Beautiful engraved specimen certificate from the BTNB Corporation dated in 1971. This historic document was printed by American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman holding a globe. This item has the signatures of the Company's President and Secretary and is over 35 years old. 
Certificate Vignette SouthTrust Bank Organization formed on December 9, 1887 in Birmingham (Birmingham Trust & Savings Company) Founder Josiah Morris 1972 formed holding company and began expansion in the state of Alabama 1987 began expansion outside Alabama (first out of state acquisition in Florida 07/1987) 1887 Birmingham Trust & Savings Company 1946 Birmingham Trust National Bank 1968 BTNB Corporation (one bank holding company) (12/31/1968) 1972 The Alabama Financial Group, Inc. (multi-bank holding company) (03/10/1972) 1974 Southern Bancorporation (04/26/1974) 1975 Southern Bancorporation of Alabama (04/21/1975) 1981 SouthTrust Corporation
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 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 over the past several years.
