Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from the Continental Corporation. This historic document was printed by the Security - Columbian Banknote Company in 1968 and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a continental soldier. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's Chairman of the Board and Secretary. 
Certificate Vignette Continental Corporation is one of the largest property-casualty insurers in the United States with about $5 billion in annual revenues. Its subsidiaries are leading writers of commercial and personal package policies and select specialty coverages through major independent agents and brokers. Operations are conducted in the United States, Canada and over 100 foreign countries. Agency and brokerage (commercial) accounted for 41% of 1993 revenues; specialized commercial, 28%; agency and brokerage (personal), 17% and other, 14%.
About Specimen Stock and Bond 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 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 Specimen Stock and Bond 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 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.
