When certificates of indemnity or scrip are sold, the commission shall issue to the purchaser an indemnity certificate of location or scrip, in such form as may be provided by it, containing the date of the sale, a description of the land or a statement of the facts or other cause constituting the bases by reason of which the State is entitled to indemnity, the name of the person to whom issued, the price paid therefor, and the fact that such certificate may be surrendered to the commission, and that the holder and owner thereof, if he is the original purchaser of the certificate of indemnity or scrip, shall be entitled to have selected from the vacant unappropriated lands of the United States within the State open to selection, the same number of acres as represented by the certificate surrendered, which the person who makes the surrender shall designate. If the lands applied for are not open to entry the holder of a certificate of indemnity may apply for other lands or receive restitution to the amount paid for the certificate.