Panther Valley Athletic Corporation stock certificate 1946 (Pennsylvania)

Obscure football collectible. No vignette but with an ornate company name plate.  Incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. Issued and not cancelled. Dated 1946. Measures approximately 10.75 x 8.5 inches. 

This stock issuance formed the short-lived Panther Valley Greens semipro football team. Panther Valley Greens football team lasted only a full season in 1946 and, when dissolved, players moved to other larger, regional teams that had stronger ties to the NFL as farm teams. Panther Valley Greens played in Lansford (home stadium) as well as Altoona, Shenandoah, York, Lancaster, and Pottsville. Opponents included Lancaster All-Stars, Allentown Buccaneers, York Roses, Altoona Mountaineers, Pottsville Maroons, Pottstown Steamrollers, Shenandoah Presidents, and the Nesquehoning Hurricanes. The teams were affiliated with several semipro leagues that played from 1944-1948 – Pennsylvania Football League and American Football League. The American Professional Football Association (AA), a professional football league established in 1936 that was suspended at the end of the 1941 season due to American entry into World War II, announced in December 1945 that it would be restarting for the 1946 season, changing its name to the American Football League.

Panther Valley is in Pennsylvania between the towns of Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe in Schuylkill and Carbon Counties. Lansford is a borough in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, located in the northeastern part of the state and part of the Lehigh Valley region. Lansford's first school was opened in 1847 on Abbott Street. Lansford's first church, the Welsh Congregational, was built in 1850 and still stands today on West Abbott Street.

The old No. 9 Mine and Museum in Lansford, a deep mine which operated from 1855 to 1972, is now open as a tourist attraction offering tours of the mine and a wealth of information on local mining history. A museum occupying the mine's former Wash Shanty building on the site displays a large collection of mining artifacts. One of the local mine bosses, John P. Jones, was murdered in Lansford, reportedly in connection with labor union strife, attributed to members of a secret society known as the Molly Maguires, many of whom were put on trial and hanged in Carbon and Schuylkill Counties during the mid- to late 1870s.

The history of the Carbon County, PA, Panther Valley is defined by its rich anthracite coal mining industry, which began with the opening of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's No. 9 mine in 1855 and lasted for over a century. The valley was a major source of coal due to its massive Mammoth Vein, and significant infrastructure like the Panther Creek Railroad was built to transport the coal. The coal era ended in 1954 when declining demand and high operating costs led to the closure of all mines in the area. The valley also saw substantial Carpatho-Rusyn immigration starting around 1880, with immigrants establishing their own communities, churches, and social institutions.