So what WOULD happen if your house burnt down?

Gee whiz.

By the sounds of things, I think if I ever build my own house, I'm gonna build a small tunnel in the basement with a room inside for my safe, then a fire door going to the tunnel.

Is it safer by chance to store the pricier coins in a SDB? I never heard of a bank burning down.

 

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Two better options?:

1) Boating accident. Unless the lake you choose happens to become the caldron of a local magma inducing event, target of an ICBM, or clash site of newly minted Marvel comic heroes soon to be memorialize by the Perth Mint, the hoard should be safe from excessive heat at least.

2) Prompt burial. Similar to option #1, except now the moles get to do their level best impression of Scrooge McDuck.

In either case, periodic retrieval may be a tad inconvenient.

 

I haven't heard of a coin related story about house fires and safes. But there was a story a while back about what happened to graded currency that was stored in a safe that was in a house fire. Basically the story was saying that some currency protectors can withstand the heat transferred through safes and other cannot.

I'm with Rodeoclown about priorities around something this tragic happening (i.e. My coin collection would not be in the top five or ten immediate concerns surrounding this event).

 

Another thing I wanted to ask.

Although my collection is valued in the two digit range right now, in the future if I ever have a big collection, do they make insurance just for coin collections?

If so, does anyone have it?

 

I didn't insure my collection. I kept most of it in a few SDBs and in an old bank vault so I didn't feel that the cost of insurance, providing proof of value etc. was worth it even though it was in the $75,000-$85,000 range. If I kept it at home, I might have considered insuring it.

 

Yes, Most insurance companies offer "riders" for coin collections that generaly don't even need an inventory if collection is under 5k in value and generaly only need actual apprasals done on coins valued over 1k. In my case i have a 10k rider to cover my collection which might be worth 2k but heck if the house burns down I'm sure gonna miss that huge pile of invisible $100 silver certificates that burned to ash... 8k worth of em

 

Banks do burn down and SDB's are not fire safe, nor are the vaults they reside in. We had a local bank that burned to the ground in the early 80's. The vault was literally all that remained, but it's insides were cooked and people were not allowed to try to reclaim their property as the boxes were slag. It happens.
Guy
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Actually not far from a good idea. I know a guy that when he build his house he built a walk in safe made of 36 inch (more than most bank vaults) concrete with a blast door, under the concrete foundations of his house. Thats probably the only truly fireproof safe. Of course, at 1100 square feet, if a fire breaks out inside the safe itself, it'll be it's own little contained, unstoppable fire.

 

So if I had 100 ounces of gold in a SDB, I would not be allowed to get it back? That's sounds like a lawsuit to me.

 

Better read the fine print. SDB's are not exempt from the owner needing to insure the contents, just like you would at home. No bank guarantees the safety of it's contents from fire or natural disaster.
Guy

 

Ya but with that, would there be a deductible?

My parent's home insurance has a $1000 deductible. A few years ago the roof had hail damage and the cost was $800. So that means the insurance was useless.

I don't even understand deductibles.

 

Never heard of a deductable on house insurance. But, like with auto, the higher deductable you have (amount you are responsible to pay before the insurance company shells out the remainder) the lower the cost of the insurance. It's just legalized gambling is all.
Guy

 

And on the 2nd floor. Florida is just a filled in swamp
only a few feet above sea level.

 

It's a variation on Adam Smith's " invisible hand."
Only this hand is rifling your wallet.

 

Of course if the house burns down completely, the safe will still wind up in the basement underwater.

 

Hope I never go through a fire, but have been through a flood. Frankly when it happened my worry was not about coins etc, but rather mywife, my neighbours and my kitten(we couldn't take her with us in the Red Cross shelter) When you have been through a disaster you get a real quick wake up call about what is really important - material things can be replaced, people and pets cannot. BTW my then kitten is now 19 years old, she made it through the flood and through the incredible generosity of complete strangers we had a home to stay in, and our kitty was cared for.

 

Really? I've never heard of house insurance without a deductible.

 

deductables are simply the amount your willing to pay up front before bringing in the insurance company. My house and all else carry a $500 deductable meaning simply the 1st $500 in damage to my house/possesions is my responsibility to pay and the insurence pays anything above that lvl up to the max amount of the policy. I could eliminate that $500 deductable but in the long run i would end up paying out amost $600 more a year on my insurance to do so. Regardless of what your deductable is your gonna have to pay it one way or another. In the case of a house burning down 500-1000 dollars is nothing. Even losing a lifetime of collectables and momentos thousands of dollars in coins mean NOTHING if you family isn't safe 1st.

 

Detecto, do you have insurance?

 

You can answer that question by reading his frequent general discussion posts.