Del E. Webb Corporation ( Famous Las Vegas Pioneer )

Beautifully engraved RARE SPECIMEN certificate from the Del E. Webb Corporation. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the company logo between two allegorical men. This item has the printed signatures of the Company’s President and Secretary.
Certificate Vignette On January 1st, 1960, the start of the new decade brought a new kind of eminence for the Del Webb Corporation. Sun City, an innovative community that was designed exclusively for retired people, was opened. After working for over five months to convert a cotton field into a city, complete with a golf course, recreation center, shopping center, and five model homes, Del hoped that 10,000 visitors would attend the New Year's Day opening. Instead of 10,000, more than 100,000 people toured the property over the three-day weekend. Years of Diversification Hotel development would provide additional opportunities for the company's success. Webb had helped introduce the concept of "motor hotels" in the post-war years. What really brought Del Webb notoriety in hotel development, however, was the construction of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas for underworld figure Bugsy Siegel. In the years to come, Del Webb himself would become involved in gaming with the Sahara-Nevada Hotel. Webb's entry into gaming was lauded by the Nevada Gaming Commission, which hoped his name would bring other reputable businessmen to Nevada. It did. Howard Hughes joined in, and the two were instrumental in polishing the image of Las Vegas. 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.