Beautifully engraved SCARCE SPECIMEN certificate from the
Splitdorf - Bethlehem Electrical Company. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company around 1930 and has an
ornate border around it with a vignette of an allegorical woman. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s President ( Charles Edison ) and (H.F. Miller) Treasurer.
Certificate Vignette
The Splitdorf Company made radios, magnetos, lighting systems, spark plugs and other electrical products. They had manufacturing operations in Newark N.J. and in Canada and produced radios throughout the 1920's. The company merged with the Thomas Edison Company in early 1930's. In addition, the Splitdorf Electrical Co. of Newark, New Jersey manufactured at least 12 different motorcycle generators from 1918 to 1931. The company was founded by C. F. Splintdorf. The Splitdorf - Bethlehem Electrical Company was a venture between Bethlehem Steel and Splitdorf Electrical Company.
About SpecimensSpecimen 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.