Union Oil Company of California 1911 - Payable in Gold Coin

Beautifully engraved RARE SPECIMEN certificate from the Union Oil Company of California dated 1911. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of oil rig with oil exploding out the top. This item is over 92 years old. This is the earliest Union Oil Company of California Bond we have seen.












Certificate Vignette

The first gasoline-powered automobile had not yet appeared in the West when Union Oil Company of California was founded on Oct. 17, 1890. The oil industry was barely 30 years old. Headquarters for the new company were established in Santa Paula, heart of the state's oil country. One hundred years later, when Unocal celebrated its centennial, the original two-story building was renovated and became the Unocal Oil Museum.

To form Union Oil, co-founders Lyman Stewart, Thomas Bard, and Wallace Hardison merged their holdings. Although they could not then have foreseen the tremendous impact the automobile would soon have on oil demand, they were aware of oil's potential as an industrial and transportation fuel.

Stewart and Hardison met in the Pennsylvania oil fields, which boomed after the country's first oil well was drilled near Titusville in 1859. The partners built up modest oil fortunes, then sold out and moved west in the 1880's to seek greater opportunities in California.

In 1890, Stewart and Hardison combined their oil assets with those of Thomas Bard, a prominent businessman, to form the Union Oil Company of California. The company was incorporated on October 17, 1890, in the small town of Santa Paula, located about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

True entrepreneurs, the three men worked to expand the uses for fuel oil in factories, steamships, and railroads. The company often assigned its own mechanics and technicians to convert power or heating systems to use oil instead of coal in order to demonstrate fuel oil's superiority -- and earn the good will of future customers.

In 1891, Union Oil opened the first petroleum research laboratory west of the Mississippi with the initial aim of developing a process to extract non-smoking kerosene from the heavy California crudes, much less suitable to such use than the lighter, cleaner eastern oils. While the goal eluded Union Oil chemists, that rudimentary lab began a long tradition of research that served the company well.

By the turn of the century, only one of the three co-founders remained: Lyman Stewart. In 1901, the company moved its headquarters to Los Angeles -- which Stewart referred to as that "great city of the future."

Stewart served as president until 1914, when his son Will stepped into the job. Lyman continued to play an active role as chairman until his death in 1923.

Together, father and son guided Union to a position of prominence in the western United States. Recognizing the importance of building an integrated company, the Stewarts created an effective refining and marketing organization backed by a solid resource base.

By 1913, there were nearly 123,000 automobiles in California, prompting the company to open its first service station -- or "gas stand" -- on the corner of Sixth and Mateo streets in downtown Los Angeles. As the number of automobiles mushroomed, the company worked hard to keep pace. By 1925, Union had more than 400 service stations on the West Coast

In 1930, with the death of Will Stewart, leadership passed to Press St. Clair. As the Great Depression deepened, St. Clair drastically cut back company operations. The bright spots in that dark decade were the introductions of the first 76 gasoline and Triton motor oil. Both products helped motorists get better performance from their cars, welcome news to those who had to keep their old cars rolling until better times. The 76 marketing symbol was destined to become one of the most recognizable and enduring corporate symbols in the nation.

As the world went to war in the late 1930s, Union -- with a dynamic new leader in former steel man Reese Taylor -- beefed up production and refining to pour out fuels to support the Allies. The company's growth continued into the booming postwar era as Union expanded in all directions: discovering the first natural gas in Alaska and the first oil in Australia; taking a lead position in offshore development in the Gulf of Mexico; building a thriving chemicals business; and developing a revolutionary refining technology -- Unicracking -- that became the most widely used in the world.

When Reese Taylor died unexpectedly in 1962, Cy Rubel, who had led the expansion in oil and gas exploration and production, came out of retirement to take over. He named a successor, Fred Hartley, two years later.

Hartley moved quickly to assure the company's future. In 1965, Union Oil merged with The Pure Oil Company of Illinois, lifting the company from regional to national status with operations in 37 states. The new Union Oil had the financial clout to expand its international petroleum search.

In the next 25 years, Union became the major oil producer in southern Alaska and a major natural gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico. Overseas, the company discovered the huge Attaka oil field offshore Indonesia, developed fields in the rugged North Sea and became the world's largest geothermal energy producer. Union made the first commercial discoveries of natural gas in the Gulf of Thailand, helping create a hydrocarbon industry that played a major role in Thailand's economic revolution

In 1983, Union Oil Company of California was reorganized, becoming an operating subsidiary of a new holding company, Unocal Corporation. Two years later, Union began doing business as Unocal. The name quickly gained headline status when the company was targeted for an unfriendly takeover. Unocal survived, but with a heavy burden of debt. When Dick Stegemeier was named president in late 1985, he, Hartley and their executive team faced enormous challenges in streamlining the company. They reduced the debt from $6.1 billion to less than $4 billion by mid-1990. Stegemeier succeeded Hartley, who retired as chairman and CEO before the end of the decade.

The 1990s brought mounting competitive challenges to the industry, and Unocal has responded through a ransformation from a mid-sized integrated resource producer, refiner and marketer into one of the world's largest independent oil and gas producers. Roger Beach, named CEO in 1994 and chairman one year later, led this transformation, with a key transition marked by the company's sale of its West Coast refining and marketing assets in 1997. The sale allowed the company to strengthen its balance sheet and increase investment in growth projects with high potential returns. These include deepwater prospects in the Gulf of Mexico and offshore Indonesia, Brazil and Gabon. The company also has a large position in natural gas-rich Bangladesh.

Effective January 1, 2001, Roger Beach retired and Chuck Williamson was named CEO. Williamson, who joined Unocal in 1977, has spent his career in exploration and production, holding senior positions of increasing responsibility in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, and Thailand. Jack Creighton, 68, former president and CEO of Weyerhaeuser Company, is chairman of the board.

The history of Unocal has been marked by tenacity and technological leadership. The company is an fficient finder and producer of oil and gas and a leader in drilling technology. The company's patented formulations for cleaner burning gasoline are helping reduce automobile emissions.

Unocal people work in many ways to improve the quality of life in their communities. More than a century go, Lyman Stewart set the tone - working to organize the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles and raising money for the local YMCA. He founded the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, which evolved into Biola University. Succeeding generations have followed Stewart's example. Unocal focuses much of its corporate giving on youth around the world.

At the time of the company's centennial in 1990, Unocal was one of only 22 surviving industrial companies mong the top 100 companies operating in the early 1900s -- and looked forward to a second century of technological innovation, productive growth, and community leadership.



Union Oil Timeline (Unocal)

1890: Union Oil formed in California by merger of Hardison & Stewart Oil Company, the Sespe Oil Company, and the Torrey Canyon Oil Company

1917: Union purchases Pinal-Dome Oil Company

1922: Shell buys 25% of Union Oil of California

1922: Shell Union Oil Corporation formed to consolidate Shell interests in the US with those of the Union Oil Company of Delaware

1965: Union acquires Pure Oil

1983: Union Oil changes name to Unocal

1992: Ashland Chemical acquires most of Unocal's chemical distribution business, establishing the IC&S Division

Special thanks to Union Oil for the company history!

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About Specimens

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates we made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that grown in popularity and realized nice appreciation in value over the past several years.