What Is a Bond Serial Number and Where to Find It?

A bond serial number is the unique alphanumeric code the U.S. Treasury assigns to every savings bond it issues, and you’ll find it in the lower right corner of a paper certificate or listed next to each holding in your TreasuryDirect account. It’s how the government tells your specific bond apart from every other one ever printed, and you’ll need it for almost anything you want to do with the bond, from checking its value to reporting it lost.

What the Serial Number Is For

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which manages the public debt, stamps a serial number on every individual savings bond at the time of issue.1U.S. Department of the Treasury. Bonds and Securities That number follows the bond through its entire life. It’s what the Treasury uses to match your bond to its records of who owns it, what it’s currently worth, and whether it has already been redeemed.

Federal regulations require this tracking for both Series EE bonds (31 CFR Part 353) and Series I bonds (31 CFR Part 360).2eCFR. 31 CFR Part 360 – Regulations Governing Definitive United States Savings Bonds, Series I When you file a claim for a lost bond, for example, the rules specifically require you to identify each bond by its serial number.

Where to Find It on a Paper Bond

On a paper savings bond certificate, the serial number is printed in the lower right corner.3TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Calculator – Detailed Instructions The format is consistent: a letter indicating the denomination, followed by a string of digits, ending with a letter indicating the series.4TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Valuation and Verification for Financial Institutions

Don’t confuse the serial number with the series designation. The series (like “EE” or “I”) is printed separately in the upper right corner of the certificate, and it tells you the type of bond rather than identifying that particular one.

Because paper certificates can be lost, damaged, or destroyed, it’s worth keeping a separate record of your serial numbers somewhere the bonds aren’t. A spreadsheet, a photograph of each certificate, or a printed list stored in a different location all work. Without that record, filing a claim later becomes considerably harder.

Where to Find It in TreasuryDirect

If you purchased savings bonds electronically or converted paper bonds to electronic form, the serial numbers live inside your TreasuryDirect account. Log in at TreasuryDirect.gov and go to ManageDirect, the central dashboard for account actions.5TreasuryDirect. ManageDirect Your current holdings screen lists each bond with its serial number, series, issue date, and current value alongside it.

Savings Bonds Use Serial Numbers, Not CUSIPs

If you also hold marketable Treasury securities such as Treasury bills, notes, or bonds purchased through auction, those don’t have serial numbers. They use a different identifier called a CUSIP number, which stands for Committee for Uniform Security Identification Procedures. A CUSIP is a nine-character code that identifies the type of security and its maturity date, and the same system is used for stocks and corporate bonds.6TreasuryDirect. Marketable Securities Glossary for TreasuryDirect Account Holders Savings bonds do not have CUSIPs. If you’re looking at a savings bond, the number you want is the serial number.

When You’ll Actually Need It

A handful of common transactions all ask for the serial number:

The serial number and issue date together also tell you when a bond stops earning interest. Both Series EE and Series I bonds earn interest for 30 years from the issue date, after which they reach final maturity and accrue nothing further.9TreasuryDirect. Comparing EE and I Bonds Once you know the serial number and issue date, that 30-year clock is easy to track.

If You Can’t Find the Serial Number

You can still file a claim without the serial number, but the path depends on when the bond was issued. For bonds issued before 1974, TreasuryDirect provides a special version of FS Form 1048 designed for claims without serial numbers.10TreasuryDirect. Get Help for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Savings Bonds For bonds issued in 1974 or later, inquiries about unclaimed or unredeemed securities now go through your state’s unclaimed property program. The Treasury Hunt search tool, which previously let you look up bonds by Social Security number, was retired on September 30, 2025 under the SECURE Act 2.0.11TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt

To search state records, start with your state’s unclaimed property office, which you can locate through unclaimed.org. Each state has access to the Treasury’s database of unredeemed or matured securities. Before you contact them, gather the original purchaser’s full legal name, the state of residence at the time the bond was purchased, and any supporting documentation such as a death certificate.

When you do submit FS Form 1048, the form asks for more than just the serial number. You’ll list the inscription information (the names and Social Security numbers of the people named on the bond, plus their addresses) and the loss details (when the loss was discovered, who last had the bonds, where they were kept, and whether a police report was filed). Replacement EE and I bonds are issued in electronic form through TreasuryDirect rather than as new paper certificates.12TreasuryDirect. Non-Administered Estates Providing false information on these federal forms is a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1001 – Statements or Entries Generally

Mail-in requests take time. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service currently lists a minimum of six weeks to cash paper bonds in your name, at least seven months for searches involving lost, stolen, or missing bonds, and two months or more for other paper bond transactions not in your name.14TreasuryDirect. Contact Us – Processing Times Recording your serial numbers now, while you have the certificates in hand, is the single easiest way to avoid that wait later.