Arthur Blank & Co. located in Boston and Tennessee is a global provider of specialty printing, secure credit cards, and, integrated card solutions. With the capacity to print up to 1.5 billion cards per year Arthur Blank is the largest producer of plastic cards in North America, and offers the most diverse line of specialty printing available in the market. Arthur Blank & Company's capabilities include secure and non-secure card manufacturing and marketing including specialized foil stamping, holograms, unusual die cuts, numbering, high speed personalization, computerized color matching, lamination, card punching; along with unique patented products and services. Founded in 1934, Arthur Blank & Company has evolved into one of the largest worldwide providers of plastic cards, serving both government, financial and commercial customers. In 1934, 18-year-old Arthur observed that x-ray film was being discarded in a trash receptacle of a hospital near his home in the Dorchester section of Boston. He extracted and sold the silver from the x-ray film and also started selling the plastic door to door. Following World War II, Arthur and his brothers Bernard and Harry became partners in the business. Although Arthur was still profiting from the sale of silver, his plastic business was expanding. In the early 1940s plastic billfold pages, notebook covers, and stitched menu covers were in high demand in Boston. Customers then started asking for the plastic to be printed. In the 1950s the first printing press was purchased. The demand for protecting sheets of paper between plastic lead to the purchase of a lamination press and Arthur Blank & Co. became one of the first companies to successfully convert paper offset presses to print on sheet plastic. 1962 marked the advent of the plastic credit card. Arthur Blank was well positioned to be highly competitive in this market. In 1984 Arthur Blank & Co. moved to its current location in the West Roxbury section of Boston. In May of 2007 American Banknote (ABN) acquired Arthur Blank. Under the new ownership, Stuart Blank and Eric Blank will be retained to lead the entire North American plastic card operations. American Banknote (ABN) was founded in 1795 by Paul Revere. At this time the federally chartered Bank of the United States entrusted its corporate forefathers with the critical mission of producing counterfeit-resistant currency for the young Republic. ABN's products and services include manufacturing bank checks, currency (non-US), stock certificates, stamps, plastic cards (including Visa/MasterCard), secure distribution/fulfillment and Web-enabled reconciliation, driver's license and ID card production, and passport and travel document solutions. American Banknote Corporation is a holding company and the parent of the ABnote Group, which operates plants worldwide through its subsidiary companies: American Banknote S.A. in Brazil, Transtex S.A. in Argentina, Leigh Mardon in Australia, ABnote NZ in New Zealand, CPS Technologies in France, ABnote Europe in the Czech Republic and American Bank Note Company in the United States.