New Delhi, June 23 -- An interesting post went viral earlier this month, suggesting that a man got hold of his father's physical share certificates of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel (later merged into JSW Steel) and found the 5,000 shares he bought for Rs.1 lakh in the 1990s were now worth Rs.80 crore. A series of posts followed, touting the power of long-term investments.

However, the claim is incorrect.

To be sure, the original share certificates were of Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd (JVSL), which was merged into JSW Steel in 2005. But to determine the correct value of the 5,000 shares, you need to follow the timeline of JSW Steel's corporate actions.

In 2005, when JVSL merged into JSW Steel, every JVSL shareholder received one share of JSW ...