I keep a complete record of who I bought the coin from, when, and the price, and then record and take photos of each for my records. Living where I do (see https://www.cointalk.com/threads/first-snow-of-the-year.366406/page-2#post-4854735), I don't worry about break-ins and have a high fire rated safe for my more valuable coins and currency. I've never used a SDB and don't like the unavailability of them, especially in emergency situations. Like others, I have my methods of protecting my collection.
I’m curious as to why people keep records. I usually write the price I paid for the coin on it if it’s not junk silver but that is about it. Does it just make you feel better to have that info in case you need it or do you sell a lot of them and need to know that stuff? I feel like I’m doing something wrong. Or maybe I’m just lazy.
I have 3 Safes Now And of course wife is displeased but i am the head of the house i rule LOL I also have Glock, Cameras and 2 German Shepherds !! Darn it I cant remember which safe has my will and last testament. Well they will have fun with that one
You should do like I do. I have 7 safes and no one knows the combinations except me. That will teach 'em.
I do have a few coins at home but nothing of any value. Anything else is stored in an extremely secure location and not at home. Otherwise called a vault. Unless you live in a very safe location keeping high value coins at home is not something I would advise. If you have a home safe you need to make sure it's very heavy 500 lbs minimum. I have a collector friend that a family member that had a drug problem come into his home with some friends and refrigerator hand truck and stole his safe. The safe was about 800 lbs. They didn't get to far with it. It's one thing to steal a safe but it's another one to be able to open it. A heavy duty safe without knowing the combination is no different than stealing a block of cement. You can move it but it can that a long time to get it opened. Hitting the combination lock with a hammer only makes it almost impossible to open.
Or....you can have your safes in a secret room. A secret room that is far far away from a door behind piles and piles of junk (neat stuff) and will probably take my family 2 or 3 weeks to clear enough (neat stuff) to get anything bigger than a 5-gallon bucket out of let alone think about moving one of the safes. But I do agree with you about being able to steal the whole safe if it's easily accessible.
Picking a safe is really not that hard. Drilling it is even easier. Neither is a skill I posses but neither is even close to rocket surgery. Happily most safe thefts are, like above, druggies and opportunists who wouldn’t have a clue how to find someone who posses such a skill.
I house sat for a good family friend for a few weeks as I do about 4 times a year. Checked on the animals 3 times a day. One time When they came back he called when the got in and asked if anyone else was at the house? Nope, didn't see any signs and didn't have anyone else over when I was there...why what's up I asked? Misplaced 15k in gold coins that he couldn't locate and was inquiring before he called the police . I said go ahead and make the call. He called back a few hours later and apologized (sort of didn't really think I helped myself to his gold) he moved it around a few different times and forgot the final place ( In with his shoes) I laughed....let me know ahead of time next time and I'll just take them home and lock them up for you.
That's why you have multiples and a security system. Keeps them guessing what's behind the doors till security or the homeowners show up.
Just take a video of your collection and put value on it and store that offsite. Your homeowners insurance will likely cover it (verify) if you have it stolen or it’s lost in a fire .
Not without a rider, which will be extremely expensive. Coins and jewelry are explicitly excluded from coverage in standard homeowner policies.
Jewelry is covered on standard Homeowners policy, with limitations, for named perils. Coins and currency also covered, with their own limits. Again for named perils. And at face value You don’t ever want to have to file a claim for them. You won’t be happy As @-jeffB says you need a rider for higher limits. Or preferably a separate policy, all risk. Sometimes called Floater or Marine coverage I suggest a talk with your agent. They will be happy to talk to you about your needs. I always took those calls
Thank you for your comments. Our agent handles our cars (4 Toyotas) policies and our homes (2 homes) policies. We are retired and travel very little and our credit is 830+ plus other items. He's a former student of my wife's as is his wife. It's nice to live in a community where almost everyone was in my wife's senior English class. If they didn't pass, they didn't graduate (back then, it's all changed now, tho.) Anyway, he said he could get an underwriter, if needed. Depending on your need, it could be prohibitive. Best of luck.
Thats inaccurate based on my research. My own policy for example covers up to 30k of jewelry/coins without a rider. Like i said, you need to verify with your own insurance company as they all differ. Anyway, my point is its an option if you dont want to have a bunch of dogs, guns, 8 safes, etc lol
Get a giant safe bolt it to the foundation of your house and always be aware of whats happening on your property
Well, basically it's to keep control over your collection, same reason a business with inventory, does inventory checks and annual or more frequent valuations. As far as keeping records of who, where and when and price paid, this is mostly to protect yourself from being charged with receiving stolen goods/fencing, if an item has a questionable provenance and is detected. It's a receipt of a sale in essence, same like the one from Home Depot, where, when, what, how much. it's something a coin shop or a pawn show would do really, because if the cops come looking, you'd want to know who to point at for it being on your shelf. I have an inventory and organization of my collection, a constant work in progress as well as valuations, if I get in a horrible car wreck today and die, (knock on wood), I'd like to think someone in my family will take the inventory and valuation and have a shot of figuring out how much its all worth without coming on here and asking the rookie questions or spending months to sort it all out and spinning around in circles because they aren't coin collectors. I didn't always have it that organized though, it just struck me that if something happens, I don't want them rolling it all up and depositing it all at a bank, or a coin dealer saying "junk, I'll give you face value for everything". then spend the time to cherry pick and profit off my collection when my family could have. It's your collection, you can do whatever you like really. I was lazy for decades about it until I realized mortality and it being a monster for someone unfamiliar to deal with. I also know my family will have no clue on the comic books, or toy collection or anything else I collect or what to do with it, which in my opinion, is sell it wholesale it to a dealer in bulk, organized and cataloged, and let them get their cut for piecing it out or selling in lots retail and family walking away with more than face for sure. The more work there is figuring it out, the less likely people will do the figuring it out, and either family says "screw it, whatever" or the dealer says "screw it, if I take this mess, I better be able to make a lot off the effort required", and the less value can be realized.
Make very sure that the policy doesn't cover coins at face value, as another poster mentioned. I believe mine actually excludes cash, although I may be confusing that with SDB policies, it's been a while since I did the reading. I'm sure that different providers do have differing policies. And there are well-known third-party insurers who do cover coins; Hugh Wood comes to mind.
Actually it really depends on the type of safe you have. If you buy one from Walmart or any big box store then I would say yes those aren't hard to pop open. Cheap Chinese junk steel. I could cut one of those in half with a diamond saw in less than an hour. However, if you buy a real safe that was designed properly getting into them can be extremely difficult. We have a safe at work for important documents (no cash) that weighs about 3,000 lbs and has 8 inch thick doors with 1-1/2 diameter pins (6 or 8 per door) that lock the doors. It was made around 1895 in Boston. You need a big fork truck just to move it in our shop. Our office was robbed one night after work. They didn't even bother to spin the combination dial. Instead they took a lap top and some other stuff from our shop. Typical druggie looking for a quick hit and run. In most cases the robbers are looking for a quick hit and run and get out quick. However, no safe offers 100 percent protection against a skilled robber. The key is how much time a robber is willing to spend to open a safe. No robber is going to want to spend hours trying to open a safe.
