How to Find Savings Bond Serial Numbers if Bonds Have Been Destroyed. Add the Social Security number of the buyer. Select the 'Destroyed' option in the 'Details of Loss' section. Fill in answers to the questions on the form such as, 'When was the loss discovered?' And 'Where were the bonds last placed?' If you have any pieces of the.
Bond Serial Number Location
Aug 19, 2010 - What's a 19-year-old savings bond worth? The Internet makes it easy to check. Visit Bankrate.com to learn more today! TreasuryDirect's online calculator can only display the values of bonds from 01/1996 to the present rate period. TreasuryDirect stopped offering Internet HH/H savings bonds services, including bond look up by serial number, in September 2013.
Destruction of savings bonds does not mean you have lost the money that the bonds represented. If bonds have been destroyed, you must apply to the U.S. Treasury for replacements. The Treasury can find your bond serial numbers, so your replacement bonds will reflect the same serial numbers. Next time, keep a record of your bond serial numbers in a safe place.
Download Form PD F 1048 from TreasuryDirect.gov. Find the form under the forms tab in the blue menu bar across the top of the website.
Complete the form on your computer, providing all required information, and print the completed form. The Treasury does not require the serial numbers to replace savings bonds. The form asks for as much information as the bond owner can provide concerning the bonds. The Treasury tracks savings bonds by the owner's Social Security number. With that and the approximate dates of purchase, the savings bonds will be replaced.
Take the completed Treasury form to a local bank for signature verification. Do not sign the form until requested to do so by the bank officer. The bank will verify your identification and verify the signature on the document.
Mail the completed Form PD F 1048 to the Treasury using the address provided on the form. Include any remaining pieces of the destroyed savings bonds. The Treasury will research your bond purchases and issue replacement bonds for those that were destroyed.
Print out page 5 of Form PD F 1048 before you start filling in the information. Page 5 is the directions for completing the form. Make a photo copy of the form and any surviving pieces of the bonds before mailing them to the Treasury.
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Whether you got them as a birthday gift from Grandma or bought them through a payroll deduction on your first job, you may own U.S. Savings Bonds that have stopped earning interest.
Series EE Bonds, the common variety first issued in 1980 -- and still being issued today -- were designed to pay interest for up to 30 years. So any bonds dated 1989 or earlier – the first generation, so to speak – will have stopped paying by the end of 2019. At that point, their value is frozen, so there is no reason other than nostalgia to hang onto them. Instead, you can cash them in and put the money to more productive use.
Savings Bond Serial Number
Before the advent of Series EE Bonds, Grandma might have bought you a Series E Savings Bond. Those were issued from 1941 to 1980, and all of them have stopped earning interest, too.
The more recent Series I Bonds – the kind that pays a combined fixed and inflation-adjustedrate of interest – were first issued in 1998. They’re good for 30 years, so the earliest of them will stop gaining value in 2028.
How much unclaimed money is out there in the form of savings bonds that have stopped earning interest but have yet to be redeemed? The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that it’s in the billions of dollars.
What Your Bonds Are Worth
To determine the value of your old bonds, you can use the Savings Bond Calculator on the TreasuryDirect website. You’ll just need the type of bond, its denomination, and the date it was issued. There’s also a place to type in your bond’s serial number, but you don’t need that in order to get a value.
The calculator’s answer may pleasantly surprise you. For example, a $50 bond issued in August 1982, for which Grandma would have paid $25, is now worth $146.90. A $100 bond from February 1984 is good for $230.64.
If you believe you own some old savings bonds, but have lost track of them, you may be able file a claim for the bonds with the Treasury, by filling out Fiscal Service Form 1048, Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds, available with instructions on the website. Unfortunately, the popular online tool Treasury Hunt was discontinued in early 2017.
How to Cash In
Find My Savings Bonds
You can redeem your old paper bonds at many banks and other financial institutions. The TreasuryDirect website doesn’t maintain a list, but suggests you call around.
Bear in mind that savings-bond interest is subject to federal income tax, though not to state or local tax. You can either report it and pay tax every year that you hold the bond or wait until the end and pay the tax all at once, as most people do. After redeeming your bonds, you’ll receive an IRS Form 1099-INT, reflecting your taxable gain.
An exception, in certain cases, is if you use the proceeds from bonds issued in 1990 or later to pay qualified higher-education expenses for yourself or your child. Those rules, which include income limits, are explained in the Education Planning section of the TreasuryDirect site.
The Bottom Line
Don't sit on cash that's coming to you. But before you cash in your bonds, it’s a good idea to record what the Savings Bond Calculator says they’re worth, just to be sure you get every dollar you're owed.
Grandma wouldn’t want it any other way.