Definitive Securities

The plot of Die Hard is simple: a group of German terrorists take over the Nakatomi Building in Los Angeles and a lone NYPD cop visiting his estranged wife is the only one who can stop them. However, it's revealed that they're actually trying to raid the vault for cash and a fortune in bearer bonds. What’s so special about bearer bonds? They are untraceable. Anyone can own them and cash them in, because they are physical, definitive securities. As a result, one can use them to avoid taxes.

Although relatively rare nowadays, definitive securities, or paper certificate versions of stocks and bonds, are still used, albeit infrequently. Electronic trading has rendered stock certificates to a bygone era, but original stock certificates can still be valid if the company still exists.

Physical bonds also still exist. Examples include: the aforementioned bearer bonds (discontinued in the early 1980s, although a few long maturity issues still are in circulation), registered bonds (which can also be electronic but are registered with the owner’s name), and Eurobonds, which are issued outside the U.S.