No public online savings bond lookup has existed since September 30, 2025, when Treasury closed its Treasury Hunt tool. Owners and heirs of lost US savings bonds now ask Treasury to search its records with FS Form 1048 (Rev. March 2026), a paper claim sent by mail.
That search takes eleven months or longer (TreasuryDirect, as of November 11, 2026). The route reaches paper and electronic US savings bonds of every series: paper bonds through Treasury's records, electronic bonds through a TreasuryDirect account.
This page sets out what closed, what Treasury still searches and the 4 identifiers it needs.
It also covers how long a search takes, where bonds in your own name can be, and how to check whether a bond was already cashed. What a bond is worth is a separate question, answered by a savings bond calculator.
ClaimMyBonds is a private, independent company, not Treasury, TreasuryDirect or a state. We cannot search Treasury's records, and no page on this site asks for your Social Security number.
Looking up what a bond is worth, not where it is? Use our savings bond calculator, built on Treasury's published value files.
Is There Still a Savings Bond Lookup? What Exists After September 30, 2025
Treasury Hunt, Treasury's free online search for unredeemed savings bonds, has not been available since September 30, 2025, and no online replacement exists. The Treasury Hunt page on TreasuryDirect states: "As of September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt® tool is no longer available."
What the closure page offers instead is a pointer. It sends readers to TreasuryDirect's forms page "for guidance on how to submit a claim."
For a bond you cannot find, that claim is FS Form 1048, the Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds. Treasury then searches its own records, which no outside website can query.
States have a narrow, separate channel, set by 31 U.S.C. 3105(f) (added by the SECURE 2.0 Act on December 29, 2022) and Treasury's rule at 89 FR 102735 (December 18, 2024).
A state receives bond records only after signing an information-sharing agreement with Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Even then, the state gets names and addresses only: no Social Security numbers, denominations or serial numbers.
It may use them only to locate owners and may not escheat the bonds, meaning take legal title to them. It also may not release the data publicly without Treasury's advance written approval (31 CFR 323.11(c)). No state is publicly known to have signed such an agreement as of November 11, 2026.
No state website, private finder or ClaimMyBonds holds a searchable list of Treasury's savings bond records. The only search of those records is the one Treasury runs when a claim arrives.
How to Find Lost or Missing Savings Bonds: 6 Steps
Finding a lost or missing savings bond takes 6 steps, and the central one is a paper claim on FS Form 1048 mailed to Treasury Retail Securities Services in Minneapolis. Treasury Retail Securities Services is the office that processes mailed savings bond requests for Treasury. The 6 steps are listed below.
- Work out whose bonds you are looking for. FS Form 1048 is signed by all persons named on the bonds or by an authorized representative. A surviving co-owner (a second owner named on the bond) or POD beneficiary (the person named to receive it when the owner dies) becomes the sole owner (31 CFR 353.70(b)(1), (c)(1)). When a deceased owner left neither, a court-appointed representative signs and adds letters of appointment, the court document naming them, dated within one year. Tell Treasury on the form if no representative has been appointed, and it sends further instructions. The wider rules for heirs are under savings bonds after death.
- Gather the identifiers Treasury needs. Without a serial number, Treasury searches by 4 identifiers, plus the buyer's Social Security number for a gift bond. The table in the next section shows how to write each one.
- Check for electronic bonds in TreasuryDirect. Electronic EE and I bonds sit in TreasuryDirect, Treasury's website for bonds held electronically, not in the paper records. Since October 28, 2026, ID.me is the only way to log in. For a deceased owner's account, contact TreasuryDirect, which puts a hold on the account. A lost-bond claim covers paper bonds; electronic savings bonds show up in the account itself.
- Complete FS Form 1048 (Rev. March 2026). Treasury estimates its 6 pages take about 20 minutes. It covers savings bonds, Savings Notes (Freedom Shares, issued 1967 to 1970), Retirement Plan Bonds and Individual Retirement Bonds. On the form you choose an electronic substitute bond (EE and I only) or payment by direct deposit. Each item is explained in our guide to FS Form 1048.
- Sign before a notary or certifying officer and attach the evidence. A certifying officer, found at a bank, trust company or credit union, confirms your identity and signature. Attach a certified death certificate for each deceased person named on the bonds; Treasury does not return it. Add a copy of the report if the bonds exceed $5,000 and police or an insurer investigated the loss. Send any remaining pieces of a destroyed bond.
- Mail it to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150, and expect eleven months or longer. Never use the Parkersburg, West Virginia address or the old P.O. Box 214. EE and I bonds issued February 2003 or later are not paid until 1 full year after issue; Treasury issues a substitute instead. A bond less than one full calendar month from final maturity, the date it stops earning interest, is paid rather than replaced, and so is a bond already past it.
