# What happens to safety deposit boxes years or decades after someone has died and it remains unclaimed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2024, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724 "2024-11-24T17:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/21 "2024-11-24T23:23:20Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > One of the boxes they opened was full of $1,000 bills. The renter had an address at the provincial Legislature. Several prosecutions later … I’m not following this. What does “an address at the provincial legislature” mean? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/22 "2024-11-24T23:33:32Z")
It means that a member of a provincial legislator had hundreds of thousands in unexplainable wealth. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/23 "2024-11-24T23:39:07Z")
Sounds like somebody was taking bribes! I’m assuming you’re in Canada, and that $1,000 bills are in circulation? In the U.S., bills over $100 have not been printed since IIRC 1969. I do remember taking a $500 bill once, when I worked at Target in the early 1980s. When my dad died last year, he had a box in his hometown, about 100 miles away from where he, and my brother, lived. He couldn’t find the key, and my mother couldn’t either, so he made arrangements to have someone come in on a Saturday morning and drill it. It turned out to be full of semi-collectible coins that were discolored, because they hadn’t been properly packaged. That was $150 for a whole lot of nothing, but we just didn’t know what was in it. Dad probably didn’t either, by that time. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/24 "2024-11-24T23:47:08Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I’m not following this. What does “an address at the provincial legislature” mean? See here: [Expense fraud scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Saskatchewan#Expense_fraud_scandal) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/25 "2024-11-24T23:48:29Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’m assuming you’re in Canada, and that $1,000 bills are in circulation? They were back then. The Bank of Canada has since withdrawn them from circulation, due to use in drug deals. They’re still legal tender, but rare. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/26 "2024-11-25T00:13:14Z")
I don’t think the higher-denomination bills were withdrawn in the States; they just stopped printing them. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/27 "2024-11-25T00:16:50Z")
I think when the American $500 and $1000 bills stopped being printed, they became more valuable as collectibles than face value. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/28 "2024-11-25T00:22:24Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I don’t think the higher-denomination bills were withdrawn in the States; they just stopped printing them. Anything above the $100 was officially withdrawn from circulation in 1969. From that point on, it appears that, if a bank comes into possession of a higher-denomination note, they are instructed to send it to the Federal Reserve to be destroyed. They’re still considered legal tender, AFAICT, but once they hit a bank, they’re doomed. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/29 "2024-11-25T01:15:00Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > They’re still considered legal tender, AFAICT, but once they hit a bank, they’re doomed. I suspect that depends on whether a bank employee can trade their own cash for bills from the till. $500 and $1000 bills are worth _significantly_ more than face value on the collector’s market. As long as it was not putting their job at risk, I would imagine any bank employee would jump at the opportunity to trade 5 of their own Benjamins for a $500. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/30 "2024-11-25T01:18:39Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I suspect that depends on whether a bank employee can trade their own cash for bills from the till. I suppose so, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many banks have a rule prohibiting their employees from doing that – because otherwise, you’re essentially letting an employee profit off-the-books from the nature of their job, as well as allowing them to thwart the dictate of the Fed. If that’s the case, then, as you note, it _would_ put their job at risk. That said, it’s now been 55 years since those bills were officially withdrawn, and I wonder just how often those bills actually wind up in circulation any more. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/31 "2024-11-25T01:29:48Z")
Now I’m curious; does anyone here work in a bank or know someone who does? What is the rule if you’re a bank teller and you see a bill or coin that you believe is worth more than face value? And do retail store clerks have the same rules? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/32 "2024-11-25T02:14:10Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > And do retail store clerks have the same rules At our company any mingling of personal and company money, no matter how trivial, is a termination offense. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/33 "2024-11-25T02:17:18Z")
Thanks. Ever see something collectible in the till drawer? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/34 "2024-11-25T02:31:43Z")
