Travelers Inc. (Specimen)

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The main predecessor companies of The Travelers Companies, Inc. were The St. Paul Companies, Inc. and Travelers Property Casualty Corporation. Saint Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company was founded March 5, 1853, in St. Paul, Minnesota, serving local customers who were having a difficult time getting claim payments in a timely manner from insurance companies on the east coast of the United States. It barely survived the Panic of 1857 by dramatically paring down its operations and later reorganizing itself into a stock company (as opposed to a mutual company). It soon spread its operations across the country. In 1998 it acquired USF&G, known formerly as United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, an insurance company based in Baltimore, Maryland, but was forced to downsize by almost half due to a competitive marketplace.

Travelers was founded in 1864 in Hartford. Along the way it had many industry firsts, including the first automobile policy, the first commercial airline policy, and the first policy for space travel.

In the 1990s, it went through a series of mergers and acquisitions. It was bought by Primerica in 1993, but the resulting company retained the Travelers name. In 1995 it became The Travelers Group. It bought Aetna's property and casualty business in 1996. In 1998, the Travelers Group merged with Citicorp to form Citigroup. However, the synergies between the banking and insurance arms of the company did not work as well as planned, so Citigroup spun off Travelers Property and Casualty into a subsidiary company in 2002, although it kept the red umbrella logo. Three years later, Citigroup sold Travelers Life & Annuity to MetLife. In 2003, Travelers bought renewal rights for Royal & SunAlliance Personal Insurance and Commercial businesses.

In 2004, the St. Paul and Travelers Companies merged and renamed itself St. Paul Travelers, with the headquarters set in St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite many assurances from CEO Jay Fishman that the newly formed company would retain the St. Paul name, the corporate name only lasted until 2007, when the company repurchased the rights to the famous red umbrella logo from Citigroup and readopted it as its main corporate symbol, while also changing the corporate name to The Travelers Companies.


Close Up of Vignette




Certificate: Depositary Receipt, specimen, late 1900’s

Printer: American Bank Note Company

Dimensions: 8” (h) x 12” (w)

State: DE-Delaware

Subject Matter: Finance and Related | Insurance Companies | Specimen Pieces

Vignette Topic(s): Male Subject | Nude Subject | Eagle Featured | Cornucopia Featured | Ship Featured | Skyline Scene | Mountain Scene

Condition: No fold lines, punch hole cancels in signature areas and bodies. Very crisp.