Beautifully engraved Specimen certificate from Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. This historic document was printed by American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of woman holding a torch in front of a world map. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's officers. 
Certificate Vignette Coca-Cola Enterprises has the roots of their business extending back to 1899, when the first Coca-Cola bottling operation began. In fact, when the first bottling franchise began operations in 1901, it operated under the ownership of Benjamin F. Thomas and James F. Johnston, grandfather of the company's former Chairman of the Board, Summerfield K. Johnston, Jr. Coca-Cola Enterprises is the largest soft drink bottler in the world, with each of their local bottling operations representing several decades of success in building the strongest brands in the world.
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.
