Wouldn’t it be great if a windfall of cash just magically appeared by your bedside one morning? 

Well, that might not happen, but Treasuryhunt.gov, a website maintained by the government, has thousands of unclaimed bonds that they are trying to get to the proper owners. Accoring to the website, every year 25,000 payments are returned to the Department of Treasury when they are deemed undeliverable. Treasuryhunt.gov has a database of such bonds online that a user can access by typing in his/hers Social Security number or an Employee Identification number. If a bond comes up, the website also offers claim forms that need to be filled out in order to recieve the bond. 

One problem with Treasuryhunt.org is that it is not a complete database, users can only search for series E bonds issued from 1974 and on. So what should a person do when they really believe they have an unclaimed jackpot but Treasuryhunt.gov isn’t showing any bonds in their name? According to Suite 101, they can contact the the U.S. Treasury and complete forms 1048 or form 3062-4 to see if the government has any money waiting for them. 

In addition to unclaimed bonds that the U.S. Treasury has, according to Suite 101 many states also have millions of unclaimed money that a person can find on state websites. Suite 101 reports that the states with the most unclaimed funds are Arizona, California and New Jersey. While these services are great for people that live in the United States, people living in Canada also have a similar service.