FS Form 2243: The Supplemental Statement for Lost Savings Bonds

This form comes after a claim, not before it. TreasuryDirect lists it as support for a claim made on another form, and one of its items is completed only “if our office has marked this box,” so the copy you fill in may come from Treasury itself. It is a short document, five pages with the instructions on the last two, but it has a few traps: the wrong person signing, a certification that is accepted here and refused on its sister form, and a tax warning that is easy to read past. Its full title is “Supplemental Statement for United States Securities,” and the OMB number printed on it is 1530-0021.

What the form is, and what it is not

The instructions open with a one-line purpose: “Use this form to support an application for relief on account of the loss, theft, destruction, or nonreceipt of United States Securities.” TreasuryDirect’s forms page for savings bonds is a little more specific and describes it as support for a claim made on FS Form 1048 or FS Form 3062-4. (The separate forms page for marketable securities adds FS Form 3062 to that list.)

That makes it a companion, not a starting point. The claim itself is made on FS Form 1048 for lost, stolen or destroyed bonds, or on FS Form 3062-4 when a bond was never received. FS Form 2243 comes in afterward: to confirm or correct which securities the claim covers, to add the account of someone else who had custody of them or knows how they were lost, or, when Treasury has marked Item 6, to choose between payment and electronic replacement bonds. Nothing on the form says how Treasury decides which cases need it, so the form itself will not tell you whether yours does.

Walking through items 1 to 6

The form’s first four items are check boxes that say what kind of statement you are making. The instructions explain each one.

Item 1 is the plain case. You mark it to show that the securities described in Item 5 are the missing securities referred to on the original application, and you describe them in Item 5.

Item 2 is the correction. The instructions say to mark it “if incorrect serial numbers were provided on the original application,” and then to describe the correct missing securities in Item 5. A transposed digit on the first claim is exactly the kind of mistake this box is for.

Item 3 is for someone who is not necessarily the claimant. You certify one or more of three things: that you had possession, custody, or control of the securities; that you have firsthand knowledge of the circumstances under which they were lost, stolen, or destroyed; or that you had access to the security or bearer security described in Item 5.

Item 4 covers a different situation. The instructions say to “mark this box and complete this item when someone other than the original applicant(s) had custody or knowledge of the loss.” You name the original applicant, say what that person reported (the form’s blank allows loss, theft, destruction, or nonreceipt), and give everything you know about where the securities went. If you know nothing about their whereabouts, the instructions say to state that. If someone claims to have mailed or delivered the securities to you, you say whether you received them and, if you did not, explain why if you know, “for example, wrong address used.”

Item 5 is the description table: title of security (series, interest rate, type, CUSIP, call and maturity dates, as appropriate), issue date, face amount, serial number, and registration exactly as shown on the face of each security. If you run out of room, the form says to attach either a list or FS Form 3500, Treasury’s Continuation Sheet for Listing Securities.

Item 6 is the one to read twice. It begins, “If our office has marked this box,” which means you complete it only when Treasury has marked that box. It applies only to Series EE and Series I bonds, and it asks you to choose between two outcomes. One is redemption, with payment to a financial institution: you give the payee’s Social Security number or employer identification number, the name on the account, the nine-digit routing number, the account number and type, and the bank’s name and phone number. The other is substitute bonds issued in electronic form into a TreasuryDirect account, for which you give the account number, name and Social Security or employer identification number.

Who signs: the applicant, or the person who had the bonds

The signature rule sits in the instructions for Item 7. “If Item 1 or 2 is checked, the form must be signed by the original applicant(s). If Item 3 or 4 is checked, the form must be signed by the person having custody of the securities or knowledge of their loss.”

Picture a scenario. A man files a claim for bonds his late mother’s sister kept in a desk. Treasury wants her account of what happened to them. She is not the claimant, but she is the person with custody and knowledge, so she checks Item 3 or 4 and signs her own form. The claimant signing in her place would not satisfy the rule as written. Conversely, if the claimant is only fixing a wrong serial number, Item 2 applies and the claimant signs.

Item 7 also holds the certification you sign. By signing, you certify that you do not have possession or control of any of the securities and have no further information about where they are. You petition the Secretary of the Treasury for relief and acknowledge that, if relief is granted, the original securities become the property of the United States. You also bind yourself and your heirs to surrender the securities if they turn up, to hold the United States harmless against other claimants, and to repay on demand whatever the Department of the Treasury pays on account of redeeming the original securities, including any interest, administrative costs and penalties. The page-one warning is blunt: making a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim or statement to the United States is a crime and may be prosecuted.

