Mellon National Corporation - Specimen Stock Certificate - Vignette of Judge Thomas Mellon

Specimen Stock printed by American Bank Note Company. Portrait of Judge Thomas Mellon. Mellon Financial Corporation was an American investment firm that was formerly one of the largest money management firms in the world. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it specialized in institutional and high-net-worth individual asset management, including the Dreyfus family of mutual funds, business banking, and shareholder and investor services. On December 4, 2006, Mellon Financial Corporation announced a merger agreement with Bank of New York to form BNY Mellon. After receiving regulatory and shareholder approval, the merger was completed on July 2, 2007.

Mellon Bank was established in January 1870 by Thomas Mellon and his sons Andrew Mellon and Richard B. Mellon as T. Mellon & Sons' Bank. In 1902, the institution became known as Mellon National Bank. Mellon Bank played a significant role in the mass production revolution in the United States, particularly in the Midwest. The Mellon family, using the bank as a proxy, was directly involved in founding the modern aluminum, oil, consumer electronics, and financial industries. Companies such as Alcoa, Gulf Oil (now Chevron-Texaco), Westinghouse (now CBS Corporation and Siemens), and Rockwell were directly founded and managed by the bank. U.S. Steel (the world's first billion-dollar corporation), Heinz, General Motors, Koppers, and ExxonMobil (formerly Rockefeller's Standard Oil) were also born and nurtured by Mellon.