Often, and frequently far more than the face value suggests, because decades of bonus issues, splits and demergers compound quietly against a holding nobody touched. What the certificate cannot do is be sold or transferred in paper form. It has to be dematerialised first, and that is an administrative process rather than a valuation one.

Transfer of securities in physical form has been barred since 2019. Every transfer now happens electronically between demat accounts, so a certificate is proof of a holding rather than something you can hand over. The holding is real; the paper is no longer a working instrument.

What the registrar now issues in place of a replacement certificate. It confirms the holding and must itself be converted into a demat credit within the period stated on it. People treat it as the finish line, put it in a drawer, and find the process has to restart when the window lapses.

The registrar and transfer agent maintains the company's shareholder records, and it is rarely the firm printed on an old certificate. Registrars merge, close and change hands. Get the current one from the company's own investor relations page rather than from the paper in your hand.

No. A corporate action does not extinguish a holding, it relocates it. Trace the company's history — a name change, a merger, a demerger that issued shares in a new entity — and apply to the registrar that now holds those records, quoting the corporate action. This is paperwork, not loss.

Registrars freeze folios that lack current PAN, bank details, address, contact details and nomination. A frozen folio will not process anything, including a dematerialisation request. Most people find out only when a request is returned, which is why updating the folio's records should be a separate first step with written confirmation.

A duplicate issue process comes first, and it runs before any dematerialisation. Broadly it involves a police complaint quoting folio and distinctive numbers, an advertisement in the papers the registrar specifies, an indemnity on stamp paper, and above a threshold a surety. It adds time rather than closing the door.

It depends on whether the folio number and distinctive numbers can still be read. Where they can, the certificate is usually accepted. Where they cannot, the duplicate issue process applies as though the certificate were lost. Do not attempt repairs, laminate them, or write on them.

Check before you start. Where dividends went unbanked for seven consecutive years, the company transferred both the dividends and the shares to the Investor Education and Protection Fund, and the registrar no longer holds them. Holding the certificate does not mean the company still holds the shares.

No. Transmission comes first, using the registrar's prescribed transmission form, which is distinct from the dematerialisation form. That requires a death certificate and, depending on value, either an affidavit with no-objection letters from the other heirs, or a succession certificate, probate or letter of administration.

The surviving holders apply for transmission on the folio, with the deceased holder's death certificate. Survivorship decides who may deal with the holding; who ultimately inherits the value is a separate question governed by succession law, not by whose name survives on the register.

Expected, if the folio was opened decades ago. The fix is a banker's attestation on the registrar's own format, from a bank that holds your specimen signature. Attempting to reproduce an old signature is a poor idea and attestation is the recognised route.

Marriage certificate, gazette notification or deed poll, as applicable, together with an affidavit. The name has to reconcile across the certificate, your PAN and your demat account. Fix all three to one consistent form before submitting anything.

A transposition request accompanies the dematerialisation request, signed by all holders. Opening a fresh account in the correct order is sometimes simpler than transposing, depending on what else that account holds.

To your depository participant, which for most people is the broker holding the demat account. The DP defaces the certificates, raises a request number and forwards them to the registrar. Photograph every certificate on both sides before parting with it, because they are defaced in the process and cannot be recovered if lost in transit.

Two to four months where the records match cleanly. Longer wherever the name, address or signature has moved on, and considerably longer where certificates are lost and a duplicate must issue first. Most of the elapsed time is registrar verification, not your own paperwork.

Corporate actions follow the holding, so they should be reflected in what is credited. Check the number against the company's corporate action history for the intervening years rather than against the face of the certificate, and raise any discrepancy immediately rather than months later.

That depends on how it ceased to exist. A company that merged or renamed still has records with a registrar. One that was struck off, wound up or liquidated is a different matter entirely, and recovery depends on the liquidation rather than on any registrar. Establish which happened before investing effort.

Much of it. Documents executed overseas generally need notarisation and apostille or consular attestation, which adds time per document, and the shares must go into a demat account with matching residential status. Where a trip to India is coming, sequence the signing and attestation around it.

Usually yes, for a reason unrelated to value. A certificate left in paper form is not a holding anyone can deal with, and it becomes the next generation's problem alongside a harder evidence trail. The work is much the same whether the holding is worth thousands or lakhs, and doing it once closes the matter permanently.