Beautifully engraved Specimen certificate from the Atlantic Monthly Company printed around 1910. This historic document was printed by Franklin-Lee Bank Note and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an early printer. 
Certificate Vignette The Atlantic Monthly is an American monthly magazine that began in November 1857. It is also known as The Atlantic. It is a literary and cultural magazine, with frequent articles in the fields of political science and foreign affairs, as well as book reviews and short stories. The magazine made the first publications of Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (on February 1, 1862), and William Parker's the Freedman's Story (in February and March, 1866). It has also published many of the works of Mark Twain, including one that managed to escape publication until 2001.
About Specimens 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 we 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 grown in popularity and realized nice appreciation in value over the past several years
Certificate Vignette
About Specimens 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 we 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 grown in popularity and realized nice appreciation in value over the past several years
