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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gsalexan, post: 2840060, member: 24274&quot;]I finally acquired an item that I&#039;ve been in search of for about a decade! And this helps tie together some of the elements posted above. A little explanation...</p><p><br /></p><p>A bank note company, after talking with client who was looking for a custom stock certificate or bond, would have a paste-up artist piece together a mock-up design from sections of borders, corner elements, vignettes and text. This way the client could review the design before starting the expensive process of creating an engraved steel printing plate. </p><p><br /></p><p>Years ago, I picked up one of these pasted-up designs on the cheap, before I really understood what it was. It was created in the mid-1960&#039;s for the Massachusetts Investors Growth Stock Fund, one of the first mutual funds in the U.S. These paste-ups are quite scarce and were never intended to end up in public hands. I believe most were probably destroyed once the stock or bond was finalized.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]671596[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]671597[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]671598[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve been on the lookout for an actual stock certificate from the company since then and last week one finally surfaced on eBay in the form of a specimen. It&#039;s interesting to see the subtle differences between the paste-up and the specimen certificate. The paste-up shows the par value of $1 per share and is incorporated in Massachusetts. The specimen is 33-1/3¢ per share and is incorporated in Delaware. So there were some corporate changes made during this time.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]671599[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]671600[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>But the biggest puzzler is the bank note printer. The paste-up shows an imprint of American Bank Note Co., while specimen was printed by a small competitor, E.A. Wright Bank Note. So did the client take the paste-up somewhere else to have it done more cheaply? Or did the client bring a specimen to ABNCo and ask them to match the design? An interesting mystery that will require some further research.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]671601[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]671602[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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