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Assuming the company hasn’t folded into bankruptcy, the certificate is still valid. When I worked at a brokerage, there was someone whose job included tracking down stock certificates to see if they had any value.
Stock certificates are not like “bearer bonds”. They are a symbol and nothing else. Stock Certificates can be forged, etc. All companies keep a stock register of the owners of their shares, and when trades happen, that register is updated. For publicly traded companies, there are clearing houses that provide that service on behalf of companies.
When mergers or sales occur and not all of the shareholders are located, a reserve may be held on the companies balance sheet for those shareholders at the value of the shares at that time. Also, you may see reverse dividends issues that ultimately eliminate those outstanding minority shares, again a reserve will be held on the balance sheet as due to these minority shareholders.
After a sufficient time has gone by and these “creditors” cannot be located (depending upon state law) the money associated with these former shareholders is probably escheated to the State to try and find and if ultimately not found, the state takes it to their general fund.
Think of those bigs ads that used to appear in newpapers that governments take out to try and find the owners of stale bank accounts, never cashed checks, etc.