National Linseed Oil- Chicago, Illinois 1896

Beautifully engraved Gold Bond Certificate from the National Linseed Oil Company dated 1896. This historic document was printed by Western Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of men working in a factory. This item is over 108 years old. This is the first time we have had this for sale. Mounting marks on back not seen on front.






Certificate Vignette

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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.