Savings Bonds

It is definitely not a lot of money, given the cost of college nowadays, but perhaps these gifts symbolize things that are hard to put a price on: encouragement, respect, love. On Sunday, the members of the congregation of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Bryn Mawr held their annual Student Aid Day and gave their three graduating high school seniors each a U.S. Savings Bond in the amount of $200 and a promise of $50 in cash every semester they remain in college. The Rev. Charles H. Lett, pastor of the 300-member church, told the assemblage, "If you've ever been a parent of a kid in college, you know that $50 is a big help.

The second of two men accused of trying to sell more than $26,000 in stolen U.S. Savings Bonds last year was convicted Thursday in Delaware County Court. In the non-jury trial, Delaware County Judge Charles C. Keeler said the "undisputed testimony" of county police officers and a U.S. Secret Service agent was enough to find Maurice Brown, 28, guilty of receiving stolen property; criminal conspiracy; and falsification to authorities, for signing a fictitious name to official documents.

Planning to buy U.S. Savings Bonds and sell them within five years? You could get a higher interest rate, at least in the short run, if you buy them after May 1. If you're planning to keep the bonds a long time and want a guaranteed 4 percent return, better buy them before May 1. Next month, the Treasury is changing the way it pays interest on plain old U.S. Savings Bonds - a move that is bound to cause confusion. Savers are sure to hear that the Treasury is "taking away guarantees" and worry that savings bonds won't be as safe.

Most of us wouldn't have a prayer of finding $23,000 in a safe-deposit box. But this afternoon, $23,000 in savings bonds will be presented to their rightful owners, the Sisters of St. Joseph at the Mount St. Joseph Convent on the campus of Chestnut Hill College. The bonds were issued in the early 1940s, bought by the Ladies Aid Society for St. Margaret's Vocational School, and placed in a safe-deposit box at an unidentified local bank. St. Margaret's closed in 1969, and the Ladies Aid Society was dissolved.

U.S. Savings Bonds may sound old-fashioned, but they're still great gifts for birthday, graduation or bar mitzvah. Offering decent returns and ironclad security, savings bonds are an attractive alternative for people whipsawed by plunging stock and bond prices and low returns on bank deposits. The minimum return on Series EE savings bonds is 4 percent for the first five years. But the variable rate, which kicks in after five years, jumped to 4.7 percent this month. Even the guaranteed 4 percent return is better than many other risk-free investments.

For three days, people pored over valuables left behind by unfortunates - the victims of amnesia, the friendless dead, the lost and forgotten - in search of bargains. They scrutinized mink coats, gold watches, wedding bands. It almost didn't seem right. Then again, money's money. In this case, $239,647 was collected by the state Treasury for 5,301 items that had been squirreled away and left unclaimed for more than seven years in places such as safety-deposit boxes. "People are very private about their financial affairs," said Michael W. Arpey, general counsel to State Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll.

ARTICLE ON SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAM OFF THE MARK In his Aug. 31 Commentary Page article, "The Social Security shakedown," Deroy Murdock makes statements about the Social Security program that are off the mark. A persistent, but false, rumor is that trust fund money has been used for purposes other than Social Security payments or expenses. Almost all presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt have been characterized as misusers of the trust funds for having allowed Social Security money to be used to finance wars or highway projects.

No matter what happened last night at Candlestick Park, certain verities would be in place when the sun rose this morning. There would still be 64 games to play. The Phillies would still be in first place. And, if anybody asked, they would surely say that all this talk about a meeting of two first-place teams was the product of an overheated media imagination. The latter qualifies as baloney. Going into last night's scrum, the Giants had beaten the Phillies in six of nine meetings.

Patricia Ann Orlic's drug-awareness poster, which yesterday won a $1,500 savings bond, purchased with forfeited drug money from the Camden County prosecutor, wastes no time getting to its point. In that, the poster reflects its 19-year-old creator. On a black background, a crisp, white line made of powder zigs like an electrocardiogram until it reaches a razor. The razor is a symbolic turning point. There, the line goes flat. "The end of the line," explains the lettering underneath.

At the Naval Air Warfare Center in Warminster, students from Bucks and Montgomery Counties wait to hear science fair rankings. The overall winner over the weekend was Jennifer Mielnik of Gwynedd-Mercy for a project on "designing an optimum rowing scull. " First-place winners in various categories received $200 savings bonds, second-place winners received $100 bonds, and third was good for a $50 bond.