What Treasury Needs to Search Without a Serial Number
Treasury can search for a bond without its serial number when you give 4 identifiers: purchase month and year, the owner's full Social Security number, full names and the address. Names should include middle names or initials, and the address means street, city and state (FS Publication 0107, Rev. August 2022).
FS Form 1048 asks for the same details in Item 1 (the form, PDF, TreasuryDirect). Item 1 accepts an exact issue date or a range of dates. It also asks for each bond's face amount (the printed value) and inscription (the names, Social Security number and address on it).
For a gift bond, add the purchaser's Social Security number. List extra bonds on FS Form 3500 or a plain sheet, and state the total number of bonds. The table below shows how to write each identifier.
| Identifier | Format to write | Where Treasury asks |
|---|---|---|
| Month and year of purchase | "June 1987", or a range such as "1985 to 1990" | FS Pub 0107; FS Form 1048 Item 1 (range allowed) |
| Owner's Social Security number | All nine digits | FS Pub 0107 |
| Names | As on the bond, with middle names or initials; add any co-owner or beneficiary | FS Pub 0107 |
| Address | As on the bond (street, city and state) | FS Pub 0107 |
| Purchaser's Social Security number (gift bonds) | The buyer's number | FS Form 1048 Item 1 |
| Face amount and number of bonds | "$50, 4 bonds" | FS Form 1048 Item 1 and instructions |
What Treasury needs to search for a savings bond without its serial number. Source: FS Publication 0107 (Rev. August 2022); FS Form 1048 (Rev. March 2026).
Searching by Social Security Number: Which Records Treasury Holds
A search by Social Security number reaches only bonds that carry one: a taxpayer identification number became required on bonds issued on or after January 1, 1974 (31 CFR 316.2(c)(1)).
TreasuryDirect's history timeline gives October 1, 1973 for the change, but the regulation's date is the rule. Bonds bought before 1974 made up 11.9% of matured unredeemed bonds in Treasury's report of June 17, 2021. For those older bonds, names and addresses carry the search.
Treasury's records are digitized from October 1957 onward, and that period holds 97% of matured unredeemed debt. Matured unredeemed debt is Treasury's term for bonds past final maturity that nobody has cashed.
Records from 1935 to September 1957, the other 3%, had not been digitized as of Treasury's Report to Congress of March 11, 2025. Never type a Social Security number into a website that promises a bond search. Treasury receives it on FS Form 1048, by mail.
The Six-Year Serial Number Rule for Older Bonds
A claim filed six years or more after a bond's final maturity is not considered unless the claimant supplies the serial number. The rule sits in 31 CFR 315.29(c) for Series E and older and 353.29(c) for paper EE and HH (eCFR as of November 6, 2026).
Paper Series I bonds have a different, absolute bar: a claim filed 10 years or more after maturity is barred (31 CFR 360.29(c)). No I bond is affected yet: the first reach final maturity in September 2028.
The six-year rule weighs most on Series E. Every Series E bond stopped earning interest by June 2010 (31 CFR 316.8(b)), so six years have passed since final maturity for every one of them.
Copy any savings bond serial number you can recover, from an old list or a photocopy, onto FS Form 1048. Treasury has not published how it applies the rule when its own records already hold the number.
How Long a Lost Savings Bond Search Takes
Treasury needs eleven months or longer to process a request to locate a lost, stolen or missing savings bond (TreasuryDirect Contact Us, as of November 11, 2026). The same page lists three months or longer to cash paper bonds in your name and five months or longer for bonds not in your name.
The savings bond phone line is 844-284-2676, toll free, Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm ET; from outside the United States, call +1 (304) 480-6464.
Owners in a declared disaster area have a shorter form: FS Form 1048 needs only parts 1, 5, 6B and 7, with "DISASTER" written on the first page and on the envelope. Treasury may also waive the 1-year holding period for EE and I bonds there.
How to Find Savings Bonds in Your Name: 3 Places They Can Be
Savings bonds in your name can be in 3 places: Treasury's paper-bond records, your TreasuryDirect account, and, rarely, a state unclaimed property office holding the paper bond. Checking all 3 answers the question "do I have savings bonds?" The table below compares them.
| Place | Which bonds | How to check | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treasury's records | Paper bonds of every series | FS Form 1048 by mail | Eleven months or longer |
| TreasuryDirect account | Electronic EE and I bonds | ID.me login; locked out of TreasuryDirect? See note 1 | Online |
| State unclaimed property office | Paper bonds the state physically holds, for example from a safe-deposit box | The state's claim process; name search for Missouri unclaimed savings bonds | Set by the state |
Note 1: ID.me has been the only TreasuryDirect login since October 28, 2026, and a successful ID.me login unlocks an account locked after failed logins. Where savings bonds in your name can be. Times: TreasuryDirect Contact Us, as of November 11, 2026.
