Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc - Tennessee 1987

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. printed in 1987. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company's logo. This item has the signatures of the Company’s President, and Secretary, and is over 24 years old.




Certificate Vignette



Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., is a chain of "Old Country Stores," each combining a retail store and a restaurant. As of September 2009, the company, founded in 1969 and based in Lebanon, Tennessee, was operating 591 full-service locations located in 41 states in the United States. In 2009, Cracker Barrel was ranked as the top "family dining" chain for the 19th consecutive year in Restaurants & Institutions magazine "Choice in Chains" annual consumer survey.

The Cracker Barrel chain is a Southern themed chain, and serves traditional Southern comfort food. Their outlets have traditionally been located along interstate highways, though the company policy on this appears to be changing. Breakfast is served all day, though the breakfast menu is kept separate from the one for lunch and dinner. Both menus include a low-carb section.

The outer porch of a Cracker Barrel store has rows of rocking chairs for guests to enjoy before or after eating, and there is usually a fireplace and a checkers table within the dining area for an added country feel; patrons are welcome to sit down for a game. The interior walls of the dining area are decorated with antiques such as photographs, advertisements, and household items.

The retail store carries mainly nostalgic merchandise, collectibles, old time toys, classic candies, scented candles, and items used in making Cracker Barrel entrees. Also, a lot of merchandise sold at Cracker Barrel is holiday themed, depending on the time of year. It is known for selling Christmas, Easter, and Halloween ornaments and other decorations.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)

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About Specimen Certificates

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates were made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that has grown in popularity over the past several years.