This stock certificate was issued on this very day June, 26 1903 - 116 years ago. HRP This is one of the first shares of Ford stock. It was issued to Alexander Malcomson, a wealthy Detroit coal merchant. He took a liking to young Henry and agreed to back his third attempt at starting a company despite the fact that Ford had failed twice before. Malcomson was instrumental in finding wealthy backers for the new company.
You do have a piece of Ford history. Alex Malcomson was born in Scotland in 1865 and came to Detroit and got a job as a grocery boy. He was very observant and noticed the need for coal and got into the coal delivery business. His specialty was delivering coal in small wagons which allowed him to make faster deliveries and make more of them. The slogan for his coal was "Hotter Than Sunshine" and his business took off. At the height of his business he had 10 coal yards and over 100 delivery wagons. Alex owned a Winton automobile and saw a future in autos and wanted in. On August 16th, 1902, Alex and Henry formed a partnership and called it Ford & Malcomson Ltd. The story from here is complicated with others involving the Dodge Brothers, James Couzens, C. Harold Willis and about a dozen of other early Ford investors. What a great piece of history you have. There are a lot of Ford stock certificates out there but what makes yours so rare is the name Alex Malcomson the owner of the stock.
Current price on a share of Ford stock, $9.90. So those same 255 shares would be worth $2524.50, not $150,000. Sad, how somebody took a whole town centered around Ford, Dearborn, and ran it into the ground. I wonder what that $150,00 would buy back then , compared to today?
I would think while Mr. Malcomson owned the stock he received some handsome divined checks, gotta remember Ford Motor Company stock wasn't traded publicly until 1956. Mr. Malcomson may have made a tidy profit off his investment or lost it all, In his situation he might have needed a huge tax loss with the shear size of his coal business. HRP
Malcomson didn't stay with Ford for long. His vision was upscale cars and Henry wanted small runabouts that everyone could afford and they fought regularly. In July of 1906, Henry purchased all of Malcomson's stock and they went their separate ways. What a HUGE mistake on Malcomson's part.
Those shares were 10.00 each when issued. Still just as stock in most companies you wonder how many times they would have split over the past 116 years and how many shares that 255 would equal now.
If you look at the first image I believe you will see the stock was 100.00 dollars a share at that time. A huge sum of money in 1903. HRP
the stock Split history with Ford is complicated. It was not always the 1 to 2 split, some were 4 to 5 and 3 to 4 split. Meaning that for every four shares you had, that turned into five shares, or for every three shares that turned into 4. their first split after going public in 1956 was in 1976 or 77. From then to now if you had a $10,000 investment of the IPO from 1956, today they would be worth around $25,000.
This doesn't take into account stock splits and share buybacks. If those were correctly catalogued and tracked (i.e. still valid) they would be worth multiple times current stock price. A stock split is when one share becomes 2, usually with the stock price halving at the same time. Sometimes there are 3 for 1 stock splits, or more. If it only happened twice since those were first sold, each initial share would now be worth 4 shares. You can extrapolate from there. Sometimes there are reverse stock splits which double your money but halve your stock. Since 1956, Ford stock has split 6 times, 2 for 1, 5 for 4, 3 for 2, 3 for 2, 2 for 1, and 2 for 1.
The numbers were staggering even in 2019 dollars. In 1919 Ford wanted total control of the Ford Motor Company so he offered buyout's to his main investors. Shareholder. Investment. Dividends. Sold For in 1903. 1903-1919. in 1919 Dodge Bros. $10,000. $9,500,000. $25,000,000 John W. Anderson. $5,000. $4,750,000. $12,500,000 Heirs of John Gray. $10,500. $9,975,000. $26,250,000 Horace Rackham. $5000. $4,750,000. $12,500,000 James Couzens. $10,900. $10,355,000. $29,308,858 Rosetta Couzens. $100. $95,000. $262,036 Not a bad return on your investment!
I don't know why it printed that way but the first number was the shareholders investment, the next number was their dividends from 1903 to 1919 and the last number is what they received in buy out money.
Gosh, as has been mentioned earlier it's so sad to see what has happened to the Motor City. Doubt it will ever make a comeback. Same with Pontiac, etc.
