Board of Trade of the City of Chicago (Heating Oil Demand Certificate ) - Illinois 1982

Beautiful engraved specimen Heating Oil Demand Certificate from the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago dated in 1982. This historic document was printed by American Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman. This item is over 25 years old.


Certificate Vignette

The Chicago Board of Trade Building houses the Chicago Board of Trade, the world's largest futures and options exchange. It is located at 141 West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, in the Chicago Loop community area. First designated a Chicago Landmark on May 4, 1977,] the building was subsequently listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1978. The building was then added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 16, 1978. The tallest building in Chicago for over 35 years, the structure is known for its art-deco architecture, sculptures and large scale stone carving, as well as large trading floors. A popular sightseeing attraction and motion picture location, the building has won awards for preservation efforts and office management.

On April 3, 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) opened for business at 101 South Water Street. When 122 members were added in 1856, the location was moved to the corner of South Water and LaSalle Streets. After another temporary relocation west on South Water Street in 1860, the first permanent home was established inside the Chamber of Commerce Building on the corner of LaSalle and Washington in 1865. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed this building. The exchange reopened in a temporary location two weeks after the fire in a 90-ft by 90-ft wooden building known as "The Wigwam" at the intersection of Washington and Market Streets, before reclaiming its home in a new building constructed at the Chamber of Commerce location one year later.

A new home for the CBOT began construction in 1882 and opened at the current location on May 1, 1885. It was designed by architect William W. Boyington, known previously for his work on the Chicago Water Tower. Built from structural steel and Maine granite, with a rear of enameled brick, the edifice was 10 stories tall and featured a 320 foot tower containing a large clock and 4,500 pound bell, which was topped by a 9 foot by 8 foot copper weather vane in the shape of a ship. Construction cost $1.8 million. With 4 elevators and a great hall 80 feet high decorated by a stained-glass skylight and ornate stone balusters, it was the first commercial building in Chicago to feature electric lighting.[8] It was also the first building in the city to exceed 300 feet in height and at the time was the tallest building in Chicago. In 1895, the clock tower was removed and the "tallest building in Chicago" record was then held by the 302 foot tall Masonic Temple Building.[9] Built on caissons surrounded by muck, the trading house was rendered structurally unsound in the 1920s when construction began across the street on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The 1885 building was subsequently demolished in 1929,[10] and the exchange temporarily relocated to Van Buren and Clark while while a new building was constructed at the LaSalle and Jackson site.

History from Wikipedia 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.