Not a Millionaire from Old Oil Stock
High hopes for oil riches from someone’s family heirloom.
Despite years of mergers and acquisitions, the 1924 Palmer Union Oil Company stock certificate Tony Marohn bought at a garage sale did not make him a millionaire. As with most obsolete securities, no ownership in the company or its successors remained by the time it became part of Coca-Cola.
For many people like Marohn, discovering an old stock certificate brings hopes of wealth. This seems especially true if the certificate is one of the thousands of petroleum companies incorporated since the first, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company of New York, organized in 1855.
Unfortunately, as the research posted in Is My Oil Oil Stock worth Anything? shows, the highly competitive, boom-and-bust world of oil and natural gas exploration leaves many casualties. (more…)
