Released Nov. 11, 2005

CHARLESTON – An 84-year-old South Charleston woman discovered her father’s name on a U.S. Savings Bond pictured in a newspaper. Now Anne McConihay wants to recover that unclaimed bond and 15 others worth about $3,000, State Treasurer John Perdue says.

McConihay said a friend alerted her to a Nov. 4 Charleston Gazette article concerning Operation Rightful Owner, an effort by state treasurers across the country to return some $14 billion in unclaimed and matured savings bonds.

“It was a great surprise to see my dad’s name and sister’s name there,” she said. “I had heard things about those bonds through the years but never saw any of them.” McConihay said she also owned bonds bought by her father but doesn’t exactly recall what became of them.

Perdue’s staff is mailing her a claim form for the bonds in her sister’s name.

As for the treasurers’ quest to attempt to return the bonds, McConihay said, “I’d go after them hard.”

Perdue’s office has the 16 bonds bought by McConihay’s father Daniel, for McConihay’s deceased sister Celestial Albertson. The treasury also has other federal savings bonds, recovered from various safe deposit boxes.

But the records across the country to millions more unclaimed bonds are unavailable to state treasuries, because the U.S. Treasury has maintained custody of the bonds. Treasurers are lining up sponsorships and federal legislation that would transfer the return of such bonds to states.

“Ms. McConihay’s situation is a perfect example of why states should be given the responsibility of returning these bonds,” Perdue said. “This money belongs to people, not the federal government. And states already have the systems and expertise in place to complete this mission.”

West Virginia is consistently among the state’s leaders in the rate of unclaimed property return. It returned 72 percent in 2003 to lead the country.

Perdue’s office has not traditionally listed the relatively few U.S. savings bonds it has in custody in its quarterly unclaimed property bulletins, because of the jurisdiction issue. In McConihay’s case, questions of final ownership must still be clarified.

Another heir of Albertson’s could materialize, for instance. McConihay’s father and siblings are deceased.

The treasurer, however, pointed out that McConihay’s claim is another step in raising awareness of the issue.