This rare Montgomery Ward & Co Specimen Stock Certificate was printed between 1959 and 1961. It features Paul Hammaker who was President from 1959 to 1961. This makes this certificate exceedingly rare given he was President for such a short period of time.

Montgomery Ward was founded in 1872 as a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago. They expanded into retail outlets in the 1920s and would become an American retail icon. Montgomery Ward would declare bankruptcy in 1997 after intense pressure from Walmart and Target and closed 100s of locations. Montgomery was liquidated in 2001.

Specimen stock certificates are certificates that were archived by printers and the company as perfect examples of the company’s stock issue. Specimen’s can be identified by their “specimen” stamp, stamped holes spelling “specimen”, or they are often issued with a serial number of a series of zeros. Often, they are also issued with no serial number at all. Specimens can also represent a design that was never issued. All of these attributes make the specimen stock certificate rarer than the issued version of the share. Many enthusiasts collect specimens as a whole new category of Scripophily.