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U.S. Savings Bonds Envelope - Corning Glass Works, Corning New York

Inv# TB1064   Bond
U.S. Savings Bonds Envelope - Corning Glass Works, Corning New York
Country: United States

U.S. Savings Bonds envelope, Corning Glass Works, Corning, N.Y. Measures 8" x 4 1/2".

United States savings bonds are debt securities issued by the United States Department of the Treasury to help pay for the U.S. government's borrowing needs. U.S. savings bonds are considered one of the safest investments because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. The savings bonds are nonmarketable treasury securities issued to the public, which means they cannot be traded on secondary markets or otherwise transferable. They are redeemable only by the original purchaser, or a beneficiary in case of death.

On February 1, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation that allowed the U.S. Department of the Treasury to sell a new type of security, called the savings bond, to encourage saving during the Great Depression. The first Series A savings bond was issued a month later, with a face value of $25. They were marketed as a safe investment that was accessible to everyone. Series B, C, and D bonds followed over the next few years.

Series E bonds, referred to as Defensive Bonds, were a major source of financing in the period just before U.S. entry into World War II. On April 30, 1941, Roosevelt purchased the first Series E bond from Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr.; the next day, they were made available to the public. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Defensive Bonds became known as War Bonds. Stamps featuring a Minuteman statue design in denominations of 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1, and $5 were also sold to be collected in booklets which, when filled, could be exchanged to purchase interest-bearing Series E bonds. All the revenue received from the bonds went directly to support the war effort.

After the war ended, savings bonds became popular with families, with purchasers waiting to redeem them so the bonds would grow in value. To help sustain post-war sales, they were advertised on television, films, and commercials. When John F. Kennedy was president, he encouraged Americans to purchase them, which stimulated a large enrollment in savings bonds. By 1976, President Ford helped celebrate the 35th anniversary of the U.S. savings bond program.

In 1990, Congress created the Education Savings Bond program which helped Americans finance a college education. A bond purchased on or after January 1, 1990, is tax-free (subject to income limitations) if used to pay tuition and fees at an eligible institution.

In 2002, the Treasury Department started changing the savings bond program by lowering interest rates and closing its marketing offices. As of January 1, 2012, financial institutions no longer sell paper savings bonds. That year, the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Public Debt made savings bonds available for purchasing and redeeming online. U.S. savings bonds are now only sold in electronic form at a Department of the Treasury website, with the exception that paper Series I savings bonds can be purchased with a portion of a federal income tax refund using form 8888.

There are two types of savings bonds offered by the Treasury, Series EE and Series I.

Series EE bonds are guaranteed to double in value over the purchase price when they mature 20 years from issuance, though they continue to earn interest for a total of 30 years. Interest accrues monthly, and is compounded semiannually, that is, becomes part of the principal for future interest earning calculations. If a bond's compounded interest does not meet the guaranteed doubling of the purchase price, Treasury will make a one-time adjustment to the maturity value at 20 years, giving it an effective rate of 3.5%. The bond will continue to earn the fixed rate for 10 more years. All interest is paid when the holder cashes the bond.

For bonds issued before May 2005, the interest rate was an adjustable rate recomputed every six months at 90% of the average five-year Treasury yield for the preceding six months. Bonds issued in May 2005 or later pay a fixed interest rate for the life of the bond. Paper EE bonds, last sold in 2011, could be purchased for half their face value; for example, a $100 bond could be purchased for $50, but would only reach its full $100 value at maturity.

