Expanded Treasury Hunt(SM) Makes Finding Matured Savings Bonds Easier
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2005
The Bureau of the Public Debt has expanded the database of Treasury HuntSM, its web application that helps savings bond owners find matured bonds or undeliverable bonds and interest payments to which they may be entitled. The expansion from approximately 200,000 records to more than 4 million adds information on all matured savings bonds containing Social Security Numbers in their inscription. Treasury Hunt can be found by going to Public Debt's website, www.treasurydirect.gov.
With the expansion of the database, bond owners or heirs will be able to more easily determine if there are bonds that have been lost or mislaid that have reached the end of their interest-bearing lives simply by providing a Social Security Number. If there is a possible match, the customer is provided with information about how to follow up. Customer privacy is protected by encrypted communications and a follow-up process that ensures payment or holdings information is disclosed only to the registered owner or the person entitled to it.
Treasury Hunt will continue to be updated with information on matured or returned savings bonds and interest payments as the information becomes available. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The expanded database extends Public Debt's outreach effort to encourage the owners of some 33 million matured savings bonds worth more than $13.5 billion to redeem those bonds. Series E bonds sold from May 1941 through November 1965 earn interest for 40 years. Bonds sold from December 1965 on earn interest for 30 years. To date, bonds issued through September 1965 and between December 1965 and September 1975 have stopped earning interest. Social Security Numbers became a required part of a savings bond's inscription in 1974, and hundreds of thousands of bonds issued before that year also include the number.