This certificate of Jefferson Stores Inc. is notable for its registered holder: Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., the oldest private bank in the United States, founded in 1818. The presence of BBH as the registered holder illustrates the practice of holding shares in 'street name', where brokers hold securities in their own name on behalf of their clients. Jefferson Stores was a chain of American variety stores, a competitor of Kmart and other discount chains of the 1960s-1970s. The date of September 1969 precedes the 1970 stock-market correction by a few months. This document thus crosses the history of American retail trade with that of the oldest private bank in the United States, making it a piece of rare documentary richness for American scripophily of the 1960s.