On a paper Series EE savings bond, the serial number is printed in the lower right corner of the certificate as an alphanumeric code. If your bond is electronic, the number lives in your TreasuryDirect account under Current Holdings. And if the paper bond itself is missing, you don’t actually need the serial number to recover it: the Bureau of the Fiscal Service can search its records using your Social Security Number and reissue the bond electronically.
Where the Number Appears on a Paper Bond
Paper EE bonds were issued from 1980 through 2012. On every one of them, the serial number sits in the lower right corner of the face of the certificate.1TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Calculator – Detailed Instructions It’s a mix of letters and numbers that identifies the denomination, the individual bond, and the series.
Write it down and store the record somewhere separate from the bond itself. If the certificate is ever lost or destroyed, having that number on hand turns a records search into a straightforward reissue.
Finding It in TreasuryDirect
Since 2012, all new EE bonds have been electronic-only.2TreasuryDirect. EE Bonds There is no paper certificate to inspect, because the bond is a record in the TreasuryDirect system.
Log in to your account and open Current Holdings. Select the bond you want to see, and the detail view lists the serial number along with the issue date, current value, and interest rate.
If you’ve lost your login, the site can verify you through your linked email and personal details. The bonds stay in the account whether or not you can currently sign in.
You Don’t Need the Serial Number to Look Up a Bond’s Value
This trips people up. The Treasury’s Savings Bond Calculator computes the current value of a paper bond from three inputs: the series, the denomination, and the issue date.3TreasuryDirect. Paper Savings Bond Calculator The serial number is not required.
The number matters for two things: telling your bonds apart when you own several, and filing a replacement claim. If all you want is a dollar figure, you can get that without it.
Filing a Claim When the Bond Is Lost
If the paper bond has been lost, stolen, or destroyed, replacement runs through FS Form 1048, “Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds.”4TreasuryDirect. Manage Bonds – Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Bonds It’s the same form whether or not you have the serial number.
The form asks for your Social Security Number, the names printed on the bond exactly as they appeared (including any co-owner or beneficiary), the approximate issue date, and the denomination. Rough estimates are usable. If you know you bought a $100 bond at a bank in the late 1990s, that’s enough for the Bureau to work with. Include the serial number if you have it; the claim processes faster, but the form functions without it.
You must sign the completed form in front of a notary public or an authorized certifying officer.4TreasuryDirect. Manage Bonds – Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Bonds Officers at most banks and credit unions qualify as certifying officers under federal regulation, and they typically do this at no charge for account holders.5eCFR. 31 CFR 315.55 – Individuals Authorized to Certify A notary works too, though notary fees vary by state, generally running between $2 and $25.
Mail the signed form to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150.6TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1048 – Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds When the Bureau verifies the claim, it reissues the lost paper bond as an electronic bond inside a TreasuryDirect account. Paper replacements are no longer printed.4TreasuryDirect. Manage Bonds – Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Bonds If you don’t already have an account, the Bureau will send instructions to set one up.
Recovering a Bond When You Don’t Know the Number
The path depends on when the bond was issued.
Bonds Issued Before 1974
For pre-1974 bonds, the Bureau provides a version of FS Form 1048 built for claims filed without a serial number. Fill in everything you do know, get your signature certified, and mail it in. The Bureau searches its records from the identifying information you provide.4TreasuryDirect. Manage Bonds – Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Bonds
Bonds Issued 1974 or Later
This changed recently. Until September 30, 2025, the Treasury Hunt tool let you search for bonds online by Social Security Number. That tool is gone. Under Section 122 of the SECURE 2.0 Act, the Treasury has been transferring unclaimed bond data to state governments, and individual states’ unclaimed property programs now handle these searches.7TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt
Start at unclaimed.org, the site run by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, and pick your state. MissingMoney.com searches several state databases at once and is worth trying as well. You’ll generally need the bond owner’s full legal name and state of residence at the time of purchase. If the state locates a bond, it walks you through the claim.
If your bond hasn’t matured yet and hasn’t been handed off to a state program, you can still file FS Form 1048 directly with the Bureau of the Fiscal Service. Include every detail you have. The Bureau’s records are indexed by Social Security Number, so it can trace bonds that way. Just expect the timeline to stretch.
What the Search Costs and How Long It Takes
The Bureau doesn’t charge a fee to search for or replace a lost savings bond.6TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1048 – Claim for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed United States Savings Bonds Your only out-of-pocket cost is signature certification, and that’s often free through your bank.
Time is another matter. Requests to search for lost or missing savings bonds take at least seven months to process.8TreasuryDirect. TreasuryDirect Home Claims filed with the serial number move faster than those requiring a full records search, which is the practical reason to write the number down while you still have the bond in your hand.
Check Whether the Bond Is Still Earning Before You Search
All Series EE bonds reach final maturity 30 years after their issue date and stop accruing interest at that point.9eCFR. 31 CFR Part 351 Subpart B – Maturities, Redemption Values, and Investment Yields of Series EE Savings Bonds Every paper EE bond issued before May 1995 has now stopped earning. Bonds issued May 1995 or later mature 30 years from their issue date.
A bond sitting past maturity isn’t growing. You’ll owe federal income tax on the accumulated interest in the year you finally redeem it, whether that’s the year it matured or years later.10TreasuryDirect. Changing Information About EE or I Savings Bonds (Reissuing) If the bond you’re chasing is already matured, the recovery is still worthwhile, but there’s no reason to delay cashing it once you have it back.