Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 2671114, member: 27832"]I haven't had access to an active bank vault. There's a science museum in the old hometown that's housed in an old bank building. That building was in use since before the Civil War. Upstairs, they've converted the "modern" vault, with its huge, impressive door, into an exhibit for minerals and fossils. The basement is used for storage, not open to the public, and that's where the old vault is -- the one that held stuff to be protected from enemy forces. It's very different from the new one, with a much less showy door, and simple wooden shelves (most likely chestnut!) inside. (I got to see it by volunteering to go down and change light bulbs for them. It's good to be tall.) Of course, it's entirely empty of any old coins or currency. Banks are all about rigorous accountability down to the last cent, right? They just don't leave money in dark corners. Even if a bank has been operating as the same entity in the same building since the 1800s, I'm sure all its money holdings must get counted regularly. Across all that time, I can't imagine that there wouldn't be at least one manager aware enough to swap out gold, silver, or obsolete notes for modern money. Would I be confident enough in these assumptions to pass up the opportunity OP describes? HA HA HA nope. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]