Home Safes Again Fail To Protect Coins From Thieves

The weakest point of a safe is the owner. If someone wants what you have bad enough they could break into your house and hold you at gunpoint until you give them what they want.

If you are gonna go buy a safe, make sure you have guns and some dogs first.

 

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And if your are DEAD serious about keeping firearms for self protection... The best idea is to keep a loaded gun in the safe while having one by the bedside... This way if an intruder gets the drop on you and forces you to open the safe you have a last chance effort IF the situation calls for it...

 

Loose Lips Sink Ships, I agree mostly with the advise in this forum about guarding your collection by limiting knowledge of it's existance to only those that need to know. Basically there are pros and cons to all the other options... guns, dogs, banks, safes.. etc. Each collector will have to judge the value of their own collection and what safety measures make them sleep better at night, but safeguarding the information and facts of your collection is always a pro and never a con so it seems to me to be the best advise.

 

you think your stuff is safe in a bank, then think again

http://www.1stmillionat33.com/2008/07/safety-deposit-box-is-not-safe/

 

Thank you, someone who understands the law.

 

Let's see . . .

3 cases of safe(ty) deposit box break-ins vs. 3 stolen home safes every day/week/month (take your pick)

I think I'll take my chances with a safe(ty) deposit box for my valuable stuff.

 

They wont get into my safe unless they have a lot of time to spare. Its bolted into the foundation of my house, heavy as hell, and then they need to get it out of the door and get into it. Not only that but there is almost always someone home, as well as a few big dogs...If someone thinks just placing a safe on the floor somewhere in your house is all you need to do...then they havent spent enough due diligence.

I would never trust my collection to a safety deposit box, I barely trust a bank to hold my money and only keep an account with those crooks for direct deposit. All the government has to do is declare that for some reason they need access to it and it will happen...

 

All things considered, a good hiding place is probably as good or better than a good safe if you plan to store coins at home and not in a safe deposit box. Nothing is 100% safe regardless of what you do, so putting some in the safe deposit box, some in the safe, and some in a hiding place diversifies the risk of loss.

 

Safes arent very expensive and if you get the right one and install it right its going to be more trouble than its worth for most crooks who might enter your house.

If your safe is not bolted down, you might as well just be putting your money in a cardboard box. First they have to get into my house which is almost always occupied, thus they will have to deal with the people who have easy access to firearms and 2 big dogs who hate people inside their house, if they wait for us to leave...then they better hope we stay gone for quite some time because my safe has 8 thick heavy bolts (4 on each side) keeping it closed and 4 long strong bolts going deep into the foundation. Its going to take real time and real effort just to release the thing from where its bolted and getting it out of the door and into a vehicle (heavy as hell and large). Then they have to get into it which will take a long time unless they are somehow expert safe crackers...and then when the door opens there is a small alarm I made myself that will release a very loud, shrill alarm and in the end, if they are taking this type of time and trouble to get into my safe, they are going to be sorely disappointed with the rewards and their time might be better spent going after a bank or finding someone who has bought a smaller safe that isnt bolted down, or no safe at all. Then again if they look at my house, they might be smart enough to realize I am not wealthy and my safe doesnt have anything priceless and it wont be a big score.

If any story says they just walked out of the house with a safe, they got the wrong safe. The only reason why I chose the safe and not the bank is the precedence set that shows that if they have any reason (real or contrived) to believe you have something there you shouldnt, or if the government decided again that private ownership of gold is a no-no...or if something like is happening in some places where owning undocumented antiquities (90% of my collection) is criminal...they will go right into that box and take everything with no hesitation.

A REAL good safe is not that expensive, getting it bolted down is hard but not that bad. Like you say, if someone wants to get into it bad enough, they might find a way so the best bet is to go the route that keeps anyone but yourself from having easy access to it, keeping it in your possession, and take steps to make sure its going to be more effort than its worth...there are just too many people who use easily movable safes, or no safes at all, no alarms systems, too many easy targets to make mine a good choice.

