[ac29]

> That's not because of their credit risk but because they pay little to no coupon and get discounted through the interest rates. In particular imagine a treasury bond that will pay $100 in 10 years, you wouldn't pay $100 for that, would you? You'd instead put that $100 in a savings account (t-bills).

Long treasuries (>1 year) are issued at very close to par and do pay coupons. A treasury that is trading at 50-something cents on the dollar has lost a lot of value (because it has a lower coupon rate than newer treasuries).

[khuey]

Yeah the particular one I was looking at was 912810SP4, a 30 year treasury with a 1.375% coupon. It was issued in August 2020 at a price of $99.24 for $100 of par, and it now trades just under $59.