Image: WPXI (source)
Key Takeaways
- Pennsylvania’s Oct. 28 online unclaimed property auction will offer about 6,000 items, including jewelry, coins and precious metals.
- Preview lots include a platinum ring with a 6.11-carat round diamond, a mounted 1907-S $20 gold coin and an 18K gold Omega watch.
- Most of the physical lots come from abandoned safe deposit boxes, and the proceeds remain available for rightful owners to claim.
Pennsylvania’s next unclaimed property auction goes live online on Oct. 28, and if you buy estate jewelry, I’d put it on the calendar now. WPXI reports that state Treasurer Stacy Garrity expects roughly 6,000 items in the virtual sale, including jewelry, coins, currency and precious metals. The auction house Pook & Pook is preparing the lots and running the state’s online event.
Most of the physical goods in these sales come out of abandoned safe deposit boxes, according to the station. The Treasury also holds money-type property, including dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, and forgotten stocks and insurance policies, totaling more than $5 billion and owed to more than one in ten Pennsylvanians, with an average claim above $1,000. When a box’s contents are sold, the money is held in perpetuity, so the rightful owner can still claim it later. Garrity said the auctions free up space in the Treasury’s vault, and her office has returned more than $1.2 billion since she took office, including more than $334 million last year.
The preview list looks like a busy week at an estate buy desk, only bigger. It includes a platinum ring with a 6.11-carat round diamond and 38 single-cut diamonds, a 14K yellow gold chain with a slider charm set with a green stone that comes with a gold-filled Waltham pocket watch (29.6 dwt), a 1907-S $20 Liberty Head gold coin in a 22K mount (28.3 dwt), and an 18K yellow gold Omega on an 18K gold band (43.7 dwt). Those weights are in pennyweight, the unit most of us use at the scrap scale, but I wouldn’t treat these as scrap. In my experience, single-cut accents usually point to an older mounting; a mounted gold coin is a classic American piece, and a solid gold Omega is worth more than its melt value.
The fine print matters too. The state says items can change before the sale if new information comes up about authenticity, estimated value or other discrepancies, and Treasury employees and their immediate families can’t bid. For a dealer, that is a reminder to read the catalog as a starting point, not a grading report. A big round diamond in a platinum mount still needs a lab report, so set your top bid on what the stone and metal will bring after grading, auction fees and any repair or remount. The sale is online, so ask the auction house for extra photos or condition notes before you commit.
There’s a customer angle here as well. Plenty of families inherit a box key and never follow up. If a client mentions a parent’s old safe deposit box or a missing heirloom, send them to their state’s unclaimed property program first. It costs you nothing, and it builds a lot of trust.
Source: WPXI
