Beautifully engraved RARE specimen certificate from Northern Bank Limited printed in 1929. This historic document was printed by Waterlow & Sons and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a ship at sea. This item is over 76 years old. 
Certificate Vignette Northern Bank, is a commercial bank in Northern Ireland. It is one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1824. In 1970, the Northern Banking Company Limited amalgamated with the Belfast Banking Company Limited to form what is now known as Northern Bank Limited. The bank is considered as one of the Big Four in Northern Ireland, and issues its own banknotes. Since 1 March 2005 it has been owned by Danske Bank. Until 1988, the bank was a subsidiary of the Midland Bank. In 1987, the bank's operations in the Republic of Ireland were re-organised under a subsidiary company, called Northern Bank (Ireland) Limited. In 1988, Northern Bank was acquired by National Australia Bank, upon which the operations in the Republic of Ireland were renamed National Irish Bank. Northern Bank then introduced a new logo, a stylised "N" in a hexagon shape. In 2002, the bank's logotype (the word "Northern") was changed to match that of the National Australia Bank. In December 2004, Danske Bank agreed to acquire Northern Bank (and National Irish Bank) for £967m. Don Price will remain as CEO. On 1 March 2005 the sale of Northern Bank to Danske Bank took effect, following regulatory clearance. As part of this process, National Irish Bank in the Republic will be separated from the Northern Bank and given its own dedicated management team. Both Northern & National Irish Bank will also move over to Danske Bank's technology platform, and also adopt a variation of the Danske Bank logo as its corporate identity. This occurred on 18 April 2006, with the bank's website displaying the new logo as early as 14 April and at least one branch being refitted on Easter Sunday, 16 April. 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 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 over the past several years.
