Rare BIC (Pens) Working Proof

Product Details

Company
BIC Corporation

Certificate Type
Working Proof for the company's Common Shares

Time Period
1980's

Printer
American Bank Note Company

Format & Approximate Size
This proof is adhered to a 12" x 8 1/2" cardboard folder. The proof is protected by a "flip up" clear protective and editing layer.

Images
You will receive the exact proof pictured as it is the only one of it's kind. The first picture shows the open folder and the proof with the edit layer lying atop the piece. The second picture shows just the proof with the plastic layer lifted out of view.

Guaranteed Authentic
Yes

Additional Details
Fascinating piece of financial history from this pioneering pen company!

In 1945, Marcel Bich and his partner, Édouard Buffard, set up a business creating writing instrument parts in a factory in the Paris suburb of Clichy, where they began production of pen holders and pencil cases. Marcel Bich bought the patent for the ballpoint pen from Hungarian – Argentine inventor László Bíró, and using Swiss watchmaking tools, he devised a manufacturing process that produced stainless-steel balls for the tip of the pen. Bich soon perfected the design of the ballpoint pen, and the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen became the company's first product (under the "BIC" name) in 1950. The Bic Cristal has sold over one hundred billion units since its launch in 1950.

In order to avoid problems with sales in English-speaking countries (although in French, his name is not pronounced bitch but "beesh"), Bich dropped the letter H when he formed Société Bic in 1953, and the company was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1972. The design of the pen has remained mostly unchanged since its initial launch, and as of 2021, remains the best-selling pen in the world.