Deal toy

These plaques or other types of trophies are typically presented at the closing ceremony or dinner to the issuer and senior third-party advisers of the major financial transactions as a souvenir.

[1] The deal toy is the marriage of a design with the tombstone advertisement, a term that dates to the late 19th century, when printers used it to refer to "column-width newspaper ads run without any illustration or typographical ornamentation."

From at least the late 1960s, law firms and banks produced Lucite slabs that encased the tombstone ads announcing new partner classes.

[5] This memento is described as an ad hoc creation to a financial offering or other major investment banking transaction and is most often presented at the closing ceremony of the deal.

As deal toys became used within the investment banking industry, they also became a point of pride—and competition—with firms frequently seeking to outdo each other with creative and elaborate designs.