What Are US Savings Bonds? An Independent Guide to What They Are Worth and How to Cash or Claim Them

US savings bonds are registered, non-transferable bonds issued by the US Treasury since March 1935, paid only to the owner named on the bond or the person entitled after a death.

On September 30, 2026, 103,064,737 paper savings bonds had reached final maturity, the date their interest stops, and were still not cashed. That count comes from Treasury's own Fiscal Data records.

ClaimMyBonds is a private, independent guide to US savings bonds. We are not the government, and we are not Treasury, TreasuryDirect or Treasury Hunt. Most owners and heirs come with one of 3 jobs: learn what a bond is worth, cash it, or find and claim lost or inherited bonds.

The first job needs 3 details from the bond: its series, face value and issue date, the same inputs any savings bond calculator uses. Enter them in our savings bond calculator, built on Treasury's published value files, for the value in November 2026.

The 3 jobs each have a section on this page.

• Value: what your savings bonds are worth today
• Cashing: how owners cash savings bonds
• Finding and claiming: lost bonds and a relative's bonds

US Savings Bonds Defined: A Registered Loan to the US Treasury That Cannot Be Sold

A United States savings bond is a non-marketable Treasury security registered to named people, bought at a set price and worth that price plus interest when cashed. Non-marketable means the bond cannot be traded on a market, as a Treasury bill or note can.

The law behind savings bonds is 31 U.S.C. 3105, and the first bonds were issued on March 1, 1935, under the Act of February 4, 1935. In plain terms, the owner lends money to the US Treasury, and Treasury repays it with interest when the owner cashes the bond.

Registration is what sets a savings bond apart from cash. A savings bond is not transferable and cannot be pledged as security for a loan.

The rules are 31 CFR 353.15 and 353.16 for Series EE and the same sections of Parts 315 and 360 for older series and paper I bonds. It is therefore never sold or traded the way a marketable Treasury bond is.

Treasury pays a bond only to the registered owner or another person entitled to it, such as a surviving co-owner or an heir (31 CFR 353.39(b)). Finding a bond gives the finder no right to its money.

Face value, the amount printed on the bond, is often not what it pays. The redemption value, the amount Treasury pays on the day you cash it, depends on the series and the issue date.

Paper and Electronic Savings Bonds

Savings bonds exist in 2 forms: paper bonds, issued over the counter until January 1, 2012, and electronic bonds held in TreasuryDirect accounts since 2002. Paper Series EE bonds carry issue dates from January 1980 to December 2011.

Paper Series I bonds were sold over the counter and through payroll plans from September 1998 to December 2011. Paper I bonds also came with federal tax refunds through IRS Form 8888 until January 1, 2025. A paper I bond dated 2012 to 2024 from a tax refund is therefore genuine.

TreasuryDirect is Treasury's website for buying and holding electronic bonds. Electronic EE and I bonds are sold at face value, from a $25 minimum, up to $10,000 per series per calendar year (31 CFR 363.52(a)).

An owner manages and cashes electronic bonds online, with no paper certificate. Since October 28, 2026, TreasuryDirect login works only through ID.me, an identity-verification service. A paper bond stays paper until the owner cashes it or converts it to an electronic bond.

Who Owns a Savings Bond: Owner, OR Co-Owner and POD Beneficiary

A paper savings bond names an owner and may add one co-owner, joined by "OR", or one payable-on-death beneficiary, marked "P.O.D.", and those names decide who can cash it (31 CFR 353.5 and 353.7). An "AND" registration is not authorized. A "Mail to" name on the bond gives that person no ownership.

The POD beneficiary, the person who receives the bond at the owner's death, has no rights while the owner lives. At death, a surviving co-owner or POD beneficiary becomes the sole owner, and the bond is not part of the estate (31 CFR 353.70(b)(1) and (c)(1)). A will cannot defeat this survivorship (31 CFR 353.20(a)).

The US Supreme Court upheld the federal rule over a conflicting state law in Free v. Bland, 369 U.S. 663 (1962). An heir therefore reads the names on the bond before the will. Learning how to read a paper savings bond starts with its owner, co-owner and beneficiary lines.

Which US Savings Bonds Still Earn Interest in November 2026

Of the main series, 2 still earn interest in November 2026: Series I bonds and Series EE bonds less than 30 years old. Every other main series has stopped: Series A to D, E, F, G, H, J, K, the Savings Notes and, since August 2024, all Series HH.