Series I bonds have a variable yield based on inflation. The interest rate consists of two components. The first is a fixed rate which will remain constant over the life of the bond; the second component is a variable rate adjusted every six months from the time the bond is purchased based on the current inflation rate. The fixed rate is determined by the Treasury Department; the variable component is based on the Consumer Price Index for urban areas (CPI-U) for a six-month period ending one month prior to the rate adjustment. New rates are published on May 1 and November 1 of every year. As an example, if someone purchases a bond in February, the fixed portion of the rate will remain the same throughout the life of the bond, but the inflation-indexed component will be based on the rate published the previous November. In August, six months after the purchase month, the inflation component will change to the rate that was published in May. During times of deflation, the negative inflation-indexed portion can drop the combined rate below the fixed portion, but the combined rate cannot go below 0% and the bond can not lose value. Like Series EE bonds, interest accrues monthly and is compounded to the principal semiannually. Besides being available for purchase online, taxpayers may purchase Series I bonds using a portion of their tax refund via IRS Form 8888.

For both types, bonds are redeemable after 12 months, but there is a penalty of three months' interest if they are redeemed before 5 years. Tax on the interest is deferred until the bond is redeemed.

The annual purchase limit for electronic Series EE and Series I savings bonds is $10,000 for each series. For paper Series I Savings Bonds purchased through IRS tax refunds the purchase limit is $5,000, which is in addition to the online purchase limit.

Additionally, the Treasury formerly offered Series HH bonds, which were "current income" bonds. Unlike Series EE and I bonds, they did not increase in value, but paid earned interest every six months for 20 years directly to the holder. The interest rate of a Series HH bond was set at purchase and remained that rate for 10 years. After 10 years the rate could change, with the new rate for the remaining 10 year life of the bond. After 20 years, the bond would be redeemed for its original purchase price. Series HH bonds replaced Series H bonds, which were introduced in 1952. Issuance of Series HH bonds ended August 31, 2004. Although no longer sold, Series HH bonds continue to earn interest for 20 years after sale, meaning the last bonds will not mature until 2024.

Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. The company was named Corning Glass Works until 1989. Corning divested its consumer product lines (including CorningWare and Visions Pyroceram-based cookware, Corelle Vitrelle tableware, and Pyrex glass bakeware) in 1998 by selling the Corning Consumer Products Company subsidiary (now known as Corelle Brands) to Borden, but still holds an interest of about 8 percent.

As of 2014, Corning had five major business sectors: display technologies, environmental technologies, life sciences, optical communications, and specialty materials. Corning is involved in two joint ventures: Dow Corning and Pittsburgh Corning. Quest Diagnostics and Covance were spun off from Corning in 1996. Corning is one of the main suppliers to Apple Inc. since working with Steve Jobs in 2007 to develop the iPhone; Corning develops and manufactures Gorilla Glass, which is used by many smartphone makers. It is one of the world's biggest glassmakers. Corning won the National Medal of Technology and Innovation four times for its product and process innovations.

Corning Glass Works was founded in 1851 by Amory Houghton, in Somerville, Massachusetts, originally as the Bay State Glass Co. It later moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, and operated as the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works. The company moved again to its ultimate home and eponym, the city of Corning, New York, in 1868 under leadership of the founder's son, Amory Houghton, Jr.

Corning continues to maintain its world headquarters at Corning, N.Y. The firm also established one of the first industrial research labs there in 1908. It continues to expand the nearby research and development facility, as well as operations associated with catalytic converters and diesel engine filter product lines. Corning has a long history of community development and has assured community leaders that it intends to remain headquartered in its small upstate New York hometown.

The California Institute of Technology's 200-inch (5.1 m) telescope mirror at Palomar Observatory was cast by Corning during 1934–1936 out of low expansion borosilicate glass. In 1932, George Ellery Hale approached Corning with the challenge of fabricating the required optic for his Palomar project. A previous effort to fabricate the optic from fused quartz had failed. Corning's first attempt was a failure, the cast blank having voids. Using lessons learned, Corning was successful in the casting of the second blank. After a year of cooling, during which it was almost lost to a flood, in 1935 the blank was completed. The first blank now resides in Corning's Museum of Glass.

In 1935, Corning formed a partnership with bottle maker Owens-Illinois, which formed the company known today as Owens Corning. Owens Corning was spun off as a separate company in 1938.

