You are able to help so many people. Maybe there is a chance you might be able to "do-it" for me. At the death of my father a few years ago I found in his papers two Ford stock certificates dated 26 June 1929. They were issued in France. A friend told me I might be able to find out whether it was a French scam or the real thing. The friend suggested that I call Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich.
Grateful that someone knew where Ford's main office might be, I called a few Ford dealers in town for a phone number. All they could give me was a Denver number that had a complicated system of making you press button 1, 2, 3, etc. None of the departments rattled off by the recording seemed to have anything to do with what I wanted to learn. And this was at daytime long-distance rates.Could you track down such a number, maybe such a thing as the investment department, or treasurer's office, or international office? Maybe you'll even have an idea of your own.
I am approaching 70 and want to get my things in order before I pass on. Knowing what to do with these certificates would be one more thing off my mind. - A.J., Salt Lake City.
P.S. My parents' having these certificates isn't as strange as it may seem. Until 1946 we lived in France, so buying Ford stock must have made sense to my father whose parents were born and lived in the United States. I have wondered if, when the 1929 stock market crash occurred, they had lost their investment and gave up on it.
We called the stockholder relations department at Ford's World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., and found out the following information. If the certificates you have are for Ford Limited of Britain, they have a redemption value of $19 a share. To find out how to redeem them, send copies of the certificates to Stockholder Relations, Room 1040, Ford World Headquarters, The American Road, P.O. Box 1899, Dearborn, Mich. 48121, attention Barb McDonald.
If the stock certificates say Ford Societe Anonyme Francaise, they are probably of no value. In 1955 that company merged with the French carmaker Simca, which consequently has undergone numerous reorganizations. According to the woman we spoke to at Ford, other people who have those stock certificates haven't had much luck in cashing them in.
However, there is place you can write: Banque de L'Union European, 4-6 Rue Gallon, Paris, 2E, France, attention: registration and titles department.