Office of Anachronism Control

Handling of Out-of-Period Property

HAEB Directive 6.3 IN FORCE CAP Rev. 12.4

Responsible office

Office of Anachronism Control

Authority

Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, section 6, as amended retroactively. The Act cannot be located. Section 6 has never been amended and is therefore cited as enacted

Effective date

Upon publication, and at every date at which Bureau property is or has been held

Supersession

Supersedes Property Circular 6, issued 1931, which has not been located. The custody provisions of Property Circular 6 are carried forward without change, as they are the provisions under which the Circular is held

Published

May 11, 2026

Purpose

This directive establishes requirements for recognizing, declaring, examining, holding, and disposing of out-of-period property.

It also establishes the Bureau’s custody standard. The standard exists because the Bureau holds property at dates at which it is not present, and required a definition that made this ordinary.

Authority

Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, section 6, as amended retroactively.

The Act cannot be located. Section 6 has never been amended and is therefore cited as enacted.

Supporting authorities:

1. HAEB Directive 4.1, Nonlocal Historical Duty.
2. HAEB Directive 7.4, Premature Language and Unauthorized Foreshadowing.
3. HAEB Directive 9.9, Records That Should Not Exist.
4. HAEB Directive 14.6, Corrective Actions With No Historical Effect.

Scope

This directive applies to:

1. Objects present before their approved manufacture, distribution, use, ownership, or disposal period.
2. Objects present after their approved disposal period.
3. Bureau property issued under Directive 4.1, at every date.
4. Documentation, packaging, accessories, and instructions belonging to an object in either condition, whether or not the object is present.
5. Objects that have not yet been manufactured.

This directive does not apply to objects that are merely old.

Definitions

Out-of-period property. An object present outside its approved manufacture, distribution, use, ownership, or disposal period.

Approved period. The interval during which an object is permitted to exist, established by the Bureau of Premature Invention and published by the Office of Anachronism Control. An object’s approved period is a determination, not an observation.

Premature invention. An object, technique, word, policy, or idea available before its approved readiness date.

Continuous government custody. Property acquired by the Bureau remains in government custody at every date, whether or not the Bureau is in possession of it, whether or not the Bureau has been established at that date, and whether or not the property is present. Custody is established by acquisition. It is not interrupted by absence, burial, sale, inheritance, excavation, exhibition, publication, or the passage of intervening centuries.

Loss. Not a recognized condition for property in continuous government custody.

Delayed return. The correct term for property in continuous government custody that has not been in the Bureau’s possession for an extended period. A delay in return is measured in years and does not require explanation.

Archaeological availability. The condition of property that becomes recoverable from a deposition without a recorded act of deposition.

Period-appropriate concealment. Storage of Bureau property at a date-of-duty using only materials available at that date.

Disposition. The Bureau’s determination of what happens to a declared object. Disposition is not the same as location.

Responsibilities by office

1. Office of Anachronism Control. Owns the determination of when an object is permitted to exist. Publishes approved periods, maintains the custody register, and issues dispositions.
2. Bureau of Premature Invention. Establishes approved invention dates and reviews an object’s markings, materials, and documentation for premature language.
3. Office of Field Support. Issues and recovers date-assignment equipment under Directive 4.1, and schedules any return of property to its approved period.
4. Office of Records That Should Not Exist. Holds documentation for objects whose existence conflicts with the Official Record, including manuals for objects that have not been manufactured.
5. Office of Continuity Verification. Confirms after disposition that the object’s approved period remains in effect.
6. Division of Biographical Integrity. Reviews any object establishing a person’s presence outside that person’s approved lifespan.
7. Directorate of Retroactive Compliance. Certifies that a disposition produced no historical effect.
8. Office of Future Non-Jurisdiction. Declines jurisdiction over objects whose approved period has not begun.

Where more than one office declines to claim an object, custody remains with the Office of Anachronism Control.

Procedures

1. Recognition

Indicators of out-of-period property:

1. The object accepts or delivers electrical charge. An object that does so is presumed to have an approved period beginning after 1800.
2. Fasteners, fibers, dyes, adhesives, or stitching unavailable at the date of discovery.
3. Markings, brands, serial numbers, warnings, or dates postdating the context.
4. Documentation for an object that is not present.
5. Recall notice, warranty, or receipt preceding manufacture.
6. Bureau property tags in an archaeological, architectural, geological, genealogical, or household context.

A fossil is not out-of-period property. A fossil that charges is out-of-period property, and the charge, not the fossil, establishes the approved period.

2. Declaration

Declaration is made on HAEB Form 17-B, Declaration of Out-of-Period Property.

