Beautiful specimen certificate from the United Virginia Bankshares Incorporated printed in 1972. This historic document was printed by the American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical figure. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President, and Secretary. 
Certificate Crestar Bank was a regional bank headquartered in Richmond, Virginia with branches throughout Virginia and in Maryland. The bank was originally chartered as State Planters Bank Of Commerce And Trusts on December 8, 1865 in Richmond. It was renamed United Virginia Bank/State Planters on February 15, 1969, and became United Virginia Bankshares, Inc. on December 15, 1971. With plans for expansion outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Bank changed its name to Crestar Financial Corporation on September 1, 1987 and moved into a modern office tower it had just completed at 919 East Main Street in Richmond. On March 14, 1997, Crestar acquired Citizens Bank of Maryland. On January 1, 2000, Crestar was acquired by Suntrust Bank. Now known as the SunTrust Center, Crestar's former headquarters, a 24 story office tower, located a block from the Virginia State Capitol in the heart of downtown Richmond is one of Richmond's premiere class "A" office buildings. History from 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. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that has grown in popularity over the past several years.
Certificate
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.
