So what do I do with these savings bonds?

[muldoonthief]

@TSBG

It’s not $1400 though–E bonds are purchased at a discount and earn X% interest until they reach face value (and sometimes continue to earn it, as noted above). You can find out how much each is worth and the interest rate through the treasury site–which sadly you can’t access where you are. Maybe you can give the serial numbers to a trusted friend in the US and they can look it up for you?

You don’t need the serial number. The website asks for it, but will happily give you a value even if you leave it blank. Anyway, checking EE bonds $200 face value issued in January 1991 - 1997:

1/91 - $368
1/92 - $354
1/93 - $340
1/94 - $258
1/95 - $248
1/96 - $211
1/97 - $210

No idea why the huge dropoff between 93 & 94. And you will owe federal income tax on the interest portion of the bond.

[Alessan]

To answer my own OP:

It turns out that Capital One and Chase will both cash up to $1000 worth of savings bonds for non-account holders, if you ask them nicely. And it didn’t take that long, either.

Good thing they did, too. I forgot how expensive Manhattan was.

[chappachula]

thanks for the update!

And thanks for reminding me how expensive Manhattan is going to be when I go there next week