Beautiful specimen certificate from Continental Savings of America printed in 1988. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of their headquarters in San Francisco. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's Chairman, and Secretary, and Treasurer and is over 28 years old.
Certificate Continental Savings of America, A Savings and Loan Association Status: Inactive as of 1995-04-28 Successor Bank: California Federal Bank Headquarters: Continental Savings of America, A Savings and Loan Association 2099 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94114 Established: 1977-08-29 FDIC Insurance: 1977-08-29 FDIC Cert: #31899 Charter Class: Savings associations, state or federal charter, supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) Total Assets: $359,422,000 Total Deposits: $357,025,000 History 1977-08-29 Institution established: Original name:Continental Savings of America, A Savings and Loan Association 1995-04-28 Failed. Acquired with government financial assistance and subsequently operated as part of California Federal Bank, A FSB (30278) 1995-06-30 Moved bank headquarters from SAN FRANCISCO, CA to LOS ANGELES, CA 1995-07-28 Acquired Pacific Heritage Bank (23319) in TORRANCE, CA as part of a government assisted transaction. 1996-10-19 Acquired First Citizens Bank (26768) in LOS ANGELES, CA 1997-01-03 Acquired First Nationwide Bank, FSB (32643) in DALLAS, TX 1998-09-11 Acquired Glendale Federal Bank, Federal Savings Bank (29199) in GLENDALE, CA 1998-12-01 Moved bank headquarters from LOS ANGELES, CA to SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2000-02-11 Changed name to California Federal Bank (30278) 2002-11-13 Merged into and subsequently operated as part of Citibank (West), FSB (57443) in SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2006-10-01 Acquired Citicorp Trust, National Association (26170) in LOS ANGELES, CA 2006-10-01 Acquired Citibank (Delaware) (24029) in NEW CASTLE, DE 2006-10-01 Acquired Citibank Texas, National Association (32623) in DALLAS, TX 2006-10-01 Acquired West, National Association (57443) in SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2006-10-01 Acquired CFSB, National Association (28251) in RESTON, VA 2006-10-01 Merged into and subsequently operated as part of Citibank, National Association (7213) in LAS VEGAS, NV 2006-10-01 Changed primary regulatory agency from OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION to COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY 2006-10-01 Changed institution class to INSURED COMMERCIAL BANK, NATIONAL, MEMBER FRS 2006-10-01 Changed organization type to COMMERCIAL BANK 2006-10-01 Changed name to West, National Association (57443) 2008-11-23 Maintained operations with government open bank assistance. 2011-07-01 Moved bank headquarters from LAS VEGAS, NV to SIOUX FALLS, SD 2011-07-01 Acquired Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. (23360) in SIOUX FALLS, SD 2012-01-01 Acquired Citicorp Trust Bank, fsb (18708) in WILMINGTON, DE 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 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.