The front has very fancy printing, company logo, state company is incorporated in and the following text.
This certifies that:
MaizeMan
1234 Main St
Anytown, USA
is the owner of **XX** fully paid and non-assessable shares of common stock, $.XX par value per share of $CorporationName transferable only on the books of the Corporation by the holder hereof in person or by duly authorized attorney upon surrender of this Certification properly endorsed.
This certificate is not valid until countersigned by the Transfer Agent and register by the Registrar.
In Witness Whereof, the said Corporation has caused this Certificate to be signed by its facsimile signatures of its duly authorized officers and sealed with the facsimile seal of the Corporation.
Then I have signatures, a corporate seal, and countersignature/registration signature. The back as a fillable form that reminds me of a car title for transferring the shares to another party (although it states the signatures must be guaranteed by an eligible guarantor institution).
Ideally, if these represent real shares, I'd like to sell them, or at least get them into an online brokerage. But I'm completely lost as to what to do with a paper stock certificate, it took me a while to convince myself that what I'm holding actually is a paper stock certificate (I'm still only about 90% sure so feel free to tell me if any of the above test/description sounds fishy), and my googling skills are failing me, mostly turning up cases of people finding expired paper certificates when going through grand parent or great-grand parents estates.
Additional context: $CorporationName is publicly traded. The certificate was issued earlier this year, not something found in inheritance from a great grandparent. The number of shares * the current online price would mean the certificate was valued the mid-four figures, so neither a life changing amount of money, nor so little that I'm inclined to just file it in a drawer somewhere and and forget it.