Where to Cash Patriot Bonds: Bank, Mail, and Treasury Steps

You can cash Patriot Bonds at a bank or credit union where you hold an account, or by mailing them to the U.S. Treasury’s processing center in Minneapolis with FS Form 1522. Patriot Bonds are a special edition of Series EE savings bonds sold between December 2001 and December 2011, and they follow the same redemption rules as any other Series EE bond.¹ Every Patriot Bond is a paper certificate, so redemption always means presenting the physical bond in person or sending it through the mail.

Cashing at a Bank or Credit Union

A local bank or credit union is the fastest way to redeem a Patriot Bond and walk away with the money the same day. Call the branch first and ask three things: whether they cash savings bonds at all, how much they will cash in a single visit, and what identification you need to bring.²

Most banks will only cash bonds for existing account holders. Bring your account information, the physical bond certificates, and a government-issued photo ID such as a driver’s license or passport. Branches often set their own per-visit limits on the dollar amount they will redeem. If your bonds are worth more than the branch will handle at once, you can split the redemption across multiple visits, try another institution, or use the Treasury’s mail-in process. The bank will either hand you cash or deposit the funds into your account.

Cashing by Mail Through the Treasury

If your bonds are worth more than a local bank will pay out, or you’d rather skip the bank entirely, you can mail them to the Treasury. Download FS Form 1522 from TreasuryDirect and fill in the bond serial numbers, series, your contact details, and the routing and account numbers for the bank account where you want the money deposited.²

Send the completed form and the physical bonds to:

Treasury Retail Securities Services
P.O. Box 9150
Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150³

Use certified or registered mail so you have tracking and proof of delivery. Replacing a lost bond is possible, but it adds weeks. Once the Treasury has your package, plan on at least six weeks for processing if the bonds are in your name, and at least two months if you are redeeming bonds registered to someone else.⁴ Payment normally arrives by direct deposit to the account on your form.

Documentation and Signature Certification

Every redemption, at a bank or by mail, requires the physical bond certificates, a government-issued photo ID, and your Social Security number for tax reporting. Whether you also need your signature officially certified depends on how much you’re cashing.

Bonds Worth $1,000 or Less

If the total value you’re redeeming is $1,000 or less, no signature certification is required. Sign FS Form 1522 and include a copy of your driver’s license, passport, state ID, or military ID.⁵

Bonds Worth More Than $1,000

Above $1,000, your signature must be certified by a notary public or an authorized certifying officer.⁵ Do not sign the form or the bond in advance. You have to sign in the physical presence of the notary or officer, and signing beforehand can invalidate the request.

Authorized certifying officers include bank and credit union employees who are expressly authorized by their institution, commissioned military officers, U.S. judges and court clerks, and U.S. diplomatic representatives abroad.⁶ In practice, the easiest path is a bank employee at any branch that handles savings bonds, or a local notary. Notary fees are set by state law and generally run from a few dollars up to $25 per signature.

Check the Value Before You Cash

Series EE bonds earn interest for 30 years from the issue date.¹ The earliest Patriot Bonds will stop earning interest in December 2031, and the latest in December 2041. After final maturity, a bond no longer grows, so continuing to hold it just means losing purchasing power to inflation.

Patriot Bonds issued from May 2005 onward earn a fixed rate and are guaranteed to be worth double their purchase price at the 20-year mark; if the fixed rate alone would fall short, the Treasury makes a one-time adjustment at 20 years to bring the bond up to twice its face value.⁷ Patriot Bonds issued before May 2005 may earn interest at a variable rate and do not carry the same doubling guarantee. That timing matters: if you’re close to the 20-year mark on a post-May-2005 bond, waiting a little longer may be worth real money.

To see what any Patriot Bond is worth today, use the Savings Bond Calculator on TreasuryDirect. You’ll need the series, denomination, serial number, and issue date, all printed on the face of the certificate.

Cashing a Bond Registered to a Minor

A parent can cash a Patriot Bond registered in a child’s name if all three of the following are true: you are the child’s parent, the child lives with you or you have legal custody, and the child is too young to understand the transaction.⁸

On the back of the bond, write a statement certifying that you are the parent, that the child resides with you or that you have legal custody, and the child’s age and Social Security number. Sign your name “on behalf of [child’s name], a minor.” You can then take the bond to a bank or mail it to the Treasury with FS Form 1522 at the Minneapolis address.

Cashing a Bond When the Owner Has Died

What happens next depends on how the bond was registered:

Co-owner bond: The surviving co-owner becomes the sole owner and can cash the bond after providing proof of the other co-owner’s death.⁹
Beneficiary bond: The named beneficiary becomes the sole owner on proof of the owner’s death and can redeem the bond directly.⁹
Single owner with no co-owner or beneficiary: The bond becomes part of the estate and must be redeemed through the estate settlement process.

If the total value of Treasury securities in the estate is $100,000 or less and no court administration is planned, an eligible family member can act as a voluntary representative by filing FS Form 5336.¹⁰ Above $100,000, formal court administration is required, and the appointed legal representative must provide letters of appointment dated within one year of submission.⁹

If the Bond Is Lost, Stolen, or Damaged

You can still get paid. File FS Form 1048 to request either a replacement electronic bond in a TreasuryDirect account or a direct cash payment.¹¹ Sign the form in the presence of a notary or certifying official, then mail it to the address on the form.

If you know the serial number, use the standard version of FS Form 1048. If you don’t know it and the bond was issued in 1974 or later, run a search on the Treasury Hunt tool at TreasuryDirect, which can locate your bonds and produce a version of the form pre-filled with what it finds. For bonds issued before 1974 without known serial numbers, a separate version of the form is available. Once a lost bond has been replaced or cashed, the original certificate belongs to the U.S. government; if you find it later, mail it to Treasury Retail Securities Services in Minneapolis.

Taxes on the Interest

Interest on Patriot Bonds is subject to federal income tax but exempt from state and local income tax.¹² Only the growth above your original purchase price is taxable.

Most owners defer reporting the interest until they cash the bonds or the bonds reach final maturity, whichever comes first. When one of those happens, you’ll receive IRS Form 1099-INT showing the total interest earned over the bond’s life. If a bank cashes the bond, the bank issues the 1099-INT at redemption or by January 31 of the following year; if the Treasury processes the redemption, it mails the 1099-INT by January 31 of the following year.¹²

If your total taxable interest for the year exceeds $1,500, complete Schedule B and attach it to your tax return.¹³ At $1,500 or less, it goes on the “Interest” line of your return. If you’re using the bond proceeds to pay qualified higher education expenses, you may be able to exclude some or all of the interest from federal tax by filing IRS Form 8815 with your return; the exclusion has age, registration, filing-status, and income requirements you’ll want to check against the current year’s form.¹⁴

1
TreasuryDirect. EE Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Cashing EE or I Savings Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Historical and Retired Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Home – TreasuryDirect
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TreasuryDirect. FS Form 1522 – Special Form of Request for Payment
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eCFR. 31 CFR 360.55 – Individuals Authorized to Certify
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TreasuryDirect. Comparing EE and I Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Cashing Paper Bonds for a Young Child
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eCFR. 31 CFR Part 315 Subpart L – Deceased Owner, Coowner or Beneficiary
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TreasuryDirect. FS Form 5336 – Disposition of Treasury Securities Belonging to a Decedent’s Estate
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TreasuryDirect. Get Help for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Savings Bond
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TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds
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Internal Revenue Service. Savings Bonds
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TreasuryDirect. Using Bonds for Higher Education