American Express Credit Corporation - Specimen Certificate

Exists as a Specimen $5000 Turquoise and $1,000 Brown Bond printed by American Bank Note Company.

The American Express Company (Amex), headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in New York City’s Financial District, is a multinational financial services corporation. Founded in 1850, Amex is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Its iconic logo, adopted in 1958, features a gladiator or centurion, which graces traveler’s cheques, charge cards, and credit cards.

During the 1980s, Amex expanded its presence in the brokerage industry, acquiring Shearson Lehman Hutton in increments. Subsequently, it divested these holdings into Smith Barney Shearson (now owned by Primerica) and a revived Lehman Brothers. However, by 2008, neither the Shearson nor the Lehman names remained relevant.

In 2016, credit cards utilizing the American Express network accounted for 22.9% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the United States. As of December 31, 2019, Amex held an impressive 114.4 million cards in circulation, with 54.7 million of these cards in the United States. Each card had an average annual spending of $19,972.