How can I track down old stock certificates?

ptrash

Since a fair number of people on these boards seem to invest, I wonder if nayone can answer this question.



I recently came into possession of stock certificates that date back to the 1950s to the 70s. Apparently none of the companies still exist, at least under the names on the certificates. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could track down 1) new names of the companies, 2) mergers 3) cessation of business, etc.



any advice will be much appreciated.

abulsme

[quote]Originally posted by Ptrash:

<strong>Since a fair number of people on these boards seem to invest, I wonder if nayone can answer this question.



I recently came into possession of stock certificates that date back to the 1950s to the 70s. Apparently none of the companies still exist, at least under the names on the certificates. Anyone have any suggestions on how I could track down 1) new names of the companies, 2) mergers 3) cessation of business, etc.



any advice will be much appreciated.</strong><hr></blockquote>



I've never had any need, so haven't used them myself, but these guys were featured on CNBC a while back. Perhaps this is the kind of thing you are looking for.



<a href="http://www.stocksearchintl.com/"; target="_blank">http://www.stocksearchintl.com/</a>;



-- Sam M (http://www.abulsme.com/)

ptrash

Thanks. They're a bit expensive-$85 per search. But doing a search under "scripophily" came up with another company, unclaimedassets.com, that charges $45 per search. Still, after reading that most of these assets are returned to the state after 5 years of investor nonresponse, I'm not too sure that it's worth the money. I may try a search or two, and see what happens.