Share certificates are extremely valuable documents which are issued by a company as proof of shares being paid for and owned by the shareholder. In other words, they are documents certifying that the shareholder is the legal and rightful owner of the shares of the company. Therefore, they are documents that need to be kept safely and taken good care of. In the case of a loss of share certificates, publishing an advertisement in a newspaper is not only a legal requirement, but it also helps to safeguard the shareholder as well as any other person from fraudulent transactions. Publishing a lost share certificate ad in a newspaper is also a mandatory formality that needs to be fulfilled before duplicate share certificates can be issued by the company. Therefore, it is strongly advisable to publish a notice about a lost share certificate in a newspaper.