It's almost impossible to make accurate comparisons. Gov't inflation figures are not very reliable for several reasons, and generally speaking most things become less expensive over time, not more (unless gov't gets involved) for example due to better manufacturing techniques. Henry's cars are a good example of this. One thing I noticed looking at it a bit, clothing, and machine tools, were relatively pretty expensive. Food has gotten less expensive, especially as a percentage of the family budget. And then there are a bunch of things we take for granted today, that weren't available back then at any price. Anyway you slice it, that was a big chunk of money. So was the initial investment. For example if someone had 150,000 silver dollars stuffed in a coal bin the silver itself would be worth over $2,000,000 in today's confetti. If someone had 7,500 $20 gold double eagles that would be over $10,000,000 today. The people who invested in Ford early on did really well.
I always knew you guys with the shiny cars with all the chrome plated parts knew something about money that I didnt. Thanks for the education on the stocks. Still blows my mind that Ford built a town, generated his own power and took raw materials and turned out a cars by the millions. Really sad that now its just a shell of what it was in its prime.
Let's set the history straight regarding the dodge brothers. The Dodgers felt Ford wasn't building quality cars. They felt they could do better. They sold their stock to form their own company. They succeeded in their goal. The Ford guys hate to admit it but without dodge there might not have been ford motor co.
But today, Ford is still doing business under the original name and sadly Dodge is no longer a entity, it has went through multiple ownership's, now it's Fiat. HRP
I thought that Ford screwed The Dodge Brothers and other partial owners by claiming to the press that he was retiring. He stated that his son was going to take over the company. The stock price dropped and he bought out enough shares to become the sole owner of Ford.
Partially correct. Ford wanted complete and absolute control. He had it with partial owners making suggestions and ideas. On December 30, 1918 Henry resigned from the presidency of the Ford Motor Company. When he was asked what he was going to do, as he was only 55 years old he replied "I want to work on other projects". His son Edsel was now president of Ford with a salary of $150,000 a year. Of course Henry still controlled Ford thru his son and in fact still did until his death in 1947. In March of 1919, Henry announced that he was forming a new company for the purpose of making an even cheaper car than the Model T, to actually compete with the Ford Motor Company. Henry received dozens of telegrams from cities across America hoping that he would build the new Ford plant in their city. Of course sly old Henry knew that his investors would be very concerned, if in fact he did build cars to compete with his old Ford Motor Company. So when he offered his "buy out" most jumped at the chance to sever their ties with it.
Old Hank was a devious tyrant in many ways and his phony assertion that he was going to compete with Ford Motor Company would certainly raise questions with Federal regulators today. Then there was his penchant for controlling labor. The often touted $5/day came with many restrictions and investigators were sent to employees homes to see if they complied with Henry’s thoughts and beliefs. How about the workers march in 1932? As the protesters dispersed Ford security forces along with Dearborn police (we may as well say Ford police as Hank controlled the town) opened fire killing four and injuring a couple dozen. Then there was the Battle of the Overpass in 1937, another pro union, peaceful demonstration that turned ugly when Ford security beat many of the marchers. Yeah, Henry fought the UAW organizing attempts for years but it was Clara Ford, his wife, that wielded the real power. In 1941 she threatened to leave him unless he signed a union contract that ensured decent wages, job security, safety and freedom from threats or retribution. BTW, Edsel died of stomach cancer caused by ulcers. Do you think Henry’s brow beating of his son contributed to that?
On May 18th 1943, when the doctors that attended to Edsel virtually 24 hours a day, told Henry that the end was near, he was furious and threatened to fire them all unless Edsel was cured. Henry refused to believe that Edsel was that sick. Nevertheless Edsel passed away a week later on May 26th. Poor Edsel was afflicted by several ailments including stomach cancer, liver cancer, ulcers and uncontrollable high fevers. Most do feel that Henry was the cause of his son's death. Clara Ford once stated that her son died of "a broken heart".
Yes Ford is still in business under the same name. But for the last 40 plus years of that they have used a Chrysler hemi to race funny car and top fuel.
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