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Description:
Beautifully engraved SCARCE SPECIMEN certificate from the Anaconda Copper Mining Company dated 1907. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of the Anaconda Mining Works.
Certificate Vignette In 1899, Marcus Daly merged with Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company to create the Amalagamated Copper Mining Co. In 1910, the company changed its name to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, after it bought up smaller companies including the Alice Gold and Silver Mining Company, Big Blackfoot Lumber Company, Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company, Butte and Boston Consolidated Mining Company, Diamond Coal and Coke Company, Parrot Silver and Copper Company, Red Metal Mining and the Washoe Copper Company. The company was the largest power in Butte and Montana. It dominated local politics and business in the state. Until the 1950s, it owned every newspaper in the huge state. Families came from all over the country to work in the mines (which were dangerously deep below the ground). The Irish came in droves and soon became the city's largest ethnic group. Today Butte is still known for its raucous St. Patrick's Day celebrations. The labor movement also permeates the city's heritage. Butte's Miners Union formed in 1878; the city sent the largest delegation to the International Workers of the World's founding convention in Chicago in 1906. The city became known as the "Gibraltar of Unionism." But the labor movement wasn't as strong as Gibraltar. Worker frustration at The Company's deaf ear to demands led to violence in 1914 and 1917. Then, in 1917, 168 men were killed in a mine fire. To this day, it is the worst mining disaster in American history. It wasn't until the 1950s that the Anaconda Copper Company moved away from labor-intensive underground mining. It began open pit mining, creating the largest landmark and legacy of Butte's mining days: the Berkeley Pit. To make room for open pit mining, the Company bought and leveled whole neighborhoods -- hundreds of homes and stores that once made up Butte's east-side. In the 1982, mining ceased in the pit. Today the pit is over a mile long, nearly a mile wide and 1800 feet deep. It is filling up with acidic water. The Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), which bought the Anaconda Copper Company's holdings in Butte in the 1970s, is responsible to ensure that the pit's polluted waters don't spill over into the nearby Clark Fork River. It is working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies to figure out how best to handle the potential disaster. Back in 1912, Butte dedicated its new courthouse. The price tag: a whopping $482,000, nearly double the cost of the Capitol building in Helena. The grand structure contained huge copper doors, wide front steps and murals. It indicates the course Butte planned for its future: more immigrants, more mining, more opulence. Today, Butte has just over 30,000 residents, a far cry from its 1917 population. Still, it celebrates its rich history and invites tourists to take a taste of it. The World Museum of Mining and 1899 Mining Camp, which sits on 12 acres, was built by local volunteers and has artifacts from mining. It is surrounded by an abandoned mine. The Copper King Mansion, which is also downtown, is on the national historic register. It was owned by a copper baron, William Clark, who was a self-made millionaire. It cost him over a quarter of a million dollars to build in the 1880s. Although it is still privately owned, it is open for tours and is also a bed and breakfast. The Berkeley Pit has a viewing stand for tourists. The Dumas, was built in 1890 as "parlor house" (read: brothel). It operated right up to 1982; today, it is open to tourists. Source: Butte Chamber of Commerce 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.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: ancopmincom11 |
| Condition:
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Year:
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