Treasury may pay a state only for a paper bond the state physically holds at final maturity, and only at Treasury's discretion (31 CFR 315.88, 353.88; 80 FR 80258, December 24, 2015). State searches therefore find only bonds the state holds, not Treasury's records.
Missouri runs the only verified live state name search for held paper savings bonds (checked November 11, 2026), and its bonds come from abandoned safe-deposit boxes. South Dakota lists each bond from an abandoned safe-deposit box in its unclaimed property database under the owner named on the bond (SDCL 43-41B-17).
Start with the place that answers fastest. A TreasuryDirect login shows electronic bonds at once, while a search of the paper records runs eleven months or longer. An empty state result never shows that Treasury has no bonds in your name, and a paper claim on FS Form 1048 remains the only way to ask.
How to Check Whether a Savings Bond Was Already Cashed
Write a signed letter listing the bond's serial number to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150, and do not enclose the bond.
This check covers paper EE and I bonds, and only the owner or a co-owner may ask (TreasuryDirect cashing page). The letter asks Treasury whether the bond was cashed or replaced. Heirs of a deceased owner follow the death-of-owner route in step 1 above instead.
Timing matters for any dispute. A bond with no claim within 10 years of its recorded redemption is presumed properly paid (31 CFR 353.29(b) for EE and HH, 315.29(b) for Series E and older). Raise a question about a recorded payment within those 10 years.
A replaced bond changes hands for good. Once Treasury has replaced or paid a lost bond, the original belongs to the United States (31 CFR 315.28, 353.28). The paper bond must be surrendered to Treasury if it turns up later.
Savings Bond Lookup by Situation: Every Finding Route
Six situations start a savings bond lookup, and each has its own route. The table below matches each situation to what applies.
| Situation | What applies | More on it |
|---|---|---|
| Treasury Hunt closed | Treasury's former search tool, unavailable since September 30, 2025; what owners use instead | Treasury Hunt is closed |
| Matured bonds nobody cashed | 103,064,737 matured bonds, all series, uncashed on September 30, 2026 (Fiscal Data); why no name search exists | unclaimed savings bonds |
| A deceased parent's or relative's bonds | Who may ask Treasury and which documents it needs | savings bonds of a deceased parent |
| Paper bonds found at home | What to check before cashing an old bond | found old savings bonds |
| A state says it can help | What states can receive under SECURE 2.0 (31 CFR 323.11) and what they cannot do | SECURE 2.0 and savings bonds |
| State unclaimed property offices | Which states hold bonds or have savings bond statutes | savings bonds and state unclaimed property offices |
Count: Fiscal Data, savings bonds report, record date September 30, 2026.
Lost, stolen or destroyed paper bonds of any series follow one route whatever the situation: the FS Form 1048 claim in step 4 above. The count in the table is a piece count; Fiscal Data publishes it as a number of bonds, not a dollar total.
Every route in the table ends with Treasury or with a state that physically holds the paper bond. A state that locates an owner through Treasury's names and addresses cannot take title to the bond (31 CFR 323.11(c)(2)), so the owner or heir still files the claim with Treasury.
For a deceased owner's bonds, the signer follows step 1: a surviving co-owner or POD beneficiary claims as owner, and otherwise a representative signs.
Savings Bond Finders and Locators: What a Private Service Can and Cannot Do
A private savings bond finder or locator cannot search Treasury's records for you. TreasuryDirect states that Treasury has approved no third-party website or app for access to TreasuryDirect accounts.
States, for their part, may not release the bond data they receive to the public or any third party without Treasury's advance written approval (31 CFR 323.11(c)(3)).
Payment rules close the other door. Treasury pays a bond only to its registered owner or another person entitled to it (31 CFR 315.39(b), 353.39(b), 360.39(b)), and savings bonds cannot be transferred or pledged.
No finder or recovery service can therefore be paid out of the bond itself. Any fee charged by savings bond recovery services is paid by the owner or heir.
No Treasury regulation sets or caps a private helper's fee, and Treasury approves or licenses no paid service. Care is warranted: Treasury identified at least $50 million in known savings bond fraud as of September 2024 (2024 Report to Congress).
A private service can help with paperwork, documents and follow-up, while the free route stays open: FS Form 1048 is free to download from TreasuryDirect. ClaimMyBonds is one such private service. It does not look up bonds, and every claim still goes to Treasury in the owner's or heir's name.
