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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gsalexan, post: 2269710, member: 24274&quot;]How about some NON-railroads tonight? I had a few pick-ups come in this week that I&#039;ll share.</p><p><br /></p><p>First the Natco Corp. No idea what this company did, but I would guess it was in the financial industry. Republic Bank Note engraved the vignette of two allegorical engineers, flanking an oddly uninhabited toy town.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]452055[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]452056[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I liked the vignette on this Kirby Lumber stock certificate so much I had to have it. Lumber/timber companies don&#039;t show up very often and hardly ever with wood-cutters. This certificate has a Western Bank Note imprint at the bottom, but an American Bank Note insignia next to the vignette. That gives it a production date of around 1901 to 1911.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]452057[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]452058[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Lastly, one of my new favorites. This unissued stock certificate from the U.S. Sealed Postal Card Co. is circa 1880. Very few of these were ever issued. In 1886, the USSPCC secured a contract with the Post Office Department to produce the first letter sheets. They sub-contracted with American Bank Note to do the design and printing (ABNC, perhaps not coincidentally, also printed this stock certif.). For a couple years these letter sheets were fairly popular, but a fickle public eventually decided it preferred to send postcards, no doubt because they cost half as much. In 1894, the Post Office cancelled their contract with USSPCC and the company folded the following year. </p><p><br /></p><p>But their legacy lives on -- anyone who&#039;s seen the lightweight aerogrammes that the Post Office first began selling for foreign airmail letters in the late 1950s will notice a distinct similarity to the 1886 letter sheet design.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]452061[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]452062[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]452063[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]452064[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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