In a dusty stack of official looking papers, you come across a share certificate for a company with a vaguely familiar name. You've been cleaning out the storage space in your family home and wonder if you should throw out the potentially worthless document or try to track down the company.

A Family Money reader from Donegal finds himself in a similar situation. Mr H writes that he has a number of old Youghal Carpets shares. "As you probably know they are no longer traded. I would like to know how I could now have them valued and or sold."

In general terms, if a company is bought out the shares may transfer to the new company. When a company goes bust, however, the likelihood is that the shares are worthless.

Our reader does not specify if the shares were originally his or were left to him. Any individual in this situation must first establish ownership of the shares. If his name is not on the share certificate and the named person is deceased, then the new owner must be established. The deceased person's will should clear up any confusion.

Once ownership has been established, a search through old newspapers or on the Internet should provide some basic information on the company.

An examination of Irish Times files shows that in 1993 British textiles group Coats Viyella, which had a majority shareholding in Youghal Carpets, wanted to buy out the carpet company based in Killacloyne, near Cork.

Initially, the company had a difficult time finding the necessary 98 per cent of shares to allow compulsory purchase of the additional 2 per cent of Youghal Carpets because the carpet company's share register was not up to date.

Acceptance of the takeover meant the survival of the Cork company and in desperation Coats Viyella even held prize draws to encourage members of the public to help them find the missing Youghal Carpet shareholders.

Patience led to success later that year for Coats when it was able to complete the purchase. In a quick turnaround Coats sold its loss-making Yarns and Fabrics division, which included Youghal Carpets, to publicly quoted Shaw Industries USA a year later. At the time, Shaw was the world's largest tufted-carpet group.

When finding an old share certificate, a call to the stock exchange on which the share was traded may be informative. In Mr H's case, Youghal Carpets was traded on the Irish Stock Exchange and it keeps a yearbook which includes information on each company traded.

As a shareholder, Mr H should have received some information, said an Irish Stock Exchange spokesman. Youghal Carpets was a subsidiary of Coats Viyella, but its preference stocks were cancelled. "Once their listing is cancelled on the exchange, we have no further information on them," he said. Our reader should contact Coats Viyella as it made the initial offer and is therefore the best source of information, the spokesman said.

A Youghal Carpets' spokesman says Coats Viyella purchased all shares in May 1994. Shares were worth about 4p at the time and untraceable account holders' funds were placed in a suspense account. If our reader has his share certificate and a number it should be easy to trace.

A spokeswoman for Coats says it has a dissenting shareholders list and if Mr H's name is on it, it may have some form of resolution for him. However, chances are any funds will be small since when it was sold, Youghal Carpets was a penny stock.

Coats Viyella's spokeswoman says our reader should put his query in writing to: Group Secretariat, Coats Viyella PLC, 28 Savile Row, London, W1X2DD.