What to Do Once You Find Your Savings Bonds
Once you find a savings bond, 4 jobs follow: value it, cash it, claim it if the owner died, and report the interest. The 4 jobs are listed below.
- Value it. Our savings bond calculator, built on Treasury's published value files, prices paper Series EE and E bonds.
- Cash it at a bank that agrees to (banks may, but need not, cash paper bonds) or by mail with FS Form 1522 (Rev. April 2026); see how to cash savings bonds.
- Claim it if the owner died. Use FS Form 5336 when no one named on the bonds is living, no court administers the estate and no state small-estate procedure has been used. The decedent's savings bonds and other Treasury securities must also total $100,000 or less (redemption value) at the date of death (31 CFR 353.71(e)). Estates settled under a state small-estate procedure use FS Form 5394 (Rev. May 2026).
- Report the interest. It is federally taxable for the year of cashing or final maturity, whichever comes first, unless reported yearly (26 U.S.C. 454); a final maturity in an earlier year makes that earlier year the one the rule names. It is exempt from state and local income tax (31 U.S.C. 3124); a tax professional applies the rules, and taxes on savings bond interest sets them out.
Savings bonds never expire, and there is no deadline to cash them (Executive Order 13968, 85 FR 83745). A bond found decades late still pays its value.
Finding Savings Bonds: Questions
Can you retrieve lost savings bonds?
Yes: after an FS Form 1048 claim, Treasury replaces a lost paper EE or I bond with an electronic bond in TreasuryDirect or pays it by direct deposit. Series HH bonds are paid only, never replaced.
How do I trace a savings bond?
Trace a savings bond by giving Treasury the identifiers on FS Form 1048: the issue month and year or a range, the owner's Social Security number, names and addresses. No online trace exists; allow eleven months or longer (as of November 11, 2026).
Do U.S. savings bonds ever expire?
No: savings bonds never expire and there is no deadline to cash them, though every bond stops earning interest at final maturity. That is 30 years for Series EE and I, and 40 or 30 years for Series E.
The date for each series is set out under when savings bonds stop earning interest.
How do I convert my paper bond?
Paper Series E, EE and I bonds of $25 or more convert to electronic bonds online through SmartExchange in TreasuryDirect, up to 50 bonds per cart. H and HH bonds cannot be converted, the change is one-way, and it takes nine months or longer (as of November 11, 2026). No paper form exists for conversion; an online conversion manifest lists the bonds.
Conversion is optional: you do not need to convert paper savings bonds to electronic before cashing them.
Is there a free savings bond lookup?
No free online savings bond lookup has existed since Treasury Hunt closed on September 30, 2025; the free route is an FS Form 1048 claim. The form is free to download from TreasuryDirect. As of September 30, 2026, 103,064,737 matured savings bonds of all series had not been cashed (Fiscal Data).
Can I look up savings bonds by serial number?
No public tool looks up a savings bond by serial number. Write the number on FS Form 1048 for a lost bond, or in a signed letter to Treasury Retail Securities Services to ask whether a bond was cashed. TreasuryDirect's calculator prices a bond without its serial number.
Can a state unclaimed property office search for my savings bonds?
A state unclaimed property office can find a savings bond only if it physically holds the paper bond. The names and addresses a state may receive from Treasury serve only to locate owners (31 CFR 323.11(c)(1)).
Can someone else ask Treasury about my savings bonds?
Treasury ordinarily discloses savings bond records to the owners, their executors, administrators or other legal representatives, or their survivors (31 CFR 323.2(b)), and also to certain government agencies, trustees and courts. An owner can authorize release to a named person on FS Form 5456, Authorization for Release of Information (Rev. April 2026).
FS Form 5456 sits with the other savings bond forms and their current revisions.
Does Treasury contact owners about uncashed bonds?
Yes: Treasury has written to and emailed owners of matured bonds, with nearly 36,000 letters in 2021 and 2022 and nearly 243,000 emails in 2024. Those counts come from Treasury's Report to Congress of March 11, 2025. Treasury has approved no third-party website or app for TreasuryDirect access, so treat a request for a fee or your Social Security number with suspicion.
More on Finding Savings Bonds
Five related topics follow a savings bond search, starting with scams: TreasuryDirect warns that bonds bought from someone else or on an auction site cannot be cashed. The 5 topics are listed below.
- savings bond scams, such as fake bonds and fake finders
- a deceased owner's TreasuryDirect account and its account hold
- types of US savings bonds, from Series A to I
- what banks cash savings bonds, with each policy dated
- FS Form 1522, for cashing paper bonds by mail