The value of a savings bond depends on its series, denomination, issue date, and how long it has been earning interest. A $50 bond purchased decades ago could be worth several times its face value today, while a bond bought recently may be worth close to what you paid. The fastest way to find your bond’s exact current value is the free Savings Bond Calculator on TreasuryDirect.gov, which works for all paper bonds. If you hold electronic bonds, you’ll find their current value by logging into your TreasuryDirect account.
How to Look Up Your Bond’s Value
The Treasury Department’s Savings Bond Calculator at TreasuryDirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice lets you check the value of any paper savings bond. You’ll need three pieces of information: the bond series (EE, I, or E), the denomination (the dollar amount printed on the bond), and the issue date. You don’t need the serial number to get a value, though you can enter it if you want to save an inventory for future reference.
The calculator works for paper bonds only. If you purchased bonds electronically through a TreasuryDirect account, your current values appear automatically when you log in. The calculator updates once a month, on the first business day, so the value you see reflects the most recent interest posting.
What Determines a Bond’s Value
Savings bonds grow in value through interest that compounds over time, but the mechanics differ by series.
Series EE bonds purchased today earn a fixed interest rate set at the time of purchase. The key feature of EE bonds is a government guarantee: the Treasury will ensure the bond doubles in value after 20 years, even if the stated interest rate alone wouldn’t get it there. If you paid $50 for an EE bond, it will be worth at least $100 at the 20-year mark. After that, the bond continues earning interest at the original fixed rate for up to 10 more years, reaching final maturity at 30 years. Older EE bonds issued before May 2005 used different rate structures, including variable rates tied to market conditions, so their growth patterns vary.
Series I bonds earn interest from two components: a fixed rate locked in at purchase and an inflation rate that adjusts every six months. The Treasury resets the inflation rate each May 1 and November 1, basing it on changes in the Consumer Price Index. These two rates combine into a composite rate using a specific formula. When inflation is high, I bonds grow faster. When inflation drops, the composite rate falls, though it can never go below zero. I bonds also reach final maturity at 30 years.
Series E bonds were issued from 1941 through 1980, before being replaced by Series EE. Every Series E bond has reached final maturity and stopped earning interest. If you still hold Series E bonds, they are worth whatever value they had accumulated by their final maturity date, and there is no benefit to continuing to hold them.
Bonds That Have Stopped Earning Interest
A savings bond only earns interest until it hits final maturity. After that, its value freezes. Billions of dollars in matured savings bonds remain uncashed, meaning their holders are missing out on no additional growth but are also sitting on money they could put to better use.
All Series E, H, and HH bonds have reached final maturity. Series EE bonds issued from January 1980 through February 1993 have also matured. EE bonds issued from March 1993 through April 1995 reached final maturity between March 2023 and April 2025. Bonds issued from May 1995 onward will mature between 2025 and 2033, depending on the exact issue date. Series I bonds, first issued in September 1998, won’t begin reaching final maturity until September 2028 at the earliest.
If you have bonds that are no longer earning interest, you can cash them at a bank or through TreasuryDirect. There’s no penalty for waiting, but there’s also no financial reason to keep holding them.
Early Redemption Penalties
You cannot cash a savings bond until you’ve owned it for at least one year. After that first year, you can redeem it anytime, but if you cash it before the five-year mark, you forfeit the last three months of interest. On a bond worth $1,000 with a 4% composite rate, that penalty would cost you roughly $10. After five years, there is no penalty.
Taxes on Savings Bond Interest
The interest your savings bond earns is subject to federal income tax but exempt from state and local income taxes. You don’t owe any tax until you actually cash the bond (or it reaches final maturity), unless you elect to report the interest annually. When you redeem a bond, you’ll receive a 1099-INT form showing the total interest earned over the life of the bond. If you cash at a bank, the bank issues the form. If you redeem through TreasuryDirect, the 1099-INT will be available in your account the following January.
The taxable amount is only the interest, not the amount you originally paid. If you bought a $100 bond and it’s now worth $180, you owe tax on the $80 in interest, not the full $180.
How to Estimate Value Without the Calculator
If you don’t have your bonds handy but want a rough sense of what they might be worth, the 20-year doubling guarantee on EE bonds gives you a useful baseline. An EE bond you paid $500 for is guaranteed to be worth at least $1,000 after 20 years. For I bonds, the value depends heavily on inflation over the period you’ve held them. During the high-inflation years of 2021 through 2023, I bond composite rates topped 9% at one point, so bonds held through that stretch grew significantly faster than their fixed rate alone would suggest.
For older paper bonds found in a drawer or safe deposit box, the Savings Bond Calculator remains the only reliable way to get an exact figure. Denomination alone doesn’t tell you the full story, since a bond’s face value is often different from both what was paid for it and what it’s now worth. Older Series E and EE bonds were sold at half their face value (a $100 bond cost $50), while I bonds and newer EE bonds were sold at face value.