United States Playing Card Co. - Specimen Stock Certificate
Inv# SE1387 Specimen Stock
Specimen Stock. Printed by American Bank Note Company.Â
The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, also referred to as USPCC) is a leading American manufacturer and distributor of playing cards. Established in 1867 under the name Russell, Morgan & Co., the company evolved and was officially founded in its present form in 1885. Its extensive range of brands includes Bicycle, Bee, Tally-Ho, Congress, Aviator, Aristocrat, Mohawk, Maverick, KEM, Hoyle, and Fournier. In addition to playing cards, the company produces novelty and custom playing cards, along with various playing card accessories such as poker chips.
For many years, the company was headquartered in Norwood, Ohio. However, in 2009, the USPC moved to the Cincinnati suburb of Erlanger, Kentucky. In a notable development, the United States Playing Card Company became a subsidiary of the Belgian card manufacturer Cartamundi in December 2019.
The origins of the company can be traced back to Cincinnati in 1867, when it was established as Russell, Morgan & Co. Initially, the company focused on printing posters for traveling circuses. The name "Russell, Morgan & Co." was taken from its partners, A. O. Russell, Robert J. Morgan, James M. Armstrong, and John F. Robinson Jr. Together, they acquired the Enquirer Job Printing Rooms division of the newspaper The Cincinnati Enquirer. Among the lithographs produced by the company were advertisements for performances of Edward Owings Towne’s play "Other People’s Money."
Stock and Bond Specimens are made and usually retained by a printer as a record of the contract with a client, generally with manuscript contract notes such as the quantity printed. Specimens are sometimes produced for use by the printing company's sales team as examples of the firm’s products. These are usually marked "Specimen" and have no serial numbers.
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