Retirement Plan Bonds and Individual Retirement Bonds are the one open case, because TreasuryDirect says some may still earn. Table 1 lists every series an owner can still hold, with its issue dates, price and interest status.

Table 1: US savings bond series and earning status, November 2026

Every US savings bond series an owner can still hold, with issue dates, price and interest status in November 2026. Sources: TreasuryDirect historical and retired bonds page; 31 CFR parts 315, 316, 351, 352, 359; Fiscal Data Savings Bonds Value Files, updated November 2, 2026. Identification details for each series: types of US savings bonds.

A bond that has stopped earning interest keeps its final value and stays payable. A paper EE bond issued in November 1996, for example, reached 30 years on November 1, 2026, and a $100 bond of that month is now fixed at $128.64.

Patriot Bonds, war bonds and Gulf Coast Recovery Bonds are designations of Series EE, E and I, not separate series. A bond from the 1940s to the 1970s is a Series E bond, never an "EE" bond, because Series EE began with January 1980 issues.

Does Treasury Still Issue Paper Savings Bonds?

No: Treasury stopped issuing paper savings bonds over the counter on January 1, 2012, and the last route to paper bonds, federal tax refunds, ended on January 1, 2025. New Series EE and I bonds are electronic only and are held in TreasuryDirect accounts (76 FR 66855, October 28, 2011). Series E sales had ended much earlier, with June 1980 as the last issue month. Paper bonds already issued keep their full standing: Treasury still pays them, at the redemption value for their series and issue month.

Job 1: What Your Savings Bonds Are Worth Today

A $100 paper Series EE bond is worth $54.76 to $334.80 in November 2026, and a $100 Series E bond $362.36 to $936.44, depending on the issue month. The lowest EE value belongs to December 2011 issues, the highest to May to October 1980 issues.

For Series E, May 1941 issues are worth the least and December 1964 and January 1965 issues the most.

These values come from the Savings Bonds Value Files of the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, published on Fiscal Data and updated November 2, 2026. A bond's value can change only on the 1st of a month (31 CFR 351.3).

Series E values are frozen because every Series E bond stopped earning interest by June 2010. Issues from May 1941 to November 1965 earned for 40 years, and later issues for 30 years (31 CFR 316.8(b)). Every Series EE and I bond stops earning 30 years after its issue date (31 CFR 351.5 and 359.5).

That last date is final maturity; original maturity is an earlier milestone and does not stop interest. Rates differ by issue period and belong to the Series EE and Series I pages, so this page prints none. Final maturity dates for every series show when savings bonds stop earning interest.

Paper EE bonds from 56 issue months, May 2007 to December 2011, are worth less than face value in November 2026. These bonds cost half of face, and they have not lost value.

Each one keeps earning and reaches at least face at 20 years, in May 2027 to December 2031 (31 CFR 351.35(f)(1)). A $100 bond issued in May 2007 is worth $96.44 in November 2026 and reaches $100.00 in May 2027.

Four details on the bond set its value: the series, the face value, the issue month and the issue year. The issue date is the first day of the month the bond was paid for (31 CFR 351.42 for EE; 316.2(c) for E).

The serial number is not needed to find the value. Two bonds of the same series, face and issue month are worth the same amount, whoever owns them.

Job 2: How Owners Cash Savings Bonds at a Bank, by Mail or Online

Owners cash paper savings bonds at a bank that offers the service or by mail to Treasury with FS Form 1522, and electronic bonds online in TreasuryDirect.

Each route has its own paperwork, and the guide on how to cash savings bonds walks through it route by route. Table 2 compares the 3 ways to cash a savings bond by the bonds each takes, what you need and the cost.

Table 2: 3 ways to cash a savings bond

Sources: FS Publication 0022 (Rev. October 2022); 31 CFR 321; FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026); TreasuryDirect, checked November 11, 2026.

Banks may cash paper savings bonds but are not required to (FS Publication 0022, revised October 2022). A bank that cashes them may not pay Series H, HH, F, G, J or K bonds (31 CFR 321.7(a)).

It may not accept an image or copy of a bond, so mobile and ATM deposits do not work (321.25). It also may not charge you a fee for cashing (321.23(c)). Only supervised, deposit-taking financial institutions can cash savings bonds, so Walmart and check-cashing stores cannot (321.2(a)).

Treasury charges no fee for bonds cashed by mail and pays by direct deposit only. FS Form 1522 (revised April 2026) goes to Treasury Retail Securities Services, the Treasury office that handles paper bond requests by mail.

