Beautifully engraved Rare Specimen certificate from Thomas J. Lipton, Inc. printed in 1961. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of Thomas J. Lipton. This item is over 46 years old 
Certificate Vignette Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton (born May 10, 1850, Glasgow, Scot. -- died Oct. 2, 1931, London, Eng.) British merchant who built the Lipton tea empire. He opened a small grocery in Glasgow that grew into a chain of retail shops throughout Britain. To supply his shops cheaply, Lipton bought tea, coffee, and cocoa plantations in Ceylon as well as English fruit farms, jam factories, and bakeries. In 1898 his business was organized into Lipton, Ltd.; he was knighted the same year and made a baronet in 1902. A keen yachtsman, he raced his Shamrock yachts five times unsuccessfully for the America's Cup. Thomas J. Lipton, Inc. was acquired by Unilever. History from Wikipeida and OldCompanyResearch.com.
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.
Certificate Vignette
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.
