Younker Brothers, Inc. 1920 ( Now Proffitt’s, Inc )

Beautifully engraved SPECIMEN certificate from the Younker Brothers, Inc. This historic document was printed by the Columbian Banknote Company in 1920 and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle with a shield.










Certificate Vignette

In 1856, three brothers from the Younker family – Lipman, Samuel and Marcus – arrived in the United States from Poland and opened a small general store named Younker Brothers in Keokuk, Iowa. In 1874, Herman Younker, a younger brother to the founding brothers, opened a dry goods store in Des Moines, Iowa. With the death of Samuel Younker in 1879, the family closed the Keokuk store, and the Des Moines store became the main store.

In 1900, the Younker Brothers main store was moved to its current location at 7th and Walnut in Des Moines. In 1904, the company experienced a series of additions, enlargements and mergers, which resulted in the company becoming Younkers Incorporated. In 1912, Younkers purchased Grand Department Store in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, which was followed by the opening of the Tea Room in the store in 1913.

1923 marked the year Younkers began making acquisitions, beginning with the purchase of Wilkins Department Store. In 1927, Younkers merged with Harris-Emery, making Younkers the largest department store chain in Iowa. This was followed by the purchase of J. Mandelbaun and Sons store in 1928; Brintnalls in Marshalltown, Iowa, and Davidson’s in Sioux City, Iowa in 1948; and Yetters in Iowa City, Iowa in 1949.

During this period, Younkers continued to open new stores and make acquisitions throughout the region. In 1979, Equitable of Iowa Companies acquired Younkers through a merger agreement.

This was followed by Younkers’ purchase of 11 Brandeis stores in 1987, making Younkers, Inc. the largest department store chain in Iowa and Nebraska. In 1992, Younkers purchased the H.C. Prange Company, with 22 stores in Wisconsin and Michigan.

1992 was a landmark year for the company – on April 22, Younkers began trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol YONK.

In October 1996, Proffitt’s, Inc. purchased Younkers, and today, Younkers operates 51 stores throughout the Midwest and is a part of SDSG.

History from company press information.

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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.