The form needs a notary or a certifying officer, such as a bank officer who certifies signatures, only when the total current redemption value is more than $1,000.

At $1,000 or less, you sign and enclose a copy of your driver's license, passport, state ID or military ID. TreasuryDirect lists 3 months or longer to cash paper bonds in your name and 5 months or longer for bonds not in your name (as of November 11, 2026).

Savings bond interest is federally taxable for the year you cash the bond or the year it reaches final maturity, whichever comes first, unless you reported it yearly (26 U.S.C. 454; 26 CFR 1.454-1(a)(1)). For a bond that reached final maturity in an earlier year, that earlier year is the year the rule names.

The interest is exempt from state and local income tax (31 U.S.C. 3124(a)). Form 1099-INT, the yearly interest statement, shows savings bond interest in box 3. A tax professional advises on individual returns; the federal rules are set out under are savings bonds taxable.

Series HH bonds follow a separate route: Treasury alone pays them, by mail, at face value. Every HH bond stopped earning interest by August 1, 2024. An HH owner, or an heir the bond has been distributed to, mails FS Form 1522, and Treasury pays by direct deposit.

Job 3: Finding Lost Savings Bonds and Claiming a Relative's Bonds After Treasury Hunt

No public online search for lost savings bonds has existed since September 30, 2025, when Treasury Hunt closed; owners and heirs now claim lost, stolen or destroyed bonds on FS Form 1048 (revised March 2026).

TreasuryDirect says it plainly on its Treasury Hunt page: "As of September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt® tool is no longer available." Treasury has published no online replacement. FS Form 1048 (the form, PDF, TreasuryDirect) is a paper claim mailed to Treasury Retail Securities Services.

TreasuryDirect lists lost bond searches at 11 months or longer (as of November 11, 2026). A claim filed 6 years or more after a bond's final maturity needs the bond's serial number (31 CFR 315.29(c) and 353.29(c)).

Every lost Series E bond, Series H bond and Savings Note is now past that point. A list or photocopy of serial numbers therefore matters for any old lost bond. The routes to find lost or missing savings bonds depend on which records survive.

States may receive bond owner names and addresses from Treasury only under an information-sharing agreement, and only to locate owners (31 CFR 323.11; 89 FR 102735, December 18, 2024). A state may not use the records to escheat bonds, meaning to take title to them.

It also may not release the records to the public or third parties without Treasury's advance written approval. Serial numbers and Social Security numbers are not shared.

No state is publicly known to have signed an agreement as of November 11, 2026. Missouri runs the only verified live state name search, and it covers paper bonds the state holds.

There were 103,064,737 matured, uncashed paper savings bonds on September 30, 2026, according to Fiscal Data. They include 82,673,787 Series EE bonds, 19,751,346 Series E bonds and 134,218 Savings Notes. Treasury has issued more than 6.8 billion paper savings bonds since 1935.

About 1% of them stayed uncashed 3 or more years after final maturity, according to Treasury's 2023 Report to Congress under the SECURE 2.0 Act, dated February 12, 2024. A matured bond earns nothing while it waits, but it stays payable.

Treasury launched Treasury Hunt on February 5, 2001, decommissioned it in 2017 and reactivated it in December 2019. In August 2023 Treasury extended the search to all unredeemed bonds issued since 1957.

No state database or private service replaces it, ours included. Because Treasury Hunt is closed, owners and heirs now start from the bonds, lists and papers they already hold.

Free Routes Owners and Heirs Use Instead

5 free routes cover most lost and inherited bonds, and neither Treasury nor a state charges a fee for any of them. The 5 routes below each match one situation, from a destroyed bond to a relative's estate.

1. File FS Form 1048 (Rev. March 2026) for lost, stolen or destroyed bonds.
2. Let the survivor cash or keep a co-owned or POD bond: the surviving co-owner or beneficiary owns these inherited bonds outright.
3. Use FS Form 5336 when no one named on the bond is alive, the estate is not administered and the bonds total $100,000 or less at the date of death.
4. Ask the state unclaimed property office whether it physically holds the bond, because Treasury may pay unclaimed savings bonds that a state holds (31 CFR 315.88, 353.88).
5. Refuse any finder who says it has Treasury's list: states may not release the records (31 CFR 323.11(c)), and that claim marks one of the savings bond scams to avoid.

