Beautiful Specimen Printer's Proof Stock Certificate from Standard & Poors/InterCapital Securities, Inc.. This historic document was printed by the Security Columbian Banknote Company and has an ornate border with a vignette of an allegorical man.
Certificate Company Notes ·Formerly=Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Income Securities, Inc. until 12-01 ·Formerly=InterCapital Income Securities, Inc. until 12-98 ·Formerly=Standard & Poor's Intercapital Income Securities, Inc to 9-77 History from OldCompany.com and SavingsBonds.pro (collectible Savings Bonds website) 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.