Any one know anything about bearer bonds?

BUMP

Good questions, I'm curious about that too. Anyone...

I once had a share certificate that told me it was a 'bearer bond' for a period of time until you sent it off to be redeemed.

I think they are a convenient plot device though, it gets rid of all the questions about 'how do they explain they got it'. I suppose cash, diamonds and gold can function similarly as plot devices for stuff criminals want.

1. Yes, but I'm not sure how high they go..

2. There's no deadline on the back end, but you have to wait until the bond matures before you can get the face value. Think about it. You gave the government or whoever 1 million dollars back in the day -- then you get to redeem and get back that 1 million once the bond term ends..could be 10 years or 30 years etc.

3. Interest can be two ways ; So assuming the bonds are still in their payback period, the "bearer" of the bond (whoever has it) is owed all interest and usually would collect payments every 6 months until the 5 year bond or 10 year bond or 30 year bond is over. The Longer the bond contract, the more interest you get. So in this case, it's assumed all the interest has already been paid.

There's also something called a zero coupon bond, meaning there is no interest paid to the bond holder. The reason why people would do this is because they don't have to pay as much up front to get the bond. So for a 30 year bond worth 1 million dollars, maybe you only have to pay $550,000..and then at any point after 30 years, you can cash it in for 1 million. So in a way, you are making money because the govt' will give you 1 million down the road and you paid way less.

4. The Months printed were most likely the interest payment dates that the bearer was entitled to receive interest during the payback period of the bond

5. He would've had to be smart about it. The good thing about bearer bonds and a big reason why they are in a lot of action crime movies is nobody's name is on them. In Die Hard, the vault had a crapload of Bearer bonds. If you BEAR the bonds (If you physically have them), you are the rightful owner and are entitled to get the face value of the bond after the term of the bond is over. So no one can really question him. Bearer bonds have really gone out of style -- everything is electronically recorded these days and also specify the owner of the bonds..and I think criminal activity was one of the reasons why they did away with them..but there's still a wave of old paper bearer bonds out there..most of them have already come due and been claimed though

I don't have any answers to your questions, but it seems like bearer bonds only exist for smugglers, drug dealers, and to encourage movie plots. It doesn't make any sense to me why anyone would ever issue a bearer bond worth a million, except to be able to evade government controls on transferring money. As I understand it, you can't take more then $10,000 in cash out of the country. Also, any transactions over a certain limit, like say $50,000 or $100,000, trigger a red flag in the computer and require all sorts of paperwork, ID, and leave a nice long paper trail for government officials to investigate.





I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.