How to verify old stock certificates

Every now and then, a client or prospect will contact us regarding a common share or preferred share certificate that they have recently found and ask if it has any value. In most cases, they turn out to be worthless, but occasionally, they can be worth a small fortune. How can you verify that they have value?

There are a few options for the shareholder ( or estate of the shareholder) to pursue in order to validate the shares’ value or worthlessness.

The first could be depositing the certificates into a brokerage account. This could be either a full- service investment dealer or a discount brokerage. By accepting the certificates, the investment dealer is not necessarily guaranteeing they have any value, but will go through the necessary steps to verify their worth ( if any).

If you already have a brokerage account, these certificates could simply be deposited into your existing account. If you do not have a brokerage account, depending on the certificates’ perceived value, you may wish to seek out the assistance of a full- service broker or, in the case of smaller amounts, a discount broker to open an account for the share certificate’s deposit.

In both cases, there may or may not be charges to do the processing of the shares, but certainly, there will be charges should you decide to sell the shares if they have value.

Alternatively, you might elect to do some of the detective work yourself. On the share certificates, there should be the name of a “transfer agent” who handled the issuance of the shares and their registration. That might be a good place to start, assuming the transfer agent is still in business as well.

Next up, you could try searching the federal government’s Industry Canada website ( assuming it is a Canadian corporation) to determine if the company still exists. If so, you might then contact the “investor relations” office of said company to verify the company is still publicly traded.

There are other online databases that can be searched and some private companies that, for a fee, will do the sleuthing for you.

At this point, it is worth pointing out that the holder of said securities would have been much better off if the shares had originally been held with an investment dealer. This is known as being held in “street name,” which basically means they are held in the name of the securities firm but in an account on behalf of the account holder. This way, the securities would be kept in a safe and secure location, the market value could be easily tracked, the dividends paid in a timely manner, the additional shares ( in the case of a stock split, merger or takeover) could be efficiently credited to the account and all of the book costs could be accurately tracked for income tax purposes. Furthermore, if held in a brokerage account, the shares could be sold with a simple phone call and would make settling an estate infinitely easier than leaving behind a safety deposit box full of certificates.

Incidentally, if the shares turn out to be worthless, there are hobbyists out there who collect old share certificates for their historical value or artistic design. The hobby is called scripophily and the Internet is filled with associations of these collectors. Personally, I am using some to train my cat. Finally, they have some value!