Virginia Electric and Power Company stock certificate 1950s(VEPCO)

Rare early VEPCO piece with great vignette angel in the clouds handling lightning, map of the United States in the background.  Issued and cancelled. Dated 1950s. Uncommon older issue and a tough find. Only a small number found.

The common phrase "Virginia - owned and operated by VEPCO." was a long standing joke in the state.  The company is now part of Dominion Resources.

Dominion Resources, Inc., commonly referred to as Dominion, is a power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia and North Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and eastern North Carolina. Dominion also has generation facilities in Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Dominion's corporate roots reach back to the Colonial era through predecessor companies that operated canal and river barging, street lighting, railways, and electric trolleys. In 1795, some dams were built along the Appomattox River for industrial use, beginning Dominion's history. In 1909, Dominion began operating as an investor-owned electric utility under the name Virginia Railway & Power Company, founded by Frank Jay Gould, according to its website. In 1925, the name was changed to the Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO), and Dominion was operated as a regulated monopoly. In 1940, Dominion doubled its service territory by merging with the Virginia Public Service Company. In 1980, Dominion Resources, Inc., was incorporated as the holding company for VEPCO.

In the 1980s, VEPCO was divided into three operating divisions, Virginia Power, North Carolina Power, and West Virginia Power. In 1986, Dominion gained territory by entering Northern Virginia after purchasing the Virginia distribution territory of Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO). In 1987, the West Virginia Power division was later sold to UtiliCorp United, but Dominion retained ownership of the Mount Storm Power Station in West Virginia. In 1999, West Virginia Power would be sold to Allegheny Energy and folded into its Monongahela Power subsidiary; it and other Allegheny Energy subsidiaries have since been acquired in 2010 by FirstEnergy.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Dominion initiated a series of expansions into regulated and non-regulated energy businesses, both domestically and internationally. During that era, the company also established itself as a world-class operator of nuclear power stations. In 2000, Dominion bought Consolidated Natural Gas Co. of Pittsburgh, and added natural gas service to its energy delivery network in the energy-intensive markets in the Northeastern quadrant of the U.S. In 2001, Dominion bought Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas Company, adding to its natural gas delivery network.

Dominion re-branded all of its operations in 2000 to Dominion from Virginia and North Carolina Power as well as Consolidated Gas in order to create a more unified energy company. In 2007, as part of another effort to refocus on core electric and gas operations, Dominion sold most of its Houston-based natural gas and oil exploration and production business for pre-tax proceeds of nearly $14 billion. Its onshore US oil and gas reserves were sold in separate deals to Loews Corporation and to XTO Energy, while its Gulf of Mexico reserves were sold to Eni, and its Canadian reserves were sold to two Canadian trusts. Dominion still retains some production areas in Appalachia, however.