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Old Stock Certificates

If you want to find out the value of some old share certificates, and you do not mind spending a few dollars, you can call this number and they will do the leg-work for you: (I believe it costs around $60 per certificate)

Stock Certificate Search: (800) 537-4523

Or, You Can Do The Work Yourself

You have a certificate for a company and you'd like to determine if your shares have value. The basic information you will need should all be on the certificate itself, and is as follows:

The name of the company
The date the shares were issued
The state in which the company was incorporated.

Your first goal is to determine the current status of the firm which is likely to be one of the following:

Still in business (same or different name)
Acquired or merged with currently operating business
Not in business / gone bankrupt

The first step would be to see if the company is trading on a listed exchange.

Yahoo.com offers a symbol lookup feature Symbol Lookup which will tell you if the firm is still trading under the same name.

Call or write the transfer agent that is listed on the front of each certificate. A transfer agent handles transfers of stock certificates and should be able to advise you on their value.

If the transfer agent no longer exists or cannot help you, try to contact the company directly. The stock certificates should show the state where the company was incorporated. Contact the Secretary of State in that state, and ask for the Business Corporations Section. They should be able to give you a history of the company. From there you can contact the existing company (if there is one) to find out the value of your stocks.

If the firm no longer exists (in any form) your certificate may have value as a collector's item, but at this point most hope is lost. A site like www.scripophily.com is one of the largest dealers of certificates on the internet.

If you don't want to do the research yourself you can always hire one of the many firms on the internet that will research your shares for you.

One Quick Method to Determine if Your Shares Have Value

You can attempt to deposit your certificates with a brokerage firm. The firm has to determine the value of the shares.

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