Savings Bond Claim Help and Forms: What ClaimMyBonds Is and Is Not

ClaimMyBonds is a private company, not the government, and it is not Treasury, TreasuryDirect, a state or Treasury Hunt. TreasuryDirect states that there are no Treasury-approved apps or third-party websites for TreasuryDirect account access.

The page about ClaimMyBonds describes who runs this private savings bond guide. We have no access to Treasury's bond records, and we never claim to.

Our request form never asks for Social Security numbers, bond serial numbers, scans of bonds or ID documents, and the site takes no payments.

Claims that a birth certificate number unlocks savings bonds owed to you are false, according to TreasuryDirect. Treasury pays a bond only to its registered owner or the person entitled to it, never to a finder.

Claiming from Treasury and from state programs costs nothing, and the forms are free. FS Form 1522, FS Form 1048 and FS Form 5336 all come from TreasuryDirect, and Treasury charges no fee to process them.

Our paid help adds the paperwork, tracing and follow-up for owners and heirs who prefer not to handle a claim alone, for a flat fee plus a success fee, both invoiced only after you have been paid (amounts on request). What that service covers is set out under savings bond claim help.

Savings Bond Questions

Seven questions owners and heirs ask most about savings bonds are answered below.

Do savings bonds stop earning interest after 30 years?

Yes: Series EE and I bonds stop earning interest 30 years after their issue date, and Series E bonds stopped at 40 or 30 years (31 CFR 351.5, 359.5, 316.8(b)). No EE bond stops at 20 years. For EE bonds issued June 2003 or later, 20 years is only the point where the bond reaches at least face value.

Are savings bonds FDIC insured?

No: savings bonds are not FDIC-insured bank deposits; TreasuryDirect describes them as "Backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government." The FDIC is not named on TreasuryDirect's savings bond page. A bank that cashes your bond only pays it out for Treasury.

Do savings bonds expire?

No: savings bonds never expire, and there is no deadline to cash them (Executive Order 13968, 85 FR 83745, December 23, 2020). A bond past final maturity earns nothing more, so its value stays fixed. A Series E bond from 1941 is still payable today.

Can I sell or give away a savings bond?

You cannot sell, trade or pledge a savings bond (31 CFR 353.15, 353.16); to give one to someone else, the owner asks Treasury to reissue it. An owner can only cash a bond or have it reissued. Since February 14, 2014, paper EE and I bonds are reissued only as electronic bonds in a TreasuryDirect account (31 CFR 353.48(a)). The owner files an FS Form 4000 request to reissue savings bonds, revised April 2026.

Are old savings bonds worth anything?

Yes: every Series E bond is worth more than its face value, and a $50 Series E is worth $181.18 to $468.22, frozen at final maturity. A $50 paper EE bond is worth $27.38 to $167.40 in November 2026, by issue month. War bonds are Series E bonds with the same values as any Series E of the same issue month. Issue-year tables show how much a $50 savings bond is worth in each series.

When did I bonds start?

Series I bonds started on September 1, 1998 (31 CFR 359.0). The first I bonds reach final maturity in September 2028, 30 years after issue, so no I bond has stopped earning interest. Fiscal Data counted 0 matured, uncashed Series I bonds on September 30, 2026.

Can I cash a savings bond at a bank where I have no account?

A bank may cash savings bonds for a non-customer, but no bank is required to. Treasury's guidance for banks, FS Publication 0022 (revised October 2022), makes cashing for non-customers optional. The Secret Service recommends a 12-month customer relationship, a recommendation and not a Treasury rule. FS Form 1522 by mail needs no bank's agreement; Treasury pays by direct deposit. Policies of banks that cash savings bonds without an account change, so ask the branch first.

More Savings Bond Guides

ClaimMyBonds answers each savings bond question in depth on a separate page. The 6 follow-up topics below run from one bank's cashing rules to the bonds of a deceased parent.

• Does Chase cash savings bonds
• Savings bond forms
• Found old savings bonds
• State unclaimed property offices
• When to cash savings bonds
• Savings bonds of a deceased parent

Where Our Savings Bond Facts Come From

Every fact on ClaimMyBonds comes from primary sources: TreasuryDirect, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service and Fiscal Data, eCFR, the Federal Register, the IRS and state agencies. Each value carries its redemption month, and each rule its instrument and date.

The values on this page apply to November 2026 and come from Value Files updated November 2, 2026. Our editorial policy explains how we choose sources, stay independent and correct errors.