No-Par Value Stock

Issuing par value stock is an old-fashioned business practice, a kind of holdover from an earlier time. Like wearing bowties, or drinking three martinis at lunch.

The basic idea goes like this: the company issues a stock with a base value. That base value is known as the "par value," with the company taking on some related legal and accounting responsibilities. Even when it was a thing, however, par value was treated similarly to how you treat your grandma on Mother's Day (i.e., card bought at 7-Eleven on your way to her house). Companies would often issue the par value at $0.01...literally, the lowest it could go and still be denominated in an amount of actual U.S. currency.

A no-par value stock doesn't have this lower limit. Like business casual dress codes or "mindfulness time" during lunch, it's a more modern conception of how business is run. In other words, the idea of no-par value stock is closer to our current conception of how stock works than the par-value system (which at this point feels a bit like explaining how a VCR works, or how TV used to get beamed into houses through antennae).