You work for XYZ Corporation; the share is trading at $10 a share; they would give you "At the money" Or "Out of the money" Options -say options to buy the stock at $11 a share.

But the bosses of those outfits share a fear: that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation will end up owning British Sky Broadcasting, a satellite TV firm that it already controls.

This share in the Dutch East India Company is dated September 9, 1606, which was issued 3 weeks before what had been the oldest known share in the corporation.