Like a majestic bald eagle on the 4th of July, freedom shares soared into American life amidst a chorus of oohs and ahhs.
Okay, we weren’t there, so we’re not a hundred percent sure about the oohs and ahhs. But what we do know is that the U.S. Treasury issued freedom shares for only three years—1967-1970, to be exact—and allowed people to purchase them for 81% of their face value. In other words, if we bought a $10,000 bond, we only would have paid $8,100 for it. What a steal, right? They had a thirty-year maturity, earned interest for their buyers, and also had kind of a BOGO deal going on: in order to buy freedom shares, we also had to buy a Series E bond of equal or greater value.
So why did freedom shares exist? Well, if we think back real hard, we might recall that the United States was engaged in a super-expensive war during that period of time. (Hint for the puzzled: Vietnam.) The government needed money, so they started offering highly attractive bonds as a way to stimulate investment and fund the war. This wasn’t the first time the U.S. government sold bonds to help finance war efforts, but it was the first time war bonds were given such a totally awesome name.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Savings Bond?2 Views
finance a la Shmoop what is a savings bond well it's kind of like charity
charity because interest rates on savings bonds are exceptionally low even
by government standards well there was an era in America when taxpayers happily
and willingly loaned money to Uncle Sam and were happy to do so because they had
great faith and trust that the people we elected were in fact decent honest [old government photos]
hard-working representatives who had the interests of the nation placed far ahead
of their own personal gain it was the era of Jimmy Stewart and a whole bunch [photo of Jimmy Stewart]
of others you should think the greatest generation yeah we know even a pretty [picture of John Wayne]
good generation check Congress for details so savings bonds used to be a
standard birthday present for young people kind of like the cross pin that [kid's birthday party]
nice Jewish boys would get at their bar mitzvahs grandmother's after slathering [boy's mar mitzvah]
in a bathtub of angry perfume loved handing the $50 savings bond envelope to [woman in hot bath]
their college-bound progeny well savings bonds are issued by the US
Treasury and have no stated maturity date instead what happens is that the
savings bond welljust pays the interest for some
period of time like say a decade and at the end of that 10 years while it simply
stops paying interest you can cash in the bond at that time or just let it
ride essentially renting money to the Gov for free and yeah you don't want to
confuse a savings bond with this bond yeah who needs no safety