Even though at least one person on this board is blissfully unaware of the logical reasons why there hasn't been more cert numbers faxed in to the TF, I doubt any amount of explanation will enlighten him. Your explanation would account for many of the shares but there is another factor which the ignorant aren't taking into consideration.
Cert numbers for all certificates are assigned in sequential order as they are issued. When a stock is sold and a new cert is issued to the new owner, the old number is retired and is not reused. This occurs every thime a change is made in the number of shares one holds. Therefore many of the cert numbers are no longer in existance and you cannot determine how many certs are outstanding by the most recently issued cert number.
The same principle applies to serial numbers on dollar bills. When a bill is taken out of circulation for any reason (worn out for instance) the serial number is not reused. The bill that is printed to replace the worn out one has a unique new serial number therefore making it impossible to tell how many one dollar bills are in circulation simply by looking at the serial number of the most recently printed bill.
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