Beautifully engraved specimen certificate from the American Snuff Company. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's officers.
Certificate The American Snuff Company, formerly Conwood Sales Company LLC, is a division of Reynolds American, a major tobacco company. The American Snuff Company was acquired by Reynolds American in mid-2006 for $3.5 billion in cash. It now generates nearly 7% of Reynolds American's annual revenue. The current CEO of the American Snuff Company is Randall M. "Mick" Spach. The American Snuff Company, or Conwood LLC, was formally founded around 1900, but had been operating since shortly after the Revolutionary war as a small snuff mill. From 1986 to 2006, Conwood was owned by the Pritzker family of Chicago. When Reynolds American acquired Conwood, Reynolds subsidiary Lane Limited was merged into Conwood. The name American Snuff Company was assumed in 2010. American Snuff Company makes a variety of smokeless tobacco products. The company produces dipping tobacco or moist snuff, chewing tobacco in the forms of loose-leaf, plug, and twist, and dry snuff. History from Wikipedia, Encyberpedia 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.