Description: Maryland, 10 Shares, I/U Common stock, Black on green border and underprint, S/N 59, The Franklin Company was established in 1901 by John Wilkinson, a Cornell-educated engineer. The company would continue to produce automobiles until its demise in 1934. Franklin was America's longest-running producer of air-cooled automobiles and they were an early champion of the use of lightweight aluminum. Of the 150,000 Franklins built before the company was bankrupted in the Depression, it's estimated that only about 3,700 have survived.