The Gilded Age… The phrase evokes tycoons dressed like Scrooge McDuck (or Monopoly game mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags, or Mr. Monopoly) and women in extravagant gowns with outrageous hats in elegant clubs or drawing rooms and sumptuously dressed peers. The Gilded Age, which occurred from the 1870s through the 1890s, is associated with industry, invention, and transportation. The rise of factories, the advent of the light bulb, and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad are among the many sociocultural touchpoints of the era.
During the Gilded Age, titans of industry – via the new legalistic entity of the trust – created virtual (and often actual) monopolies, thereby becoming associated with their industries to the point of synonymy: Carnegie steel, the Vanderbilt (rail) road, Swift and Armour meat packing… And John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.
The Standard Oil Trust, the first and most influential, eventually controlled 90% of oil production in the U.S. Its assets peaked at around $34 billion in today’s dollars. Rockefeller, at the height of his fortunes, was worth slightly more than $30 billion – that figure also translated into today’s dollars.
On that note, we feature a share certificate in the Standard Oil Trust. This is certificate number 480; it is dated September 5, 1882, at New York City, and made out for 25 shares to “H.L. Davis” (probably Henry L. Davis, who is named in the 1882 Trust Agreement). Printed by the Franklin Bank Note Company of New York, the document’s design is remarkably restrained, even unassuming, given the era and the enterprise, with a standard-style engraved border and a stock vignette of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
The Franklin Bank Note Company of New York was an engraver and printer primarily of security documents such as stock and bond certificates, although it did print the regional bank issues of some Central and South American countries. Founded in 1877, it was acquired by American Bank Note Company in the early 1880s and then merged with the Homer Lee Bank Note Co. in 1897.
The certificate has been redeemed, with a prominent cancellation stamp and pen cancellations in red on the signatures. The main body of the certificate has been reunited with its stub and reattached. The left edge of the stub shows where it was once bound in a ledger. The back of the certificate has another standard border around a legal clause, also filled out, showing that an individual named Henry T. Davis witnessed the transfer of the shares to Rebecca S. Matthews in 1886.
The signatures on the face are particularly noteworthy: J.D. Rockefeller as president, H.M. Flagler as secretary, and J.A. Bostwick as treasurer. The certificate was also submitted to PSA/DNA for autograph verification, and so carries a dual authentication from PCGS Banknote for the certificate itself and from PSA/DNA for the signature of John D. Rockefeller.
Although not as well known, Henry Flagler and Jabez A. Bostwick also had notable careers aside from Standard Oil. Bostwick was the president of the New York and New England Railroad; Flagler was so instrumental to the development of the state of Florida that some proposed to name the city of Miami after him. (He suggested “Miami” instead.)
Beyond historical artifacts like this, the legacy of Standard Oil is still pervasive. The trust was broken up in 1911, but successor companies went on to become Chevron, the secondlargest oil company in the U.S., and ExxonMobil, the largest corporation in the U.S. and the eighth largest in the world.