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An unclaimed property auction this week will feature thousands of items from safe deposit boxes that include jewelry, rare coins and baseball cards, other sports memorabilia and various souvenir artifacts.

The auction will start at 8 a.m. Monday and Tuesday at the Hilton Garden Inn Conference Center in Columbia.

Previews for the event will be held Sunday at the conference center.

This week’s auction includes 3,393 lots including a “Gone With The Wind” cookbook, a $1,000 bill, a signed Hank Aaron baseball card and a commemorative coin from Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

An auction book with descriptions of all items up for sale is available on the Missouri State Treasurer’s Office website along with selected photos.

The items in the auctions are collected by the state from safe deposit boxes with payments past due. After five years, the state collects the items from the boxes and puts them up for auction.

Profits from the sale are returned to the owners of the box to ultimately collect from the Treasurer’s Office.

“It just remains an unclaimed property, then so it will be there forever until somebody claims it,” Fitzpatrick said.

Unclaimed property has been a focal point of the Missouri State Treasurer’s Office for years, with the state currently holding $1 billion in unclaimed property.

According to the Treasurer’s Office, one in 10 Missourians has unclaimed property worth an average return of $300.

Historically, one auction has been held in Columbia annually, but for the last two years, the pandemic canceled them.

Three auctions have taken place so far this year, one in Springfield. and a record-breaking auction in July in Independence that brought in $254,519 for property owners.

The Springfield auction marked the first unclaimed property auction under State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, who was appointed in 2019 after six years serving in the state House of Representatives.

His decision to hold multiple auctions gave other parts of the state a chance to participate.

“Since it had been in Columbia several years in a row, I wanted to give another part of the state the opportunity to host the auction,” Fitzpatrick said.

He has advocated for unclaimed property since his appointment and continues to promote resources for Missourians to take back their possessions and heirlooms.

“Whenever you can give good money back to people that they didn’t know they had. It’s kind of a rewarding experience,” he said.

The only items not put up for auction are firearms and military medals. The Treasurer’s Office instead holds onto them and tries to return them to the men and women who earned them through their service.

“We have purple hearts and Bronze Stars and a lot of different military awards,” Fitzpatrick said.

Historical significance came to play for Fitzpatrick during the pandemic as he was in the batter’s box for a safe deposit box discovery. In September 2020, he returned a collection of baseball and basketball cards worth about $30,000 to a St. Charles man that had been found in a safe deposit box.

Throughout the years, the safe deposit boxes have brought many treasures to Missourians both lost and found.

“You get letters signed by U.S. presidents, which are very cool because of the historical significance on them,” Fitzpatrick said.

The upcoming auction runs all day on both days, and Col. James L. Johnston will preside. Items can be picked up and paid for at the end of each bidding day.

Community reporter, spring 2024 Studying journalism, writing and reporting Reach me at jasbm4@umsystem.edu, or in the newsroom at 630-280-4984.

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

City and County Government editor 573-882-4557 anklamf@missouri.edu

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