Examples of Data Problems:

1. Missing Zip Codes, since Zip Codes were not recognized by the Post Office until 1963 (1983 for Zip+4 Codes), and not used regularly for a period thereafter.  (There is a significant likelihood that any bonds containing Zip Codes that may have existed decades ago, have since changed.)
   
   
2. Inaccurate state designations due to the inconsistencies in the prior use of the current 2-character state code acronyms.  For example, ‘Connecticut’ was often previously abbreviated as ‘CONN’.  Even those bonds recorded with a 2-position state code can cause confusion since it is not unusual for someone to incorrectly abbreviate Arizona as “AR”, rather than “AZ”.  In actuality, “AR” is the abbreviation for Arkansas, which is often incorrectly abbreviated as “AK”, the correct abbreviation for Alaska, which, in turn, is often misidentified as “AL”, the correct abbreviation for Alabama.  There is also routine confusion with abbreviations for all of the “M” states, and other states as well.
   
   
3. Retired city names that no longer exist.
   
   
4. References to hamlets, sub-divisions, communities and townships that may or may not still exist, but are not currently recognized by United States Postal Service delivery standards, and are therefore not likely to be verifiable by traditional address verification software programs.
   
   
5. Inconsistencies in street designation (Rd vs Road) and directional (W vs West) abbreviations.
   
   
6. Bond registrations encumbered with financial terminology identifying ownership characteristics, such as UGMA, UTMA, JTWROS, JT TEN, CUSTODIAN, CUST FOR, IN TRUST FOR, etc.
   
   
7. Some portion of the bonds will have multiple owners and/or beneficiaries listed within the registration.  These multi-owner bonds may have different formatting issues (John & Susan Brown vs John Brown & Susan Brown), and may include prefixes (Mr/Mrs), professional designations (Dr/Phd), generational suffixes (Jr/III), and initials.
   
   
8. Because their issuance pre-dates the invention (or at least wide-scale use) of computers, we can expect that bond ownership data was not compiled and maintained in a fashion that today’s computers or address quality software is optimally configured to support.