Until further notice, BEP is suspending the processing of submitted claims. Personal deliveries of mutilated currency are not accepted at this time.
Every year the Treasury Department handles approximately 30,000 claims and redeems mutilated currency valued at more than $30 million. The BEP redeems mutilated currency as a free public service because your money is important.
What is considered mutilated currency?
Mutilated
currency is currency which has been severely damaged – to the extent
that its value is questionable or security features are missing.
Currency can become mutilated in any number of ways. The most common
causes are fire, water, chemicals, and explosives; animal, insect, or
rodent damage; and petrification or deterioration by burying.
What is not considered mutilated currency?
Any
badly soiled, dirty, defaced, disintegrated, limp, torn, or worn out
currency note that is clearly more than one-half of the original note,
and does not require special examination to determine its value, is not
considered mutilated.
Lawful holders of mutilated currency may receive a redemption at full value when:
Clearly more than 50 percent of a note identifiable as United States currency is present, along with sufficient remnants of any relevant security feature and clearly more than one-half of the original note remains; or,
Fifty percent or less of a note identifiable as United States currency is present and the method of mutilation and supporting evidence demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Treasury that the missing portions have been totally destroyed.