Not My Favourite of Days

You used to be able to buy insurance for your collection from the ANA....if you also kept it in a sdb. That might be the belt and suspenders method. Keep your receipts seperate.

 

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Maybe I'll put a note in my box atop the coin boxes:

"To any would-be thief, please note that most of these coins are bronze so melting them down for bullion isn't worth your effort, and each coin is well documented by published photos and is unequivocally identifiable so you won't be able to sell them."

 

No place is a 100% safe for storage. I could post news articles telling of home 'fire proof' safes being destroyed in fires or of home burglaries ... but you get the idea. No storage method is ideal and all are at some risk or another.

Safe deposit boxes are less of a risk, IMHO, and when something does go amiss with them it is news worthy!

 

The question is: "Can the rest of us trust her?" Putting my trust in a strangers hands, with my most treasured possessions?...............I don't think so!

 

I don't know the size of the SDB's that most of you have, but I have mine in the NC State Employee's Credit Union. State or Federal Credit Unions are supposed to have better protection than local or state banks, at least that's the story they're telling their customers. All of the large SDB's are leased, so I have to lease 2 of their next to largest SDB's. And, even 2 doesn't help so I have to use a "Fire Proof" safe at home that is protected by a German Shepherd, a Rottweiler mix, a Pit Bull mix, and a newly acquired Australian Shepherd, let alone with my Chihuahua-Dachshund that guard my home. I don't know how everyone decides which coins go to a SDB and which coins stay at home in a safe. I live off a dirt road, but our home is on a plot of about 5 acres, of which, only about 1 acre has been cleared, with a chain-link fence surrounding it so that our 6 dogs can roam and protect, but even if the burglar gets into the house, my attack cat will get him/them. Anyway, I would like to hear how CT compadres protect their valuables.

 

When I read that, I was thinking "heads Ronald Reagan, tails Jimmy Carter" in the voting booth, but I see from your picture what the real meaning was!

 

I posted something similar to the following elsewhere ……………

I now store, and carry with me everywhere I go, my entire (reduced) collection of twenty Roman Imperial coins in my Messager Bag (MB). Coins are in archival quality paper envelopes together with accompanying attribution tags (tested for pH suitability) and, in turn, strips of three vinyl flips cut from standard commercial sheets They fit neatly in my MB. I write a brief generic coin description on the outside of each envelope so that I can quickly identify them.

We no longer maintain a bank safe deposit box and I can’t remember the combination to our house safe (it’s complicated). My coins are well protected from the elements and I can easily get them out and fondle, admire & dream about their history when I am sitting in my recliner watching old movies at night, and I can easily show them off to people whenever I please.

I am not overly concerned about anyone cutting the strap on my MB and absconding with my coins, because the strap incorporates strands of tempered steel that resists all kinds of cutters - I had the clerk who sold it to me demonstrate that before I bought it.

Nothing is fool proof, that is for sure, but this is a satisfactory system for me in my dotage.

 

My safety devices come with sharp teeth , and will allow nobody with in 25 ft of the property unless I am home then they are very friendly. I always thought that if somebody wanted what I have bad enough , I wish they would just come and ask me for it. I am afraid that if someone broke in that they might leave with a few teeth marks in their butt. Man's best friend. We even get a tiny insurance break for having guard dogs. Most insurance companies do not recognize dogs as a deterrent. The dogs have served us well for 35 years now , and will continue to have them until I am to old to care for them . They are much better then safety deposit boxes unless someone shoots them I guess ? dillan

 

The largest size my bank offers - 9.75"H x 10.13"W x 21.25"D.

I have another smaller one for documents.

 

I have had safe deposit boxes for decades, but have never used them to store valuables. I have only used them for copies of important documents, inventory/asset lists, affidavits, etc (whether digital or paper).

A safe deposit is no more secure than a U-Stor-It.

 

There are ways to insure the contents of a safe deposit box.

 

Yeah, I am on the verge of needing to rent a 3rd.

I am with you OP, with a kind of sadness to have to put them in the bank. Unless like yesterday I had to go because I had an abnormal amount of gold and platinum around, I usually go when I fill up two red boxes or one double box. Right now it's a one was street, with me only putting into the sdb, never taking out. Once I am retired, I am hoping to have more time to start taking them home for visits.

 

The only thing I don't like about my SDB is that a credit union employee puts their key in the SDB then I put mine in, then we both turn the key at the same time. If the Credit Union employee is a man, he will take the box out of the slot and if it is a women, they will step back to "let" me take the SDB out of the slot. Then I take the box to a small room and they wait outside the door of the very small room with a built-in 30" table top. I set the box on the "desk" and then shut and lock the door. The first time I went to look at a coin for some information, I could hear them pace outside the door. The next time I went, I took a door-stop to prevent anyone from coming into the room. Having been a auditor with the Stake Auditor's Office, I've learned that "people are as honest as they have to be". Anyway, I only look at one box per trip to the Credit Union."
I noticed in an earlier posting, a picture of an automatic weapon. I'm not familiar with weapons as I used to be, but it looked like 9 mm or 45. Aside from my 6 dogs and attack cat, I too have a concealed weapon permit so that I can carry my 9 mm.

 

This brings to mind a place I lived for about two years in Wichita KS. The value of an item is totally relevant to the person that covets it. I had taken a job there, but kept and maintained my home of 20 years 275 miles away and would go back on weekends. I didn't want to spend anything at all on the apartment to stay at only 4 days a week, so took a cheap place in a so-so neighborhood. One day the husband and wife next door had a very loud shouting jag outside. "Someone broke into our apartment!" was the rant over and over. I asked what was taken and the woman yelled at me that "Someone broke in and stole my plastic bags!" She was talking about the free ones the grocery store sacks your groceries in. She was going to call the police and cut out their livers, or something like that. Gave me a lesson on what may be trivial to one, might just be something of extreme value killing for to another.

Good luck with that.
My cabin had signs that stated I have Cyanide trip guns and cameras in use, and there is nothing inside worth risking your life for. I have photos of two masked guys and a shotgun tearing off one of the signs, looking at it, then sailing it into the yard. Then they kicked the door down.

 

Just saw this thread after having read this New York Times article about Safe Deposit Boxes being UNSAFE for various reasons. I highly recommend reading this NYT article before making a dash for your local bank to rent a box.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/business/safe-deposit-box-theft.html

 

Assuming they're able to read and understand that !

Q

 

I was a bit lost by this post, you lost a bunch of coins that were stolen, then I see what looks like an Express Mail envelope ?

 

Many of us paid considerable $$$ for our coins, it's kind of self-defeating to not be able to look at them in the privacy of our own homes instead of a sterile bank vault.

SDBs were created when safes were not available to average homeowners in the late-1800's....high-density populations in growing metropolitan areas meant that you were surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of families within a few block radius. That's not the case today in the suburbs or rural areas.

Not pooh-poohing the risks of theft but I think between not advertising one's assets....having a heavy-duty safe (or good hiding spot in a big house)....and maybe employing a modern high-tech security system (haven't there been quantum improvements with Wi-Fi cameras, Bluetooth, and the internet ?).....I think the odds are now more keeping your stuff close to you.

I would also think that if you have alot of bullion and/or a sizeable coin collection that getting a SDB of sufficient size could be a problem. I know people who have hundreds of pounds of stuff; most SDB's are for a few rings, coins, and necklaces.