Im new to the forum, and curious to know how all of you store your coins to keep them safe from theft and safe from fire. Im not too worried about flooding. Im looking to spend 1000$ give or take on a decent safe to store my collection. One thing I'm considering is having room for my collection grow and i also have a couple guns to throw in there. Im thinking about getting a steel water gun safe from what i have read and seen thats looking like my best bet. Any info on what you guys have and why you have it and like it would be great. Also the price of them would be helpful. Thank you for any response and looking forward to spending some time on the forum!!
First thing is you're going to catch flack for storing guns and coins together. But, I've had guns and coins in the same safe's for over 30 years and never had an issue. But I have almost no humidity where I live and I never put a gun away that hasn't been very well cleaned. As far as safes, not many will do much protecting against the heat of a house fire. The ones that might are well beyond the $1000 you have budgeted. Just don't go with a cheap Walmart safe and make sure it has bolts on at least three sides. Thats the extent of my knowledge.
Try looking here - http://www.amsecusa.com/home/ I've owned an Amsec safe for many years. Very well made, 2 hr fire rating, and a good burglary rating.
To resist burglary it's not the bolts so much as it is the strength of the material that surrounds the bolts. Even a $50 safe you can buy at Walmart has bolts on 3 sides, but they can be easily & quickly pried open with a long crow bar. With better made safes that is not the case. Most safes are purchased at lock & key shops. Talk to the people there about the burglary rating that a particular safe has. They know and can steer you in the right direction.
My good stuff is in a safe deposit box at my bank. It's only the inexpensive items I keep at home ... in a 2-hour safe. For the best rates from Hugh Wood that's the type of home safe you need.
First thing you need to assess is what are you protecting against? Most get one to protect from theft with fire as a secondary concern. Are you protecting $100K or more in coins that people know you have, or a personal collection of about $10-20K that you keep pretty private? For theft you will have 2 types.....the oportunistic ones and the pros. 99% of burglaries(yes burglary, not robbery...pet peeve of mine) are low skilled ones trying to get what quick valuables they can. Most safes will deter them as long as it's BOLTED DOWN. Otherwise they will just carry it away and work on it later. Time is not on their side and they usually want in and out. You get what you pay for in a safe....most of the time. I have a gun safe that is older that I bought used for about 1/5 what a similar one would cost today. It's a tank. Not all the fancy bells and whistles of fancy storage areas like todays distract you with. Heavy 3/8 plate door with 3/16 double wall sides. Most burglars will attack the door and they won't get through this one. The new fancy safes(even expensive ones) have composite door which aren't as tough. Search google and learn. Bolt it down in a corner so you only expose one side. The top, sides and back are the weakness. Given the right tools and time that is where a good burlgar will defeat your safe. Give them very little to attack with a small work area to make it tough. A closet is best but who really has the closet space to spare. Garage, while easy to unload there and that's where the wife will want it, is the worst. Easy access to the safe, plenty of working room, tools likely handy and can back a truck in an take entire safe, even a 1000# one if determined enough. If fire protection is priority don't put in basement. That's the hottest area. I'm not worried too much about fire since I live in town and it will be out in 30 min or less, even though my does have a 2hr rating. I load my safe in such a manner that they will have to cut it open on the gun side. Even if they get a hole cut in it, they will have a heck of a time with the long guns. The coins/cash/gold/etc are on the far side inside another smaller safe. It's smaller but can't be lifted with one arm and likely can't be pulled through any hole they cut. This is where the expensive coins stay. If unlucky enough to get broken into I hope they are distracted by the guns and more common coins and don't even mess with this. I have other measures in place that I won't discuss in a forum or even tell my friends about, but I promise it's failsafe and better than any security system you pay for. And no, it's not a booby trap......maybe. Do your research so you don't regret what you buy. We discuss safes at work often as 95% of us have guns. We also investigate burglaries for a living and in 24yrs I've only seen and heard about 1 professional cutting a safe in a residence. Literally thousands of B&Es where they attack the door without success. The only ones that succeed are those that take the unbolted safes with them and have days to work on it. Most guys are happy with their $600 Winchester and Stack On safes, others spend big money on fancy Browning safes that are little better but still 11-12ga sides and composite doors. Me, I lost all my friends because mine killed 5 guys moving it. And I spent between the Winchester and Browning for a really solid safe.
I also went with a vintage safe, but how could I resist when the thing was free? It is from the 30s or 40s and weighs in at about 600 pounds for a small floor model. Stands about 36" high by about 30" wide, on old caster wheels. I took the door off to move it in my house and it alone weighed at least 150 lbs. I doubt it has any real fire protection but hopefully it will drop through the house before it burns up, and of course i live in town so hopefully a fire would be put out rather quickly. Dont feel like anyone can really cart it off though and when I go on extended trips I remove everything and place it with a family member or a SDB for safe keeping while I am away.
I bought a lower end Amsec BF716 for my home, but it's only the inexpensive stuff and paperwork that is in it. Everything that would give me an ulcer is in one of my two safe deposit boxes, unless I just bought it - it might spend a few days at home before I go to the bank.
