Found in abandoned safety deposit boxes, vintage baseball cards. A 17th-Century Bible. A Civil War soldier’s journal. Gold coins, sparkling jewelry and lots of cash money. Some of these valuables may belong to you.
All of these items and much more were discovered inside safe deposit boxes presumed abandoned because the financial institutions holding them recorded no activity regarding the boxes for more than five years. Once presumed abandoned, assets in the safe deposit boxes are turned over to the State Treasurer’s Office.
“Each year, my office receives the contents of approximately 1,000 safe deposit boxes that are turned over to our Unclaimed Property Program. Our staff works diligently to locate the rightful owners of the contents of safe deposit boxes and return their unclaimed property. Through various methods such as newspaper ads, public service announcements, online searches, and other public outreach, we alert Missourians that the state may be holding their personal property.”
If you are not familiar with safe deposit boxes, they are secure, individual containers that banks rent to customers to store for safekeeping inside the institution’s vault. Such boxes may hold bonds and stocks, collectibles, insurance policies, real estate documents, vehicle titles, jewelry, and other valuable items. There are an estimated 25 million safe deposit boxes in use across the United States. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, safe deposit boxes became a better option for hiding property under rugs, within mattresses, inside trunks, or burying in a jar in the backyard.
When the State Treasurer’s Office receives the contents of a safe deposit box, my staff opens the box and conducts an inventory – and there are frequently surprises about the variety of contents. You may not have rented a safe deposit box, but perhaps you inherited its contents from a relative. Some items may have sentimental value, and some may be worth a lot of money.
“Once we have completed an exhaustive search for the rightful owners, which generally takes several years, my office holds public auctions to sell to the highest bidder the items of value contained in safe deposit boxes. The only non-cash unclaimed items we never sell are military medals and insignia, which we still hope to return to the owners someday. The money raised from an auction is held by the state and may still be claimed by the rightful owner of the unclaimed property.”
If you haven’t recently visited your safe deposit box, I would encourage you to do so. You might be surprised to learn that the contents in your safe deposit box may have been considered abandoned and turned over to the State Treasurer’s Office.
“As Missouri State Treasurer, I would like for you to come get your money. The fastest and most efficient way to check to see if you have Unclaimed Property is to search the Missouri State Treasurer’s database on the Show Me Money website.”
