Beautifully engraved certificate from the Howe Rubber Corporation - Delaware 1919X This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the signatures of the Company's President and Secretary.
Certificate The Howe Rubber Corporation was incorporated on October 10, 1919, in Delaware, as successor to Howe Rubber Co. of New Jersey, incorporated in 1905. In 1911, the company disposed of its other lines to concentrate upon the manufacture of inner tubes for automobile tires. The company manufactured the Howe red tube, automobile tires and accessories. The plant, located in New Brunswick, N. J., was situated on over five acres of land and had a floor space of 76,000 sq. ft., employed about 500 men. In 1919, the company produced 3,000 tubes and 200 tires per day; 1920, 725 tubes and 152 tires per day. 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.