News Release

Harrisburg, PA - Treasurer Stacy Garrity today announced the upcoming auction of nearly 4,000 items currently held by Treasury as unclaimed property. The online auction will take place over two days on Thursday, October 28, and Friday, October 29.

“This will be the first auction of unclaimed property from Treasury’s vault since before the pandemic. Our first priority is always to return unclaimed property to its rightful owner, but there is a limit to how many physical items we can store. This auction is a chance for people to bid on some unique and valuable items.”

Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Stacy Garrity

Treasury keeps tangible unclaimed property for about three years before it is auctioned. The cash proceeds are cataloged and held in perpetuity until an owner is found. Military decorations remain in Treasury’s care and are never auctioned.

Treasury partners with Pook & Pook Inc. out of Downingtown for appraisal and auctioneer services. Treasury will be auctioning 3,829 individual items, some combined into lots of Treasury-only items, including:

• Wristwatches
• Gold necklaces, bracelets and earrings
• Diamond jewelry
• Costume jewelry
• Gold coins (including American Eagles and Krugerrands)
• Liberty Eagle silver coins
• Morgan dollars
• Collectible toy trucks and cars

The items being auctioned by Treasury are included in the October 28 auction of coins and jewelry and the October 29 auction of decorative arts. Bidders must be registered through Bidsquare or Invaluable to participate. Treasury employees and immediate family members are prohibited from bidding.

State law requires businesses to report unclaimed property to Treasury after three years of dormancy if it belongs to a known owner. If the owner is unknown, businesses are required to report it to Treasury after one year of dormancy.

Treasury currently has more than $4 billion in unclaimed property. One in ten Pennsylvanians is owed unclaimed property, and the average claim is worth $2,000.

To learn more about unclaimed property or to search Treasury’s database, visit patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property.

Pook & Pook works with Treasury to carefully track the sale of unclaimed property items as part of the process of ensuring that the proceeds are available when a claimant comes forward in the future. This week’s auctions will include items from other consigners and sellers. Treasury’s items are not separately noted in the auction catalogs.