After read the story, I don't think she wanted anyone to have her coins, thats why it wasn't in the will and she never told her family either about it . Sounds like another crazy elderly persons to me ...
Like a lot of people in her generation, she probably wanted some emergency money in case she needed it someday. Having a safe no one knows about with some silver in it does not seem like a "crazy elderly person" to me. Or maybe I am just some crazy elderly dude. Actually, with guns I am betting it was grandpa's safe, and grandma just kept what was inside it a secret.
My uncle was a coin collector and saw the charges for a safe deposit box consuming the increase in value of the coins he had so decided to buy a safe like this. He paid several employees to help him move it across town and get it into the back door of his house, which had a short landing and proceeded directly into the basement and laterally into the kitchen. He placed planks on his stairway, got a heavy block and tackle and a 4 x 4 to bridge across the back door frame. As he was lowering it into the basement the 4 x 4 broke, the stairs collapsed and the safe proceeded into the basement and took out his furnace. He had to sell his coin collection to pay for the repairs and furnace replacement. The safe had been damaged and the combination dial wouldn't turn. His children ended up selling the house with the old empty safe in the basement.
Or, more likely from my experience, grandpa didn't tell anybody and grandma simply didn't care, or even suspect. A similar safe exists in many estates I've been involved with.
