I had a safe deposit box in Joplin. My bank was destroyed in the tornado and I lost everything that was stored inside. The bank wouldn't do nothing about it. Although, my little wall safe was in my back yard. I was able to recover everything from it. I wish I would of built a safe in the home and I would still have all my items. I like the hidden passageway site. That I believe is the best alternative in my humble opinion.
most banks will not insure your coins. so a safe at home is a good idea, but i would still insure it. I bought extra coverage. so i'm covered against fire,water or theft.
Good points OP, especially about your hours. A pretty economical way to do it is to simply have a location built that can facilitate one or two executive safes, designed so there is not easy access to sided or backs of them, and no space to have pry bars get leverage. The construction workers would never know that something like that would be installed there. Later have a safe company bring them in and install, most safe companies screen their employees for better safety. I was thinking of something like building on the ground level, (to secure into concrete), a type of closet with mortar walls on the back and sides. To the construction workers it would look like an overbuilt closet. Put in two executive safes, and have tons of space for coins. Have the access doors concealed to appear part of the wall. Not horribly expensive, and the construction crew would not know safes are there. Chris
To the OP: Don't assume any of this stuff about the construction companies/workers is true. Use maximum paranoia when building a home safe. Anything you can think of has already been thought of by professional thieves. The construction workers are a common source of the schemes that lead to thefts. In addition, do like x115 suggested and keep a firearm handy as well (unless you have small children).
I had one installed in a house I had built, sunk it right into the foundation in a closet in the basement. A thief would need a jack-hammer to get that one out. I liked it because it enabled me to look at my valuables any time I wanted without any big fuss. It was a real safe but designed to go into the floor or I suppose a wall.
I'm impressed by these. This is what's on my radar. Top of the line, made in USA. Check out the Presidential and National series. If you didn't have guns to store, you'd really have room. http://www.libertysafe.com/ Watch the torture tests.
I cut concrete for a living. A bank built an addition to their vault on the back of their building. When the addition was done, but for one access wall still open, the bank was ready to cut a doorway into the old vault so that the new vault could be joined to it.... Make sense? We came to cut the doorway in the concrete vault wall. It was a big deal, with rent-a-cop security and local deputies all around, since the vault contents would be exposed to the outside world for a day. The bank moved the safe deposit boxes away from the wall in one section about 4' wide, where we would cut in the door. We cut the door in. After removing the concrete from the wall, we discovered that the layout of the doorway was misplaced by whomever (not our responsibility), and the right side vertical cut for the doorway was about 2" over into the back of the safe deposit boxes. End result was our blade cut a 7' tall x 3/16" wide slot into the back of the boxes, clean through the steel into the interior contents... The boxes exposed by the cut were full of the liquid by product of cutting reinforced concrete, we call it 'slurry'. The bank manager had to contact all of the box owners to tell them their boxes were compromised and whatever was in them was probably ruined. IMO, the only valueables that I could imagine making it through this would be slabbed coins. Paper of any kind, documents, etc... would be toast, even possibly unidentifiable after exposure like this. Coins would be exposed to the acid nature of the slurry, as it is full of lye and lime. This event, and the time the FBI investigated all the local cutters because a bank robbery was commited by sawing into a concrete vault at night, will stick with me. Edit: I didn't take any pics of that job, but I do have pics of the process of sawing a door into a wall...
Watch for sales at your local gun and sporting goods stores. I managed to get a Liberty Centurion for less than $500.
I have a 30 cubic foot safe that was bolted to the concrete floor of my basement and then a locked closet was built around it. The doorway is narrower than the safe. If someone wanted to remove it, they would not only have to tear down the walls around it, but would have to jack-hammer it out of the floor. I'm guessing they would not take the time to do that. And it weighs 700 pounds. The locked closet door keeps casual observers and people working in the house (e.g. an electrician) from finding out that it is there. Humidity is an issue. I have a dehumidifier in the room and I keep 6 2.5 lb silica gel canisters inside the safe at all times. They need to be regenerated every 1-2 weeks in the summer, but the humidify inside the safe can be kept below 40%. I also have a safe deposit box that I keep bullion coins in, but like others who've commented in this thread, I would never see my collection if I kept it there. Besides, the cost of enough safe deposit boxes to keep my entire collection would be prohibitive. The one safe deposit box I have, which is their biggest size costs about $165/year.
Sounds like the same exact setup I had except I put mine in the cedar closet. Was I thinking, or what?
I have my way of keeping my stuff safe... we have a secret room! it's in our basement, and there is a built in bookshelf. you have to remove a book, and inside is a keypad where you input a PIN number and it unlocks the door. :devil: Mizozuman2
It was installed and the closet enclosure built by a contractor who has been working with us for almost 20 years. He has a key to our house and his own alarm system code and we have always trusted him as much as we would trust a family member. I wouldn't have had it done by someone I didn't know well.
Well being in the cedar closet wasn't exactly a good idea. Cedar puts off more gasses than just about any wood. And those gasses are not good for coins.
Having a safe at home is perfectly fine. Putting it a the bank is not a good idea. A built in wall safe is great if it is well hidden.
