Why do I have to pay for a missing share certificate? The registrar is acting on the orders of the companies which for reasons of expense and logistics, often deem it not viable to send share certificates other than in this way. Not hassle free and then any amount paid is likely to be minimal. The person claiming and receiving recompense will need to be whoever sent the certificate. I have battled on this front in the past but only managed to get compensation where Royal Mail had erred in other ways over the case and that after very confusing information given by Royal Mail. So it may be worth a try but even if successful this will not by any measure cover the whole cost. Remember too that recently, rather than keeping abreast with the spiralling cost of stamps, compensation amounts paid by Royal Mail for untracked first and second class post have slumped. See royalmail.com. Meanwhile Royal Mail urges senders to dispatch such items by a service that provides a suitable level of compensation but I don't think registrars will be using such facilities any time soon. The Articles of Association of the company the shares are in set out the terms of the rules of membership. This will include what should happen if a share certificate is lost, stolen or destroyed. Usually this involves an indemnity. Not every case may be as straightforward as yours and an original share certificate might be misappropriated or used for gain when it shouldn't be. There may for instance be a messy matrimonial dispute involved. There could be some kind of fraud. The person asking for the replacement certificate may be up to no good themselves. Should there be a problem the company would have to make good any loss to the rightful owner based on the cost of purchasing such shares for what they were worth at the time. Gremlins come out of every corner in the eyes of directors of such companies and the registrars and they want their protection to be as watertight as possible. The transfer is one of the final stages of the share sale. So, although when a certificate has been replaced, an entry is made into the shareholder's records on the share register to show the original certificate has been cancelled and indeed acts as a barrier against a transfer being executed using the old certificate, it is not foolproof. Capita says a stockbroker depositing the transfer and a cancelled certificate with the registrar may already have paid the customer selling the shares. TD Direct confirms that with such certificated share sales this can indeed happen. In other words stockbrokers for certificated sales may well issue the proceeds of the sale before the information about it reaches the share register. Only then will it show up that the certificate is not current. The person taking out the indemnity accepts liability for any direct or indirect losses incurred. If though that person defaults either due to not having the wherewithal to pay or vanishing or for some other reason the losses will be down to the "guarantor." For the underwriting of the indemnity the equivalent of an insurance premium needs to be paid. Either through the registrars or through a suitably authorised bank or insurer. It will depend on the value of the shares.