Remember U.S. savings bonds?

We were visited recently by folks in their mid-80s and they happened to mention that they had some savings bonds — several hundred dating from as long ago as World War II.

Are such bonds worth anything?

You bet.

The usual deal with savings bonds was that you would buy a bond for $18.75 and redeem it 10 years later for $25. The bonds also came in larger denominations, $50, $75 and $100.

So what might such bonds be worth today?

___A $25 E bond issued in July 1944 is worth $107.70 — the bond originally cost $18.75.

___A $50 E bond issued in January 1945 is now worth $220.94. The bond originally cost $37.50.

___A $500 EE bond from January 1980 is worth $1,561.80.

It’s important to say that older bonds have final maturity dates after which interest is not paid. In the examples above, the final maturity dates are July 1984, January 1985 and January 2010.

For information regarding bond redemptions, contact the U.S. Treasury, a local bank that sells U.S. savings bonds, a bank trust department or an attorney who specializes in elder law. Be careful! Bonds are negotiable instruments. Keep copies so you have serial numbers in case of any problems.

The Treasury Department has a calculator that can tell you how much your bonds are worth. Go to the Savings Bond Wizard download page to grab the calculator.

Given the financial turmoil we have today, maybe a return to savings bonds would not be a bad idea. My grandparents bought some when I was young and gave them to me when I entered college. A lot of money was not involved, but I was very grateful for the gift.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 3:55 am and is filed under Reverse Mortgage . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.