I got into a heated discussion with a friend tonight about the return on a Series E savings bong. My parents bought them in the $50 denomination for us kids throughout the 1960s. I told him that they were sold for 50% of their face value, then redeemed for full face-value seven years later. He vehemently disagreed, saying that the government would never give a 14.3% annual return, which is $25 of earnings on a $25 cost basis in just seven years. When the guns came out and the trigger fingers got itchy, we cooled off enough to agree to put it to the readers in these pages. So: Is it seven years, or is it longer, to full face-value of the Series E bond?

Huge difference between bongs and bonds.

That's the way I remember it, too.

Huge difference between bongs and bonds.

Yeah, spend too much time on the bong and you may wind up POSTING a bond

Currently it is much longer as it is off of an interest rate at the time of purchase. Previously it was seven years, it changed AIRC in the Clinton Administration.

I want some of them Savings Bongs!!!!!!Is your interest paid in extra hits on the Bong?????

I remember the bonds selling for $37.50 for a $50 return after 7 years!
I think??

the $25 bonds cost $18.75... i had quite a few of them in the late '60's... never kept any of them the full 7 yrs...

OK; it seems then that the purchase price was 75% of the face value. That would give a 25% interest over seven years, or a skosh less than 4% per year in simple interest. That sounds like something the government would give you. Remember when passbook savings at your bank paid 5.25 percent? Those were the days...