A two-thirds of a dollar certificate from the colonial era (Wisconsin DOR)
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) — John Hale last saw his collection of colonial era paper currency ten years ago, before putting it in a safety deposit box at a local bank.
A few years later, when he went to retrieve the box, the money inside was gone.
The money was printed between 1776 and 1778, in unusual denominations ranging from two-thirs of a dollar to $8. Hale obtained them through his father, who said the bills were given to him by a friend he served with in World War Two.
The missing money was a casualty of Wisconsin state law, which states in section 177.16 of the state statutes that if property is unclaimed by its owner for five years after a lease or rental period expires, the box is handed over to the state Department of Revenue’s Unclaimed Property Section. The department had the money for three years, until it was set to go up for public auction.
That’s when staff discovered a social security number within the box. That number was traced back to Hale, and that’s where they found a phone number that got them in contact with him.
According to a December 12, 1976, Appleton Post-Crescent article—a copy of which was in the deposit box—Hale’s father Thomas Hale said the bills were given to him in 1946 by a friend he served with in the Navy during World War II. The friend found them while tearing down an old bridge in Connecticut in 1937, and knowing the elder Hale was a coin collector thought he might have interest in the find.
The junior Hale was 13 years old when his father passed away about 40 years ago, leaving him to care for the collection.
When Hale received the call from Eudaly he was shocked. After verifying he was the rightful owner, the two made plans for Hale to come in and pick up his property at DOR’s headquarters in Madison.
“I figured they were gone,” said Hale. “I was surprised that something good happened,” Hale said. “Something that comes back. It’s a blessing.”
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