Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from Doughtie's Foods, Inc. This historic document was printed by the American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company logo, a pig wearing a bow tie. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President ( Robert F. Doughtie ) and Secretary. This is the first time we have had this company's certificate for sale. 
Certificate Vignette Robert F. Doughtie, founder of the now-famous Doughtie's Barbeque, began his career in the food service business in 1952. Motivated by the desire to create a better-tasting barbeque, he processed and packaged his own secret recipe from an old Quonset hut located on Eighth Avenue in Portsmouth, Virginia. A true family operation, Mr. Doughtie was assisted in the daily packaging process by hard-working family members so he could then take to the road selling the finished product. Over the next 10 years, Doughtie's experienced great change with the purchase of Portsmouth Frozen Foods and the construction of a new facility located on Wesley Street in Portsmouth. In 1963, Doughtie's, the family-owned business, grew to become a corporation. During the years from 1964 through 1982, Doughtie's Foods, Inc., expanded its sales division, selling over 7 million pounds of barbeque through its manufacturing division. In the midst of this expansion, Mr. Doughtie was recognized as Virginia's Small Businessman of the Year in 1972. He took great pride in caring for his customers and believed that only a company that worked to achieve customer loyalty would survive and be successful. In the 1980's, the company expanded its facilities, product offerings, and customer base to become a top 50 broadline distributor. In 1997, the manufacturing division of Doughtie's Foods, Inc., was sold so as to focus solely on food service distribution. In May 1999, the board of directors of Doughtie's Foods, Inc., agreed to sell the company to Sysco Corporation. The merger was completed on August 27, 1999. Currently, Doughtie's Sysco continues to service customers in Southeastern Virginia and Eastern North Carolina. Doughtie's Sysco Food Services, Inc. was founded in 1952 as Doughtie's Foods, Inc. and was acquired by SYSCO Corporation on August 29, 1999. The company distributes a full line of institutional food products to approximately 1,800 customers in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Delaware, generating over $87 million dollars in annual sales. History from company press information.
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.
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 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.
