Beautifully engraved SCARCE membership certificate specimen from the Congressional Country Club . This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the the capitol building in Washington DC. 
Certificate Vignette 
Certificate A prestigious private Country Club with 3,500 members offers a variety of amenities to its constituency, including elegant fine dining, casual dining, snack bars, swimming pools, bowling alleys, 36 holes of golf, tennis, private meeting rooms, overnight sleeping accommodations, social activities, and banquet/catering/parties. The Congressional Country Club has been the site of the 1964 U.S. Open, 1976 PGA Championship, 1995 U.S. Seniors Open, is ranked in the top 100 golf courses in the U.S.A. and the host of the 1997 U.S. Open. History from OldCompany.com and SavingsBonds.pro (collectible Savings Bonds website)
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.
Certificate Vignette
Certificate
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.