I haven’t worked as a cashier since the Reagan Administration. And since I was very new to this country I would have had no idea about what was interesting. There’d be two dollar notes, half dollar and dollar coins coins which I guess were unusual because they needed to be put in the “other tender” slot in the tray (we had slots for $20, $10, $5 and $1 notes and for quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, $50 and $100 bills went into a one way drop safe, and odd notes and coins went in a space on the left, along with manufacturers coupons, rain checks and other sundry items I can’t recall). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/35 "2024-11-25T02:46:04Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Now I’m curious; does anyone here work in a bank or know someone who does? What is the rule if you’re a bank teller and you see a bill or coin that you believe is worth more than face value? I found a thread on a banking-oriented message board, from 2012, on this topic. It features several tellers saying that they’ve “bought” old/rare currency from their drawers, and that they don’t see it as a big deal, while other tellers state that it’s strictly forbidden by the banks where they work. One such quote: > [@](#): > > you’re assuming it is broad and vague based on a 2-sentence posting I made. I can assure you it is neither broad nor vague, lists specific examples of what is and is not acceptable (i.e., accepting a minor gift valued under $25 is acceptable if refusal of said gift will embarrass the person offering and you must report to HR for tax purposes, culling through teller drawers and/or vaults looking for rare or valuable coins for personal use is not allowed, etc. etc. etc.). > > If a customer is asking to purchase the coin they saw deposited, we have no issue with that. But the chance of that happening is slim, the way our teller stations are set. > > Just our policy guys, you don’t have to like it. It works for us and our environment, and yes, we have terminated people for violating it. > **[Tellers buying coins](https://www.bankersonline.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1711457/1)** > > Does anyone prohibit tellers from buying up coins turned in by customers that are of value? Lately, tellers are buying up these coins and then selling privately for profit. Any thoughts as to why this is okay or not? Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/36 "2024-11-25T03:11:45Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Now I’m curious; does anyone here work in a bank or know someone who does? What is the rule if you’re a bank teller and you see a bill or coin that you believe is worth more than face value? And do retail store clerks have the same rules? @Smapti & @Broomstick work in retail and cashiering is at least part of their routine duties. They’d probably have a good handle on this. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/37 "2024-11-25T03:18:55Z")
The grocery store chain I work for doesn’t have a written rule about it to the best of my knowledge. I’ve checked the company intranet and the cash handling policies and haven’t found one. As far as I know, exchanging a valuable coin for one of equivalent face value is completely OK. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/38 "2024-11-25T03:31:52Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I suspect that depends on whether a bank employee can trade their own cash for bills from the till. Big urban banks wont let employees do that. No touchee. I have done it at a store- some guy came in and paid with silver dollars- the clerk didnt know what to do with them, and so I exchanged. (I was security). > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Now I’m curious; does anyone here work in a bank or know someone who does? I have. Maybe if it is a silver coin, but not for bills, a record is kept of it coming in- ("1X$1000, 2x $100, 4X$20= 1280.) > [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > At our company any mingling of personal and company money, no matter how trivial, is a termination offense. Yep. Coins are a _maybe_. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > If a customer is asking to purchase the coin they saw deposited, we have no issue with that. Yep. Retail is different, many places allow it. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/39 "2024-11-25T03:45:05Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > By law the box for deceased must be opened in the presence of a tax official and a bank officer. Do you have a cite for this? And in what situation(s) do you believe this to be true? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724/40 "2024-11-25T03:46:35Z")
This is what I find for Canada: > As of January 1, 2021, the $1, $2, $25, $500 and $1,000 bills from every Bank of Canada series are no longer legal tender. > These bank notes have not been produced in decades, so the decision to remove them from circulation has had little impact on most of us. > The $1 and the $2 notes stopped being issued in 1989 and 1996, respectively, and were replaced with coins. > The $25 note was a commemorative note Both it and the $500 note were discontinued shortly after they were issued in 1935. > The $1,000 note stopped being issued in 2000. > Removing legal tender status from these bills means that they are no longer considered money. Essentially, you may no longer be able to spend them in a cash transaction. This does not mean that the notes are worthless. **The Bank of Canada will continue to honour them at face value.** [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-safety-deposit-boxes-years-or-decades-after-someone-has-died-and-it-remains-unclaimed/1010724.md?page=3)