From gold coins, watches and jewelry, Pennsylvania shares sneak peek into unclaimed property auction

The Pennsylvania Treasury will hold a public auction for unclaimed goods on Wednesday, March 25. The Treasury does these auctions twice a year, but for the first time, people can get a look ahead of time.  

The Treasury gets things like jewelry, coins and other keepsakes from safety deposit boxes. They'll go into a vault, but after a while, the items will go to auction to make room for other things. 

Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity said the popularity of these auctions has been growing over the years. 

"We seem to be hitting new records all the time," Garrity said. 

As the popularity grows, the auction is changing. Now you don't have to wait for the auction to see what's selling. For the first time, the state is posting what will be for sale on the auction's website.

"Once we get these tangible items, which largely come from abandoned safe deposit boxes, but we also get items from police evidence lockers as well, so we will look for the owners for at least three years, at least three years, but then eventually we need to make some more room," Garrity said. "But the money will be there in perpetuity for that owner."

Some highlights include a 14-karat yellow gold and lapis necklace with a matching bracelet, a 14-karat gold American Waltham pocket watch with diamonds and an 18-karat gold wristwatch with 12 single-cut diamonds and rubies. 

The state Treasury is working to return more than $5 billion in unclaimed property to more than one in 10 Pennsylvanians, with the average claim worth more than $1,000.