When my car pool buddy discovered I was acquainted with a former neighbor she related the follwing story. Old neighbor (I will call her Mrs. C) was widowed several years ago. Husband was a frugil man who also collected a few coins. He caught on fire when burning some scrap metal and died. His wife, Mrs. C was distraught. She did not have funds to get her to the next month. One lady said her groceries were running out within a week of his passing. In short time, she went to the bank to open their safety deposit box. She had no idea that he had 16 of them. It turned out all the boxes were full - filled with coins. No one seems to know what kind of coins, or seems to care. Mrs. C was so awe strucken that her best friend, I will call her Mrs. Artist, said that they had to get her a chair before she collapsed. Mrs. C. truely thought she was poor. Liquidation came next. Mrs. C moved from her broken down & simple home a couple blocks from me and purchased one of the nicer homes in a nearby large city (2 hours away). This brought Mrs. C closer to her adult children. She has'nt had to worry about money since. About 20 years have now passed since Mr. C died. This is a true story. I think of the 16 safety deposit boxes often. It would make for a nice goal. In a soft and interesting way, Mr. C is sort of a hero in my eyes. I became acquainted with his wife some years ago, but knew little of her finances. She is a good woman. She deserved something like this. I think of this story as an example of the quiet magic that can be possible from coin collecting.
Thank the Lord she knew about the deposit boxes. I have served as a witness at the opening of many safe deposit boxes with many treasures inside that became property of the state because the boxes were forgotten for many years. I've been helping a family member liquidate a collection, and she had no idea of its value. Be sure you share your collection with your family somehow.
Here in Girard, PA, there was an elderly couple living in a fairly run down house. They had a garage sale one day, and I went to it. There was a room packed full of that white colored 'milk glass' stuff. I remember this guy coming to my sale and buying several pieces for 25 cents each.The pieces were common and pretty much worthless, but the husband had 12-100 dollars on the pieces. i don't think any sold. This couple had no running water in their kitchen, because the husband had told the wife he couldn't afford to have it installed. Long story short, he died, she went to the bank and found that he had over $250,000 in the bank. She had the house re-done, threw the milk glass out, and planted a garden that got the 'garden of the month' award.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand or "appriciate" the OP's article. I have a Safety Deposit box with my bank. My understanding is that if I die, it is "sealed" as of the date and time of my death. So, in other words, my heirs can't raid it to avoid paying taxes on anything I might have stored there. Can somewone clarify/verify?
The wifes name was also on the boxes or she would have needed a court order to take them. The spouse would have no tax issues but when she dies there could be. If he had owed any back taxes the boxes may have been sealed. With that said, states have different laws. It's wise to check with a CPA or lawyer. What's really fun is trying to get a name off of a box that should have never been there. Just had to do that. Not easy.
While the story has a good ending. Mrs. C seems to have been deprived of wealth while living in poverty ?
As usual there may well be a lot to this story that is not being told. In Illinois you can have several names on a safe deposit box but the signers MUST sign at the bank, in person and see the box. I found this all out when I wanted to add my Son and his Wife to my boxes. This was not easy since they are in another state. The purpose of this is if something happens to me, they can just continue the ownership of those boxes as long as they pay the annual fee and no one has to know what is in them. Everything in them is now thiers and no one has to know I'm gone at all. If I wanted to get thier names or one of their names off those boxes, I would either have to have them here to autorize that or allow the boxes payments to expire and take out all new ones with only my name or whoever. I've hear from my attorney that this is different in many states and in some only one name can be on a box as the renter. Naturally the problem with this is if they die, no one knows about the boxes and if they do, then the contents goes to probate. As he said though, laws of safe deposit boxes are different in different states. Back to that story though, I find it interesting that anyone that knows of all those boxes never suspected there was money in them. He had 16 boxes and all had her name on them too? And she never went to look? Either she is not a real female or some kind of odd ball. I hate to say this but a female that doesn't want to know what her husband has in 16 safe deposit boxes? And just who is paying the bills for those all those years? And again, a wife that doesn't suspect something funny about the output of all that money for those 16 boxes? Not sure but sounds odd to me. I just never met a female with so little interest in her husband's affairs. Sure wish mine was like that. Most wives know what thier husbands have in all their pockets at any time of the day. I think most women today have GPS units embedded in thier husbands while they sleep.
Maybe that was the point.... He might have taken enjoyment in collecting the coins, and his wife may have taken enjoyment in spending them.
