Expert: Steven Taylor - 4/25/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello, Steven.
You guys are doing a great service to the public on this site and I thank you all.
I came across a question and answer where you were helping someone with RADIORE shares. I too have some shares given to me decades ago by a family friend. I didn't know what to do with them at the time so I put the certificates away for all of these years until recently when I started getting into the market. Losing alot of money, by the way, not knowing what I'm doing. But that's another story. I have two cerificates totaling 15K shares of RADIORE URANIUM COMPANY. I think they were just penny stocks though. The certificates are dated Sep 1969. The original buyer, or at least the name on the cert, transfered or sold the stock to the family friend about a month later, which in turn gave the certs to me. Probably around 1980, as well as I can remember. The family friend's name is not on the certs, only on a hand written receipt with the letter head of "Mountain States Securities Inc." along with a document number. I hope I'm making sense here, I'm almost confusing myself.
Anyway, not knowing my way around these matters, I thought I would ask for your advice. Reading your help response with the other gentleman, I learned about Pennwest and inquired to them by email. The lady was very curtious and prompt with her reply and refered me to the company's trustee, CIBC Mellon. I just emailed them today asking if the shares were worth anything.
OK... Having said all that, how do you think I should approach this? Not to imply anything, but can I trust a company to give me the true value of the stock, if any, given the circumstances? Also, am I the legal owner of this stock considering the family friend's name, nor my own, is on the certificates and maybe not on the books anywhere?
I look forward to hearing from you and thank you very much in advance.
Chris

ANSWER: Chris, you have an interesting situation. To answer your questions in order, yes, you can trust the transfer agent to give you the true value of the stock. As a reputable and large transfer agent, they would have nothing to gain (and everything to lose) by doing otherwise, as the stock has already been issued and is outstanding.

Regarding legal ownership, you might have a problem here. When the family friend acquired the certificates, they may or may not have been properly and legally transferred. The transfer agent may have no record of the transaction. If that is the case, the original owner would still be the registered holder and any Pennwest would be in their name. Then, the other problem is with the family friend transfer to you. That may or may not have been properly transferred, either. Just giving the certs to you does not meet the requirements of ownership - they would have to be signed over for starters. Any signatures on the back of the certificate which would meet that requirement?

Right now, the best you can do is see what CIBC Mellon comes back with. If they tell you they have no record of the family friend, you are probably out of luck. However, if they do have them as the owner, you may be able to push your case for current ownership by presenting the certificate - assuming the current value in Pennwest shares even makes the effort worthwhile, as the agent will charge you reorganization fees that may exceed the value.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No sir, the only signatures on the back are those of the original purchaser and that of the securities officer selling the stock. Guess I'm out of luck. But you know...those old certificates have alot of printing detail to them, almost good enough to frame. So maybe they're good for something after all, hahaha.
I thank you very much for your help and prompt response. It's good of you people to donate your time and expertise to help the public.
Have a nice day.
Chris

Answer
Chris, it does seem you are probably out of luck, but I would wait to hear what the transfer agent has to say about it, just to be sure.

Some old certificates do, however, have nominal value to collectors. If CIBC Mellon does tell you the certs have no value, you could look into selling them to collectors. Value isn't much, but it is something to look into.