jgriffin: It seems you have received conflicting information from your broker, Scottrade. Do you have an explanation for the discrepancies?
My broker was forwarded the PR about gift shares as well as Jason's explanation and said it looks like "you really lucked out on this one, very nice" he also stated "bring the certs in when you receive them, and we will get you the common stock or the cash... Whichever you want" they WILL NOT however deposit penny stock preferred Cs into your account. But conversion into commons or cash is all very simple and very cheap.