Sbarro, Inc (Specimen Proof ) - New York 1994

Beautiful RARE Specimen Proof certificate from the Sbarro, Inc dated 1994. This historic document was printed by the American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of Carmela and Gennaro Sbarro, Founders. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s officers, and is over 26 years old. This working proof certificate came from the archives of the American Bank Note Company and is in a holder provided by the company.


Certificate Vignette




American Bank Note Company Holder




ABM Logo on Holder



Based in Melville, New York, Sbarro is the world's leading Italian quick service restaurant concept and the largest shopping mall-focused restaurant concept in the world. They have more than 1,000 restaurants in 41 countries. Sbarro restaurants feature a menu of popular Italian food, including pizza, a selection of pasta dishes and other hot and cold Italian entrees, salads, sandwiches, drinks and desserts.

Sbarro was founded by Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro. The couple and their three sons, Joseph, Mario and Anthony, immigrated to America from Naples, Italy in 1956 with help from the Padovani family, who took them in. They gave Gennaro employment in their deli. The same year, the Sbarro family opened their first Salumeria (an Italian grocery store) at 1701 65th Street and 17th Avenue in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, which became popular for its fresh food and genuine Italian fare. Their Sbarro Italian Delicatessen in Brooklyn, was well received by the local community and was the first of a successful chain.

The success of the Sbarro Salumeria led to the opening of additional locations throughout the New York City area. In 1967, Sbarro opened its first mall-based restaurant in Brooklyn's Kings Plaza Shopping Center, marking the beginning of the modern Sbarro concept: Italian food in an open kitchen that allowed for fast self-service. One of their busiest outlets was located in the World Trade Center mall.

Over the last 50 years, the Kings Plaza business model has expanded throughout the U.S. and over 45 countries around the world. In early 2007, Sbarro was acquired by MidOcean Partners, a private equity firm with offices in New York and London. In 2008, Sbarro was rated the #1 Quick Service Restaurant in the Italian segment by Entrepreneur magazine. It has held this title for five out of the past six years.

Sbarro restaurants are located in shopping malls, airports, service areas, cinemas and college campuses. Sbarro has 1,064 locations in 43 countries.

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

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.