Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from the Host Marriott Corporation printed in 1993. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the printed signature of the Company's Chairman, Richard Marriott and Secretary, c. Townsend. 
Certificate Vignette Host Hotels & Resorts is a Real estate investment trust and the owner of lodging real estate based in Bethesda, Maryland. Host Hotels & Resorts was formed in 1993 when the Marriott Corporation split into two separate entities, creating Marriott International and Host Marriott. Marriott International represented the original Marriott company prior to Marriott's 1982 acquisition of the old Host International Company, founded in 1897 as the Van Noy Railway News and Hotel Company by the Van Noy Brothers of Kansas City, MO. After the spin-off, the original assets and services comprising the Host International acquisition, encompassing the ownership of lodging real estate and operators of airport terminal concession businesses and franchises, were consolidated as the Host Marriott Corporation. On January 2, 1996, Host Marriott further divided into two separate companies. Host Marriott continues to own lodging real estate. A new company, Host Marriott Services Corporation was created to hold and operate concessions at airports, on toll roads and at sports and entertainment attractions. On April 4, 1996, Host Marriott sold 18 Residence Inns and 16 Marriott Courtyard Hotels to Hospitality Properties Trust to focus on other areas of the business. On June 21, 1997, Host Marriott acquired Forum Group, Inc. and its retirement communities, Marriott Senior Living Services. In December 1998, Crestline Capital Corporation was spun off to allow Host Marriott to complete an announced conversion to a REIT. As part of the spinoff, Host Marriott arranged to lease back much of the property that was being spun off. At the end of the year, the preparations were completed with Host Marriott emerging as a REIT on January 1, 1999. In November 2005, Host Marriott announced that it would purchase 38 domestic and international hotel properties for approximately $4.1 billion. The seller is Starwood Hotels & Resorts, a hotel owner/operator based in White Plains, New York. Starwood will continue to manage the portfolio of 20 Sheratons, 13 Westins, two W's, one St Regis, one Luxury Collection hotel, and one nonbranded property. As part of the transaction, Host Marriott will be renamed Host Hotels & Resorts to better reflect its more diversified portfolio of hotel brands. History from Wikipeida and OldCompanyResearch.com.
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 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 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 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.
