Beautifully engraved specimen certificate from the Hampsire-Designers, Inc. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, Melvin J. Gordon, and Secretary, J.L. Gordon. Hampshire Group Ltd. is an Anderson, South Carolina-based apparel company and North America's largest designer and marketer of branded and private-label men's and women's sweaters, which are manufactured mostly in Asia. The company also offers women's woven and knit related separates. Hampshire divides its business among five operating divisions within its Hampshire Designers, Inc., subsidiary. The Women's Divisions produces sweaters under several labels: Designers Originals, Hampshire Studio, Babe, D.O., and Mercer Street Studio. Sweater brands of the Men's Divisions include Hampshire Brands, Geoffrey Beene, Dockers, Levis, Nick Danger, and Spring & Mercer. Hampshire's David Brooks Division produces women's sweaters, jackets, knits, wovens, and bottoms in a category the company calls "better casual sportswear" or "country club chic," which it sells to specialty stores. At the other end of the market, the Shane Hunter division sells juniors' apparel to the mass market under the Aqua-Blues label as well as private labels. Finally, the Item-Eyes, Inc., Division designs and markets women's sweaters, shirts, pants, and blazers, sold under the RQT by Requirements, Requirements, and Nouveaux labels, and customer private labels. Hampshire is a public company listed on the NASDAQ, and is 25-percent owned by its long-time chairman and chief executive officer, Ludwig G. Kuttner, who in 2006 was placed on administrative leave along with others at the company while an audit committee investigated allegations of misuse and misappropriations of assets for personal benefit. History from Wikipedia and OldCompany.com (old stock certificate research service) 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.