Public Debt Adds Matured Notes and Bonds to Treasury Hunt

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 9, 2001

The Bureau of the Public Debt expanded its popular Treasury Hunt Web site by adding information on some 14,000 matured marketable notes and bonds still held by investors. The $54 million in matured Treasuries are held by about 10,000 investors. A registered Treasury note or bond is a paper security inscribed with the owner's name with records maintained by Public Debt. Treasury stopped issuing registered paper securities in 1986 with the advent of TreasuryDirect.

To check if you may have a matured registered note or bond, simply enter the Taxpayer Identification Number of the owner, either a Social Security Number for individuals, or an Employer Identification Number for trusts and organizations. Some 93 percent of these matured notes and bonds are registered in the names of individuals. The remainder are registered in the names of organizations such as churches, service and fraternal organizations or businesses. If there is a potential match, all the visitor to Treasury Hunt need do is provide some basic contact information and Public Debt's staff will follow up.

Treasury Hunt, at www.savingsbonds.gov, also lets the public search for undeliverable savings bonds and interest payments, along with matured Series E, H, and HH savings bonds. The public conducted more than 350,000 searches on the site since it went live in February 2001.

Investors who still hold $450 million in registered, paper Treasury bonds that have not yet reached maturity can make the SmartExhange and take advantage of the safety and convenience of maintaining their holdings in TreasuryDirect. Once investors convert their holdings to TreasuryDirect, they no longer have to be concerned about safekeeping paper securities. TreasuryDirect also offers payment by Direct Deposit and reinvestment options.