of providing a large number of Etat and SNCF spare tokens, it was more practical to make the existing tokens double sided. The Etat Belge does not require these as it can never merge.

• An 'E' or 'TGV' train does not count small F10 stations as stops, and may not do so even voluntarily.
• An 'E' or 'TGV' train may only visit a city once, even if it is a small F10 station that it ignores for revenue purposes.
• The number of TGV trains supplied is not intended to impose a limit on play. In the unlikely event that more than 6 TGVs are wanted, more should be constructed.
• Both the Etat and SNCF have a +1 train limit over other 10 Share corporations. The Game Phases table on Page 2, which states that this applies only to the SNCF, is incorrect.

• There are no 'Par Prices' in 1826. The cost of a share is always the current market value. This means that at the start of a game, it is cheaper to wait until a Corporation has operated for the first time before you purchase any stock. However, if there is demand for shares, they may not be available on the following stock round.

• The six hexes surrounding Paris are reserved for the respective adjacent corporations. If the corporation has not yet floated, then the decision lies with the Bank, and the Bank always says no. The reserved hexes only apply to yellow tiles, and once placed there are no further restrictions on green or brown tile upgrades for these hexes.

  It is suggested that at the start of the game, a token from each of the six Paris corporations is placed on the map, in the adjacent hex. This will remind players that the hex may not be built until the corporation has floated. Once a corporation floats a token is placed in the home city, so the token previously placed can now be moved into the adjacent home station.

• If any of the yellow 7, 8 or 9 tiles run out, then more can be borrowed from other 18xx games to make up the shortfall (the yellow plain track tiles are meant to be unlimited). This only applies to the yellow plain track tiles; the other tiles are limited to the tile mix supplied with the game.