HARRISBURG- Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced today that Treasury’s spring unclaimed property auction brought in more than $262,000. All proceeds are carefully logged by Treasury and will remain available for the rightful owners to claim no matter how much time passes.
“This is another tremendously successful auction, and I’m pleased that it generated such an incredible result,” Treasurer Garrity said. “We work for at least three years to find the rightful owners of every item that comes to Treasury’s vault. But eventually, we have to auction items to make room in our vault for incoming property. All auction proceeds are held in perpetuity at Treasury for a rightful owner to claim anytime – whether that’s tomorrow, a few months from now, or many years down the road.”
Nearly 4,400 items were sold during the auction that took place online in March this year. Treasury partners with Pook & Pook, Inc., of Downingtown for auctioneer and appraisal services.
The top price for an item was $18,000 for 27.22 ounces of palladium (a form of platinum). Other high-price items included:
- 18K yellow gold bracelet with 14K yellow gold charms sold for $4,600
- 14K white gold ring with an old European cut diamond sold for $3,200
- 18K yellow gold wristwatch, with .40 ctw of round brilliant cut diamonds sold for $3,000
- Platinum ring with 1.71 carat diamond sold for $3,000
“This was another successful collaboration between Pook & Pook, Inc., Auctioneers and Appraisers and the Pennsylvania Treasury,” said Deidre Pook Magarelli, President of Pook & Pook. “Across the board, in all categories of coins and jewelry, we saw strong prices. The Pennsylvania Treasury puts forth a heroic effort each year to reunite unclaimed property with its original owners, but, when that’s not possible, they make sure the monetary compensation for that unclaimed property is available to those individuals in perpetuity. It’s a huge undertaking, and Pook & Pook appreciates playing a small part in this important process.”
Treasury expects to net $262,840.16 after Pook & Pook receives its 12 percent commission of the full auction total, $298,682.00. The proceeds from the auction were nearly $80,000 over the high estimate.
Items that are not sold at auction, or those not paid for by a winning bidder, are returned to Treasury to be listed in future auctions.
Treasury receives unclaimed property from businesses if the property has been dormant for three years. Tangible property, most often the contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes, is stored in Treasury’s vault for another three years while Treasury tries to find the rightful owners. Treasury never auctions military decorations or memorabilia.
More than $4.5 billion in unclaimed property is available to be claimed. More than one in ten Pennsylvanians is owed unclaimed property, and the average claim is worth about $1,600.
To learn more about unclaimed property or to search Treasury’s database, visit patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property.
