Beautiful specimen certificate from the Frisch's Restaurants, Inc. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the name and company logo. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, and Secretary.
Certificate Vignette Boy Restaurants International LLC is a restaurant chain with its headquarters in Warren, Michigan, in Greater Detroit. Big Boy was started as Bob's Pantry in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale, California, USA. The restaurant was later renamed Bob's Big Boy and became a chain under that name. Marriott Corporation bought the chain in 1967. One of the larger franchise operators, Elias Brothers, purchased the chain from Marriott in 1987, moving the headquarters of the company to Warren, Michigan, and operating it until declaring bankruptcy in 2000. Following the bankruptcy, the chain was sold to investor Robert Liggett, Jr., who took over as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), renamed the company Big Boy Restaurants International and kept the headquarters in Warren. The company is the franchisor for 126 Big Boy restaurants in the United States. Immediately after Liggett's purchase, Liggett Restaurant Enterprises dba Big Boy Restaurants International negotiated an agreement with the other large franchise operator, Frisch's Restaurants transferring to Frisch's exclusive, perpetual ownership of Big Boy marks in Kentucky, Indiana, and most of Ohio and Tennessee, and transferring all other Frisch's territories to Liggett. Big Boy International and Frisch's now are co-registrants of the Big Boy name and trademark. Thus Frisch's is no longer a franchisee but a substantially equal owner which operates almost as many units as Liggett. Frisch's is the owner or franchisor of 118 Big Boy restaurants[5] in the United States. The chain is best known for its trademark chubby boy in red-and-white checkered overalls holding a Big Boy sandwich (double-decker cheeseburger). The inspiration for Big Boy's name, as well as the model for its mascot, was Richard Woodruff (19321986), of Glendale, California. When he was six years old, Woodruff walked into the diner Bob's Pantry as Bob Wian was attempting to name his new hamburger. Wian said, "Hello, Big Boy" to Woodruff, and the name stuck. Warner Bros. animation artist Ben Washam sketched Richard's caricature, which became the character seen on the company trademark. The Big Boy character was revised in 1956 by an artist working for Ken Bird, a Big Boy paper products supplier and Manfred Bernhard, son of legendary graphic designer Lucian Bernhard. This 1956 Big Boy figure was used for large painted fiberglass statues placed outside the restaurants and was featured in The Adventures of Big Boy comic book, produced as a promotional giveaway for children visiting the restaurants. Bernhard produced the comic book for forty years until 1997 and the comic book has since been produced by Craig Yoe's Yoe! Studio. Another longtime promotion was the Big Boy Kids' Club, offering coupons and premiums to members, who joined by sending in an application from the comic book. In 1951, Wian's original franchisee Dave Frisch developed a slightly different Big Boy character. He was slimmer, wore a side cap and was portrayed in a skipping posture, with "Big Boy" written on the sleeve rather than the chest of his shirt. (The side cap allowed space for the franchise name.) Originally he wore striped overalls and had reddish or blond hair, but now usually has checkered overalls and dark brown hair. Known as the "East Coast Big Boy", he was registered to Frisch's and used for statues and comic books for Frisch's, and its subfranchisees Manners and Azar's. Before 1956, some franchisees, such as Shoney's, would use both versions, though never together. Since 1956, the Wian "West Coast Big Boy" design was used exclusively by all franchisees other than Frisch's, Manners and Azar's. The signature Big Boy hamburger consists of two thin beef patties placed on a three layer bun with lettuce, a single slice of cheese, and either mayonnaise with red relish, Big Boy special sauce (thousand island dressing), or (in some locations) tartar sauce on each slice of bun. Wian used a sesame seed bun while Frisch's used a plain bun. For its opening in 1949, Eat'n Park of Pittsburgh advertised its Big Boy hamburgers including a sliced (slice of) tomato.[8] The Big Boy hamburger originally called for a quarter pound (4 ozs.) of fresh ground beef, but later, franchisees were permitted to use frozen beef patties, and the minimum content reduced to a fifth of a pound (3.2 ozs.) of beef, perhaps in response to McDonald's Big Mac. Unlike the similar Big Mac, which was patterned after the Big Boy, onions were not included in the original recipe. They had to be ordered as an extra. Big Boy restaurants also became known for two special dessert items: Strawberry Pie and Hot Fudge Cake. Big Boy offers breakfast, salads, dinner combinations, and various desserts. In addition to the Bob's Big Boy name, the "Big Boy" concept, menu, and mascot were originally licensed to a wide number of regional franchise holders, listed below (with approximate licensed territories in parentheses). Because many of the early franchisees were already in the restaurant business when joining Big Boy, "Big Boy" was added to the franchisee name just as the Big Boy hamburger was added to the franchisee's menu. In this sense it is confusing when referring to a chain, as each named franchisee was itself a chain and Big Boy could be considered a chain of chains. People tend to know Big Boy not simply as Big Boy but as the franchise from where they lived such as Bob's Big Boy in California, Shoney's Big Boy in the south or Frisch's Big Boy in much of Ohio, among the many others. Each regional franchisee typically operated a central commissary which prepared or processed foods and sauces to be shipped fresh to their restaurants. Other items were prepared at the restaurants daily, such as soups and breading of seafood and onion rings. History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service)

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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.