1. Retention in place is the preferred disposition and is the default while a declaration is under review.
2. Property is not accepted by mail. A container arriving by mail is held unopened and its arrival is recorded as a declaration.
3. A declarant is not required to establish the object’s approved period. Field 13 of Form 17-B requests the earliest date the object is approved to exist, and an incomplete answer does not invalidate the declaration.
4. A declarant is not required to identify the object. Objects of unknown purpose are the second most commonly declared category.

3. Custody determination

Every declared object is assigned one of three custody states:

1. Private. Not Bureau property. Disposition guidance is issued and no custody entry is made.
2. Continuous government custody. Bureau property. The custody entry is dated to acquisition, not to declaration.
3. Undetermined. Held as Bureau property until determined, and dated to acquisition on determination.

Property in continuous government custody cannot be lost. Where such property has not been in the Bureau’s possession, the interval is recorded as a delay in return.

4. Examination

While a declaration is under review, an object may not be charged, powered, opened, paired, synchronized, restored, cleaned, sampled, or offered for sale.

An object that has already been charged is examined as charged, and the charge is recorded as a condition of the object rather than as an act of the declarant.

5. Disposition

Available dispositions correspond to Form 17-B, field 27:

1. Surrender to the Bureau. Receipt issued on HAEB Form 71-P.
2. Authorization to retain. Granted where the object’s approved period cannot be established and the object is not charging anything.
3. Return to approved period. Available only where the approved period has been established and the Office of Field Support has an assignment already scheduled to a date within it. Assignments are not scheduled solely to accomplish a return.
4. Disposal guidance. Issued in writing. Disposal before the approved disposal date creates a second declaration.
5. Confirmation that the object is ordinary. Issued on request. The confirmation is issued about the object.
6. Record only. No action. The record is the action.

6. Property recovered during corrective fieldwork

Property recovered in the course of authorized corrective fieldwork is recorded as recovered.

It is not recorded as introduced.

7. Property that does not return from an assignment

Equipment issued under Directive 4.1 that is not surrendered at arrival processing is entered into delayed return on the day the assignment closes. The entry names the equipment, the date-of-duty, and the assignment. It does not name a cause.

Delayed return is not a finding, is not reported to the Inspector General, and does not affect the employee’s clearance to be assigned again.

8. Application

Bureau property recorded as Field Device 7 was issued in the current period. It was subsequently recovered from a 79 deposition, became archaeologically available in 1748, and was entered into inventory in 2026 with a condition code of used.

Custody was continuous throughout. The interval of 1,947 years is recorded as a delay in return and does not meet the definition of loss. An appeal of the delay remained open for the duration of the interval and was closed on entry into inventory.

See HAEB-0079-DEVICE7.

Exceptions

1. An object whose approved period has not begun is not out-of-period property. It is not yet property.
2. Property already held by the Bureau is exempt from declaration. The Bureau does not declare to itself.
3. Objects that are old.
4. Objects that appear premature but are kitchen tools.
5. Concerns arising solely from the return of a clothing style.
6. An object concerning which the Bureau has instructed a person in writing not to create a record. The written instruction is retained by the person and is not a record.

Records created

1. Declaration on HAEB Form 17-B.
2. Custody register entry, dated to acquisition.
3. Examination record.
4. Delayed return entry, where applicable.
5. Disposition notice.
6. Surrender receipt on HAEB Form 71-P, where applicable.
7. Certification of no historical effect.

No record of an object’s absence is created. Absence is not a condition of property in continuous government custody.

Metrics

Reported annually by the Office of Anachronism Control:

1. Objects declared: 4,118.
2. Objects with an established approved period: 4,118.
3. Objects in continuous government custody: 4,118.
4. Objects lost: 0.
5. Objects in delayed return: 61.
6. Mean delay in return: 214 years.
7. Longest delay in return: 1,947 years.
8. Corrective actions with no historical effect: 100 percent.

Items 4 and 5 are not compared.

Training

Annual. Two hours. Course AC-220, Recognition of Out-of-Period Property, administered by the Office of Anachronism Control.

Required modules:

1. Indicators and Common False Positives. Forty minutes.
2. Handling of Objects That Require Charging. Forty minutes.
3. Custody, Delayed Return, and the Terminology of Absence. Forty minutes.

An employee who cannot establish an object’s approved period at the end of the course is certified as having completed the course.

Effective date

Effective upon publication, and at every date at which Bureau property is or has been held.

An object declared before publication is governed by this directive. An object declared before the Bureau was established is governed by this directive and is recorded as having been declared correctly.

Supersession

Supersedes Property Circular 6, issued 1931, which has not been located. The custody provisions of Property Circular 6 are carried forward without change, as they are the provisions under which the Circular is held.

Approved: Constance Vale, Acting Administrator.

No property in continuous government custody has been lost.