The company had a history of science-based innovations following World War II and the strategy by management was research and "disruptive" and "on demand" product innovation.

In 1962 Corning developed Chemcor, a new toughened automobile windshield designed to be thinner and lighter than existing windshields, which reduced danger of personal injury by shattering into small granules when smashed. This toughened glass had a chemically hardened outer layer, and its manufacture incorporated an ion exchange and a "fusion process" in special furnaces that Corning built in its Blacksburg, Virginia facility. Corning developed it as an alternative to laminated windshields with the intention of becoming an automotive industry supplier. After being installed as side glass in a limited run of 1968 Plymouth Barracudas and Dodge Darts, Chemcor windshields debuted on the 1970 model year Javelins and AMXs built by American Motors Corporation (AMC). As there were no mandatory safety standards for motor vehicle windshields, the larger automakers had no financial incentive to change from the cheaper existing products. Corning terminated its windshield project in 1971, after it turned out to be one of the company's "biggest and most expensive failures." However, like many Corning innovations, the unique process to manufacture this automotive glass was resurrected and is today the basis of their very profitable LCD glass business.

In the fall of 1970, the company announced that researchers Robert D. Maurer, Donald Keck, Peter C. Schultz, and Frank Zimar had demonstrated an optical fiber with a low optical attenuation of 17 dB per kilometer by doping silica glass with titanium. A few years later they produced a fiber with only 4 dB/km, using germanium oxide as the core dopant. Such low attenuations made fiber optics practical for telecommunications and networking. Corning became the world's leading manufacturer of optical fiber.

In 1977, considerable attention was given to Corning's Z Glass project. Z Glass was a product used in television picture tubes. Due to a number of factors, the exact nature of which are subject to dispute, this project was considered a steep loss in profit and productivity. The following year the project made a partial recovery. This incident has been cited as a case study by the Harvard School of Business.

Company profits soared in the late 1990s during the dot-com boom, and Corning expanded its fiber operations significantly with several new plants. The company also entered the photonics market, investing heavily with the intent of becoming the leading provider of complete fiber-optic systems. Failure to succeed in photonics and the collapse in 2000 of the dot-com market had a major impact on the company, and Corning stock plummeted to $1 per share. However, as of 2007 the company had posted five straight years of improving financial performance.

The turning point for Corning came when Apple approached it to develop a robust display screen for its upcoming iPhone. Later, other companies also adopted its Gorilla glass screen. In 2011 Corning announced the expansion of existing facilities and the construction of a Gen 10 facility co-located with the Sharp Corporation manufacturing complex in Sakai, Osaka, Japan. The LCD glass substrate is produced without heavy metals. Corning is a leading manufacturer of the glass used in liquid crystal displays.

The company continues to produce optical fiber and cable for the communications industry at its Wilmington and Concord plants in North Carolina. It is also a major manufacturer of ceramic emission control devices for catalytic converters in cars and light trucks that use gasoline engines. The company is also investing in the production of ceramic emission control products for diesel engines as a result of tighter emission standards for those engines both in the U.S. and abroad.

In 2007 Corning introduced an optic fiber, ClearCurve, which uses nanostructure technology to facilitate the small radius bending found in FTTX installations.

Gorilla Glass, an outgrowth of the 1960s Chemcor project, is a high-strength alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass used as a protective cover glass offering scratch resistance and durability in many touchscreens. According to the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Gorilla Glass was used in the first iPhone released in 2007.

On October 25, 2011 Corning unveiled Lotus Glass, an environmentally friendly and high-performance glass developed for OLED and LCD displays.

Corning invests about 10% of revenue in research and development, and has allocated US$300 million towards further expansion of its Sullivan Park research facility near headquarters in Corning, New York.

Corning Incorporated manufactures a high-purity fused silica employed in microlithography systems, a low expansion glass utilized in the construction of reflective mirror blanks, windows for U.S. space shuttles, and Steuben art glass. The number of Corning facilities employing the traditional tanks of molten glass has declined over the years, but it maintains the capacity to supply bulk or finished glass of many types.

