Think of the West Virginia Treasurer’s Office Unclaimed Property Division as a statewide lost and found box, except holding a much grander monetary scale within a massive vault built in the 1930s to thwart the most sophisticated thief.
This property is held by the Treasurer’s Office, but it doesn’t belong to the state. It belongs to West Virginians, and everyone is encouraged to seek their individual stake and claim it.
“Our Office works with local governments across the state every day to make sure any funds available in their name are promptly returned to them,” said West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore. “This is the people’s money and we want to make sure it’s returned to them as quickly as possible.”
The vault stores mostly money, although the Treasurer’s Office “does receive the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes. One thing that is not reported to the unclaimed property division is real estate.”
Unclaimed property can include financial accounts, stocks, bonds, old coins (like a 1894 Morgan dollar auctioned online last year), collectibles, or items of value (like jewelry, or wrist and pocket watches), in which the owner has not initiated any activity for one year or longer. Other common examples of property held by the Treasurer include unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts and unused rebate cards.
“Sometimes the value of an object isn’t in how much money it is worth, but in the history it holds. Among the jewelry and valuable coins in [one unclaimed property auction], you’ll also find some [West Virginia] history collectibles such as items from Castle Rock Bank in Pineville, currency issued from the National Bank of Williamson, as well as a collection of coal script.”
Any West Virginian seeking lost items are encouraged to visit www.wvtreasury.com, then click on the large Unclaimed Property “Search” button to the right of the page under the heading, “Are We Holding Your Money?” In addition to finding property, the www.wvtreasury.com website will also help track a claim. A demonstration of how to use the Unclaimed Property search site is also available on the Treasury’s YouTube page.
To search for lost financial assets outside of West Virginia, visit www.FindMyFunds.com or www.MissingMoney.com.
“When a family member dies, relatives often don’t know what property or accounts the person has left behind in their name,” Moore said. “We also know estate matters can sometimes be sensitive. That’s why our office is always willing to go the extra mile to work with families and their attorneys to find any property that person might have left behind and make sure it’s returned and distributed while respecting that person and their family’s wishes.”
Unclaimed property has also been returned to businesses, churches, cities, fire departments, and nonprofits across the state.
West Virginia’s unclaimed property laws “protect the public by ensuring money and property owed to them is returned to them, rather than remaining permanently with financial institutions, business associations, governments and other entities. The Treasurer seeks to reunite the unclaimed property, including uncashed paychecks, stocks, or safe deposit box contents, with its owner.”
Visit www.wvtreasury.com or the West Virginia Treasury Facebook page for online auction information.
The State Fair will also host a Treasurer’s Office booth inside the West Virginia Building displaying items for sale during auctions planned for Friday, August 13; Saturday, August 14; Thursday, August 19; Friday, August 20; and Saturday, August 21, beginning promptly at 5 p.m. each day.
For more information, visit the State Treasurer’s Office State Fair booth prior to a daily auction to see which particular items will be auctioned that evening.
The successful bidder will get the item, but the proceeds will be held in the name of the rightful owner.
The West Virginia Treasurer’s Office shares the following history about its establishment and vault:
The Office of the West Virginia State Treasurer was established at the Constitutional Convention held in Wheeling in 1863 after the western counties of Virginia split to become West Virginia. The Treasurer’s Office is one of six constitutionally mandated offices in West Virginia. While the West Virginia Constitution establishes the Office, the functions of the Office are outlined in various sections of West Virginia Code.
The Treasurer’s main vault is an eye-catching and fascinating aspect of the building that was installed four years after the construction of the Capitol [1924-32].
Since the Treasurer is responsible for holding various securities and monies, officials felt an in-house vault was a necessity in the wake of that era’s growing crime rate.
The resulting fixture is a massive vault built with solid chromium steel and concrete, surrounded by walls 22 inches thick.
It once took two contractors two-and-a-half days to bore a small air hole through the outer wall of the vault as a safety measure.
The huge, 16-ton door is controlled by three clocks which are set on a 15-hour rotation at the end of each working day and 63-hour rotation each weekend. Once the door has been closed and clocks activated, the vault cannot be opened until its clocks automatically release at the end of the rotation cycles.
Forty smaller vaults inside the main vault are assigned to individual state agencies. Each agency stores various items, most of which are stocks and bonds. In addition to the stocks and bonds protected there, the vault is also home to collections of diamonds and rare coins, stamps, and state historical documents owned by the Division of Culture and History.
Because the vault was installed in the 1930s, a period of rampant crime and bank robberies, Treasury officials installed a 12-foot solid steel and glass barrier in front of the vault. Tellers sat behind two-inch thick glass panels that rested below an iron grate charged with several thousand volts of electricity. Gun turrets were installed in the event of an armed robbery.
Today, the Treasurer’s office is a sleek, modern, state-of-the-art operation. Equipped with powerful computers and sophisticated electronic money management technology, the West Virginia Treasury continues to move forward as it administers and protects the sound investment of our vast resources in the future of the Mountain State.
