Back in the increasingly dim & distant past I used to work in the area of lost share certificates.
There are 2 elements of the registrar's charge:
1. A fee for countersigning the indemnity - ie insurance for any fraudulent use of the missing certificate
2. An admin fee
The faq here -
http://www.shareview.co.uk/ASP/faq.asp?#LOST_C ERT - gives the rates for Lloyds Shareview. Rather more than I remember but all registrars were pretty much the same then so I guess they're all similar now.
There were some differences however. Sometimes the fees were waived for small shareholdings eg <�500, sometimes there was no admin fee, sometimes the fees were waived for employees, sometimes there was no requirement to get the indemnity countersigned, etc, etc and these exceptions varied from registrar to registrar and company to company so its worth checking.
Its good advice from dzug though to only pay when you need the certificate - in the case of a capital reorganisation you'd be sent a new certificate, although in a takeover you normally need to send the cert in with your offer acceptance form. Also given time the certificate may turn up.
It always felt to me that small shareholders were being fleeced - ie charged a disproportionate amount in relation to the value of their holding. If you need the cert now its worth arguing it out with the registrar on this basis - if you agree to pay for the countersignature you might get them to waive the admin fee - ask to speak to a manager. There also used to be policy guidelines over what fees to waive if a shareholder complained......
Specifically on Abbey National the following looks useful -
http://mo