Beautifully engraved specimen certificate from the Insurance Company of North America printed in the 1920's. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with vignettes of a sailing ship and allegorical women with seascapes in the background .
Certificate Insurance Company of North America (INA) is the oldest stock insurance company in the United States,[2] founded in Philadelphia in 1792. It was one of the largest American insurance companies of the 19th and 20th centuries before co-founding CIGNA in 1982. Since 1999 it has been a subsidiary of global insurer ACE Limited. History from Wikipedia, Encyberpedia 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.