United States Steel Corporation 1901 - Bond used for Andrew Carnegie Sale

Beautifully engraved RARE SPECIMEN certificate from the United States Steel Corporation. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a steel mill. This bond was made for the initial purchase from Andrew Carnegie in 1901. The certificate has been folded in forths and is in EF+ Condition.




Certificate Vignette

U. S. Steel had its origins in the dealings of some of America's most legendary businessmen, including Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab. However, its principal architect was Elbert H. Gary who also became U. S. Steel's first chairman. At the turn of the century, a group headed by Gary and Morgan bought Andrew Carnegie's steel company and combined it with their holdings in the Federal Steel Company. The bonds we have for sale are the types used in their purchase. These two companies became the nucleus of U. S. Steel, which also included American Steel & Wire Co., National Tube Company, American Tin Plate Co., American Steel Hoop Co., and American Sheet Steel Co. In its first full year of operation, U. S. Steel made 67 percent of all the steel produced in the United States.

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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 and realized nice appreciation in value over the past several years.