Kaman Aircraft Corporation

Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from the Kaman Aircraft Corporation dated 1959. This historic document was printed by the Security Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s President ( Charles H. Kaman ) and its Secretary and is over 43 years old.












Certificate Vignette

At the leading edge of technology and innovation for over 56 years, Kaman Corporation conducts business in three market segments:Aerospace, Industrial Distribution and Music Distribution. Kaman got its start when Charles H. Kaman founded the company in 1945. With $2,000 and some basic laboratory equipment, he set out to explore and revolutionize rotary wing flight. In the years that followed, the company went on to build many helicopters as well as derivative products, setting world records in the process and also achieving many aviation firsts. Today, in addition to developing helicopters and a range of technology products, Kaman also ranks among the top distributors of parts and equipment to North American industry, and is one of the world's largest distributors of musical instruments and accessories.

Charles H. Kaman founded Kaman Corporation in 1945 and served as its chief executive officer until 1999. Today, Kaman Corporation is a billion dollar company focused on three business segments: Aerospace, Industrial Distribution and Music Distribution. The company's activities extend from the manufacture of helicopters to distribution of a broad range of industrial replacement parts and distribution and manufacture of music instruments and accessories. Mr. Kaman was born in 1919 and raised in Washington, D.C. He attended Catholic University, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering degree. After college, in 1940, he joined Hamilton Standard, then the propeller-manufacturing division of United Aircraft Corporation.

---

About Specimen Stock and Bond 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 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 and realized nice appreciation in value over the past several years.