Expert: Steven Taylor - 6/24/2009

Question
have in my possession 2000 shares of Hiview Gold Mines LImited dated Feb 18 1975 purchased through A. C. MacPherson @ Co. Ltd Also 500 shares of Jaridge Exploration Inc. dated Oct 6 1978 purchased through The Metropolitan Trust Company Toronto, Ontario. Any value?

Answer
Allan, I have only limited information. Hiview and Jaridge are the same company - Hiview did a 1 for 4 reverse split in 1978 and changed its name to Jaridge. That is why you have 500 shares of Jaridge from the original 2000 in Hiview, and why you received them from Metropolitan, which was Jaridge's transfer agent. It appears they did not require you to send in the old Hiview for cancellation, but instead just sent out the new certificates - it was cheaper that way.

In terms of what happened to Jaridge, I have no information. Shares sold by A.C. MacPherson were usually not exactly mainstream companies, and it was not unusual for stocks they peddled to simply disappear whenever MacPherson stopped supporting them. Usually when researching old stocks, you need to contact the transfer agent, but Metropolitan is, I believe, long out of business. I believe it is now part of Scotiabank, but I don't know if the securities transfer business was included. You can also contact the Province of Incorporation and see what information they have, or take the certificate to a broker and ask them to perform a more detailed search for you.