 

You need to stop watching so much TV. It is not easy to crack a large gun safe and common thieves could not crack any safe. Want TV, how about the guy on COPS that got locked inside the store he was robbing and could not get out.

Exceptional thieves can crack a safe. If an exceptional thief decides to target your house, your only defense is to not have your valuables in the house.

 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned much, whether it's a safe or safety deposit box, is the incredible importance of tacking on a rider or floater to your homeowner's policy covering the valuables you are having held for safe keeping.

A home safe buys you a limited amount of coverage that you should absolutely increase to cover total loss of your valuables.

A safety deposit box may or may not, depending on your policy and if it does, it should be increased for total loss as well. The bank nor the FDIC offers no coverage to loss.

The absolutely hardest part is the loss of irreplaceable objects like heirlooms, photos or other things of sentimental value. There is no insurance for that, but everything else should be covered. Am I right?

 

Thanks for that info, initials guy. That's a better deal than my rider.

 

This case comes from the Allentown, PA area.

Man arrested in gold coins theft

 

Hey RickieB, Dont suppose an Old Army Sapper can have a chance at your safe? the only thing that concerns me is the 44, well more the nutty marine holding the 44, but you get my point

Anyhow, I love this thread, it is one of my favorite things....force protection.
Think like the enemy to protect the friendlies, so here is a couple of points as the devil's advocate:

Dogs like meat; meat with sedatives in it, is still meat. Dogs will eat meat with sdedatives
-Fix: Train dogs only to eat from immediate family (hard to do but helps)
We talk about how are it is to move a particular safe. Y move it? It isnt hard to get chemicals, explosives or other 'unconventional' means to enter a wall or top of a safe.
-Fix: Sink the bugger in concrete.
Don't use fancy digital codes and numbers.....old fashioned dial or keys....computers can be hacked no matter how small they may be

Armed? so are the intruders more than likely....most definatley if they have reason to think you already have a gun. How far will you go to protect your belongings as long as you and your family are not immediately threatened. What are you able to do (personally) in front of yoru family? Me? take the coins, leave us alone, I like living....If you were to go for my wife or kids, then I best be dead first...
Fix: None....that is something you gotta decdid on the spot.

 

I work in Contents Pricing for an insurance company. Basically, my job is to figure out how much we pay out to people who lost whatever it is that we insure. Just last week, I received a contents list that was made up entirely of a safe, an enormous amount of jewelry, silverware, and some bullion coins. It's actually pretty common for safes to go missing with whatever's inside them, so if you are going to go with a safe, make sure you get something of very high quality, or there's really not much of a point.

I would like to comment about insuring coins: like GDJMSP said, most policies don't cover them for any more than face value, and there's often a a low coverage limit. I've had to price out someone's large collection of Mercury dimes at $0.10 a piece, and I've had others who hit the $200 limit* they had almost immediately, with many, many more coins that they received nothing for.** Make sure you talk with your insurance company to find out exactly what's covered and how.

*Limits like this are generally for any currency, whether it be collectible coins or just some regular banknotes that you took out of your wallet for safe keeping. $200 is the most common amount for this that I see.

**This also happens with jewelry and silverware ($1500 limit for jewelry is the most common at my company), so make sure that you have a policy that matches your needs! I've seen someone lose over $20,000 of jewelry and only get the $1,500 back for it. Don't be that person!

 

Safety deposit boxes are broken into? I didn't know that. We've had one for 35 years. Only had it cause it was free with the type of account we have. Only one item in it. Our marriage certificate. Oh yeah, and our birth certificates. Why hasn't anyone ever stolen that marriage certificate? LOL!

 

Mine is in the foundation, Dru. Put that sucker in there when we poured for the basement. Only thing I don't like is you have to get down on your hands and knees to access it. Tile is cut for it and it's in a closet under a trunk. I wish it were bigger, too, but you can't have everything.

A few years ago, Wifey bought some security signs off the Internet and stuck them in the grass in strategic spots around the house. When I got home and saw that, I said to myself, "Look at that, advertising!" Took them down that night!

 

happens every day (RICO laws) http://www.cointalk.com/forum/t57696-7/

 

great information.