Nearly 19,000 Unclaimed Items Up For Auction By Treasurer's Office
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois State Treasurer's office has some Christmas gift suggestions: unclaimed property that will be auctioned off online later this month.
Here's how this works, typically: somebody has a safe deposit box and dies; if nobody claims it after five years, the contents go to the State Treasurer's office.
Then, after five more years, it's auctioned off.
State Treasurer Dan Rutherford said one of the items up for auction this year is a rare penny.
"It would normally appraise at about $450 but because this is an F-15, meaning a higher quality, it comes out at about $1000," Rutherford said.
There's also piece of Beatles jewelry shaped like a guitar.
"This is kind of interesting from my generation. This is actually a pin from the Beatles, on the original card that it was sold at. And I believe that appraised value is $250," Rutherford said.
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Proceeds go toward offsetting liability in the state pension system.
The online auction of 18,900 items runs from Nov. 26 to Nov. 30.
