400,000 Shares of Western Union International, Inc. - Serial #1 - Rare Revenues at Back - 1963 dated Telegraph Stock Certificate

Stock printed by American Bank Note Company. Issued to the Western Union Telegraph Company. Serial number one dated September 30, 1963. 

Western Union International, Inc. was a former subsidiary of the Western Union Telegraph Company that was established in 1963 to manage its international cable systems and telegraph lines. Parent company Western Union sold off this international business to American Securities to focus on its declining telegraph business in the US. After becoming a publicly traded company in 1967, Western Union International was acquired by Xerox in 1979 before being sold again to MCI Communications in 1981, which renamed it MCI International and phased out the Western Union branding. This divestment illustrates a broader shift in the company's focus away from its traditional communications services.

The current international money transfer and payments operations are managed by The Western Union Company, which was revived and spun off in 2006 as an independent financial services provider. After suffering financial difficulties and bankruptcy in the 1990s, the money transfer business was acquired and then refocused exclusively on financial services. Today, the company is a global leader in cross-border money movement and payments, and it offers services to consumers and businesses through a vast network of agents, bank accounts, and digital channels in over 200 countries. This modern incarnation of the company is distinct from the now-defunct Western Union International, Inc.