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Canadian Stocks/CANADIAN GOLD & OIL

Expert: Steven Taylor - 5/6/2010

Question

From my parent's estate I found two stock certificates:
PACALTA OILS LIMITED 200 COMMON SHARES April 13,1937
GILLIES LAKE-PORCUPINE GOLD MINES 100 SHARES May 1, 1937

Other than being suitable for framing, is there any value?

Answer
Peter, from the information I have available:

Pacalta went through several reverse splits and name changes and became Canada Geothermal Oil, which went into receivership in the 1970's. I do not believe there was any value for shareholders.

Gillies did a 2 for 5 reverse and became Consolidated Gillies, which then merged into Associated Porcupine on the basis of 1 new for 6.02936 old shares. Associated was acquired in 1989 by American Reserve Mining on the basis of $5.00 cash and 0.75 shares of American Reserve for every share of Associated Porcupine. American Reserve later did a 1 for 16 reverse and became AMI, which would have pretty much wiped out the shares in the deal, but your parents would have had $30 cash somewhere. If they were not paid at the time of the acquisition, the cash would have been turned over to the government for safekeeping. Taht was a long time ago, but some Governments keep the cash for the benefit of the owners for a long time. You need to check the lost property departments of every State or Province in which they lived from the time they bought the shares in 1937 until the takeover in 1989. You can search many States and some Provinces online for free at www.naupa.org and www.missingmoney.com.