MUSEUM NEWS
THE TICKER
Museum adds the George M . Jones III Collection of Historical Securities to its Archive
By Sarah Poole , Collections Manager
This summer , the Museum of American Finance received a significant donation to its collection as a bequest from George M . Jones III , who served on the Museum ’ s board of trustees from 1999 – 2006 . He was a passionate supporter of history , the arts and his local community in northwestern Ohio . The Museum was deeply saddened to learn that he passed away on February 15 , 2023 , at the age of 79 .
The George M . Jones III Collection of Historical Securities includes more than 300 securities from the 18th through 20th centuries , spanning all of the major industries that have shaped the growth of the United States . Many of the certificates are signed by prominent figures , including early US Senators William Few ( GA , also a signer of the US Constitution ) and William Bingham ( PA ); industrialists John D . Rockefeller , J . Paul Getty and Jay Gould ; and bankers J . P . Morgan , Henry Wells and William G . Fargo . The collection also includes a number of US and foreign government securities that illustrate significant historical events , such as the American Revolution , the American Civil War and the reunification of Germany in 1989 . There are also certificates representing some of the most notorious scandals in financial history , from the fictitious Kingdom of Poyais in the 1820s to the accounting fraud at Enron Corporation in 2001 .
The most significant piece in the collection is a first-issue Standard Oil stock certificate issued to Henry M . Flagler on January 29 , 1870 . The certificate is serial number 16 and is signed by Flagler and John D . Rockefeller . This security is among the first issued after Standard Oil incorporated on January 10 , 1870 , with capital of $ 1 million in $ 100 shares . Known as “ founders shares ,” these early shares were only issued to the seven original corporate founders : John D . Rockefeller , William Rockefeller , Henry Flagler , Samuel Andrews , Stephen Harkness , Oliver Jennings and the Rockefeller , Andrews & Flagler Co .
As of 2020 , only 10 known founders shares were held in private collections , including the one now in the Museum ’ s collection . The shares mysteriously trickled into the scripophily market from the 1960s to the 1990s . Collectors eventually learned that in 1966 , a number of the founders shares were removed from the company archives at Exxon ( the successor company to Standard Oil ), framed and given to various officers for Christmas . It is estimated that a dozen more founders shares are unaccounted for . 1 The Museum is grateful for the opportunity to preserve one of these rare certificates for the purpose of public access to financial education .
The George M . Jones III Collection of Historical Securities is full of fascinating stories from financial history . Many of these stories are certain to play an integral role in future exhibitions and scholarship from the Museum of American Finance . The gift of this expansive collection will serve students and enthusiasts of finance and financial history for generations to come .
Note
1 . A more detailed account of this fascinating story is available in “ Scripophily of the Standard Oil Company ,” by Max Hensley , in the April 2020 issue of Scripophily .
Collection of the Museum of American Finance
Above : Standard Oil stock certificate for 130 shares issued to Henry M . Flagler , 1870 . Right : Beautifully illustrated Compagnie des Installations Maritimes de Bruges certificate , 1904 .
Collection of the Museum of American Finance www . MoAF . org | Fall 2024 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 5