Corning is engaged in research and development on green lasers, mercury abatement, microreactors, photovoltaics, and silicon on glass. Through its Life Sciences division, the company offers products to support life science research, including stem-cell culture products.

In September 2019, Apple announced that it would invest $250 million in Corning, in an effort to develop and manufacture the glass needed for many of its products, including the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. Though not confirmed by either company, the investment could be used to develop new products in the future. Apple has already invested $200 million in Corning back in 2017.

Corning employs roughly 51,500 people worldwide and had sales of $11.29 billion in 2018. The company has been listed for many years among Fortune magazine's 500 largest companies, and was ranked #297 in 2015.

Although the company has long been publicly owned, James R. Houghton, great-great-grandson of the founder, served as chairman of the board of directors from 2001 to 2007. Over the years Houghton family ownership has declined to about 2%. Wendell P. Weeks has been with the company since 1983 and as of March 2013 was chairman, chief executive officer, and president.

Over its 160-year history Corning invented a process for rapid and inexpensive production of light bulbs, including developing the glass for Thomas Edison's light bulb. Corning was the glass supplier for lightbulbs for General Electric after Edison General Electric merged with Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1892. It was an early major manufacturer of glass panels and funnels for television tubes, invented and produced Vycor (high temperature glass with high thermal shock resistance). Corning invented and produced Pyrex, CorningWare Pyroceram glass-ceramic cookware, and Corelle durable glass dinnerware. Corning manufactured the windows for US manned space vehicles, and supplied the glass blank for the primary mirror in the Hubble Space Telescope.

In July 2008 Corning announced the sale of Steuben Glass Works to Steuben Glass LLC, an affiliate of the private equity firm Schottenstein Stores Corporation. Steuben Glass had been unprofitable for more than a decade, losing 30 million dollars over the previous five years.

In February 2011, Corning acquired MobileAccess Networks, an Israeli company that develops Distributed antenna systems, which are often used by universities, stadiums and airports to ensure seamless wireless coverage throughout a facility. MobileAccess Networks became part of Corning's telecommunications business unit. In July 2017, Corning acquired SpiderCloud Wireless. In December 2017, Corning acquired All of 3M Communication Market Division, in a cash transaction approximately $900 million. Acquisition will be close during 2018, 3M Communication Market Division became part of Corning Optical Communications business unit.

Board of directors

As of 2016:

  • Donald W. Blair: retired executive vice president and chief financial officer, NIKE, Inc.
  • Stephanie A. Burns: retired chairman and chief executive officer, Dow Corning Corporation
  • John A. Canning, Jr.: chairman, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC
  • Richard T. Clark: retired chairman, president and chief executive officer, Merck & Co., Inc.
  • Robert F. Cummings, Jr.: retired vice chairman of investment banking, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  • Deborah A. Henretta: retired group president of global e-business, Procter & Gamble Company
  • Daniel P. Huttenlocher: dean and professor, MIT
  • Kurt M. Landgraf: retired president and chief executive officer, Educational Testing Service
  • Kevin Martin: vice president, mobile and global access policy, Facebook, Inc.
  • Deborah D. Rieman: executive chairman, MetaMarkets Group
  • Hansel E. Tookes II: retired chairman and chief executive officer, Raytheon Aircraft Company
  • Wendell P. Weeks: chairman, chief executive officer, and president, Corning Incorporated
  • Mark S. Wrighton: chancellor and professor of chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis

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A bond is a document of title for a loan. Bonds are issued, not only by businesses, but also by national, state or city governments, or other public bodies, or sometimes by individuals. Bonds are a loan to the company or other body. They are normally repayable within a stated period of time. Bonds earn interest at a fixed rate, which must usually be paid by the undertaking regardless of its financial results. A bondholder is a creditor of the undertaking.

Item ordered may not be exact piece shown. All original and authentic.
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