When a minor is involved

The instructions give a graduated rule. A minor without a court-appointed guardian may sign for Series HH bonds on his or her own behalf, but only if the notary or certifying officer considers the minor competent to understand the transaction; otherwise both parents sign. For this guide’s purposes, the sentence that matters is the next one: “If you have Series EE or Series I bonds, a minor cannot sign on his or her own behalf. The form must be signed by the parents.” If the minor lives with neither parent, the person who furnishes the minor’s chief support completes and signs the form. The instructions add that the minor’s age and Social Security number must be furnished. If you are still deciding which series you are dealing with, our comparison of Series I and Series EE bonds covers the differences.

Notary or certifying officer: it depends on the form

The signature block says: “Sign in ink in the presence of a notary or certifying officer.” The instructions for the officer ask for the name of each person who appeared and the date, say that a Medallion stamp requires an original signature, and say each person must sign in the officer’s presence. Accepted marks include the seal or stamp of a notary, a financial institution’s official seal (Signature Guaranteed, Endorsement Guaranteed, corporate, or issuing or paying agent stamps) and the stamp of a Treasury-recognized Signature Guarantee Program or other Treasury-approved Medallion program. Authorized certifying officers are available at financial institutions, including credit unions, in the United States.

This is the detail to watch. The sister form for nonreceipt, FS Form 3062-4 (Revised April 2026), says the opposite: “Certification by a notary isn’t acceptable.” Another wrinkle is that TreasuryDirect’s own forms page tells you to sign FS Form 2243 “in the presence of a certifying individual” without mentioning notaries. The PDF allows a notary in both the signature block and the certification instructions. If you want a single bank visit to settle it, a certifying officer at your bank satisfies both versions. Our table of which TreasuryDirect forms need a notary or a certifying officer lays out the other forms.

The tax warning under Item 6

Right below Item 6, between it and the signature section, the form prints a notice headed “Tax liability.” If the name of a living owner or principal coowner is eliminated from the registration, that owner or principal coowner “must include the interest earned and previously unreported on the bonds to the date of the transaction” on the federal income tax return for the year of the reissue. When the reissue is a reportable event, the Federal Reserve or the Bureau of the Fiscal Service reports the interest to the IRS under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982.

The form then capitalizes the sentence that matters most: “THE OBLIGATION TO REPORT THE INTEREST CANNOT BE TRANSFERRED TO SOMEONE ELSE THROUGH A REISSUE TRANSACTION.” In other words, putting the replacement bonds in a different name does not move the unreported interest with them. The form defines the principal coowner as the one who purchased the bonds with his or her own funds, or who received them as a gift, inheritance or legacy, or through judicial proceedings and had them reissued in coownership form, provided that person received no money or money’s worth for naming the other coowner. Unless Treasury is told otherwise, the first-named coowner is treated as the principal coowner. For questions about consequences, the form points to the IRS. Our guide to FS Form 4000 and electronic reissue covers the voluntary reissue form, which carries the same tax notice.

Once the bonds have been replaced in electronic form in the TreasuryDirect account, the form notes you can add a secondary owner or beneficiary, and that clicking “How do I” at the top of the account page brings up the instructions.

Sending it

The instructions say to send the form “without instruction pages,” plus any additional information, to Treasury Retail Securities Services, P.O. Box 9150, Minneapolis, MN 55480-9150. The form says to print in ink or type, estimates about 15 minutes to complete, and states no processing time. Do not mail the completed form to the Parkersburg, West Virginia address printed in the paperwork notice; that address is only for comments about the form.

Sources

• FS Form 2243, Supplemental Statement for United States Securities (Revised April 2026), pages 1 to 5, including the instructions: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav2243.pdf
• FS Form 3062-4 (Revised April 2026), certification instructions: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav3062-4.pdf
• FS Form 1048 (Revised March 2026): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav1048.pdf
• TreasuryDirect, Forms for Savings Bonds (listing for FS Form 2243): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings-bonds/forms/
• TreasuryDirect, Forms for Marketable Securities (listing for FS Form 2243): https://www.treasurydirect.gov/marketable-securities/forms/