State Treasurer Clint Zweifel will be in attendance Sept. 20 for the first unclaimed property auction of his administration, the first year that military medals and honors will not be auctioned.
More than 900 safe deposit boxes' content will be auctioned.
Items in the unclaimed property auction are collected from safe deposit boxes after five years of no contact with the owners. Proceeds from unclaimed property auctions are kept in a trust for the account owner until claimed, according to a state treasurer news release
"State law recognizes that over time we will collect too many physical items to be safely stored," Zweifel said in the release. So it requires us to auction items from Unclaimed Property, and we ensure all proceeds are held in trust forever.
“I expect several buyers from throughout the country to attend. This auction allows us to ensure we have cash ready for the owner when they come forward.”
This year, the majority of the items being sold are gold, silver and collectible coins, along with signed sports memorabilia, silverware and jewelry. Noteworthy items include a signed Mickey Mantle baseball card and a "Gone With the Wind" theater booklet, the release said.
This auction will mark the first year that no military medals or honors will be sold, following the passage of Veterans Medals Bill In June, the release said.
"While my administration is working hard to ensure items sell for as much as possible at the auction, I can promise our military veterans and their families that unclaimed military medals and honors will not be sold,” Zweifel said in the release. “Instead my team continues to work hard to return the 100 military medals and honors we have to their owners or heirs.”
The Unclaimed Property trust fund has more than $600 million from auctioned items originally belonging to 3.5 million owner accounts. Zweifel has returned approximately $53 million to more than 155,000 account owners since taking office, the release said.
The southwest Missouri region - which includes Greene, Christian, Ozark and Taney counties, among others - has $29.5 million in about 320,000 accounts, according to the release.[[In-content Ad]]
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