(1)    Whenever full payment is made for any lands described in a certificate of sale issued under s. 24.17, as required by law, and the purchaser, or the purchaser’s legal representatives, produces to the board the duplicate certificate of sale, with the receipt of the secretary of administration endorsed on the duplicate certificate, showing that the whole amount of the principal and interest due on the purchase of the land described in the certificate has been paid and that the holder of the duplicate certificate is entitled to a patent for the lands described in the certificate, the original and duplicate certificates shall be canceled, and the board shall immediately execute and deliver a patent to the person entitled to the patent for the land described in the certificate.

   (2)   All patents issued by the board shall be recorded in the board’s office. The board’s record of patents issued by it constitutes a legal record.

   (3)   Purchasers may, at any time before payment is due, pay any part or the whole of the purchase money for the land and the interest owing on the purchase money.

   (4)   If a patent is issued to a person who dies before the date of the patent, the title to the land described inures to and vests in the decedent‘s heirs, devisees, or assignees to the same extent as if the patent had issued to the decedent during the decedent’s lifetime.