Securing/Insuring Your Coins/Bullion...

[$ilver$urfer]

Any insights on the best way to do this and the costs associated? I've got lots in my Safety Deposit Box (SDB) and some at home in a fire-proof safe. Is it necessary to get home owner's insurance coverage for your collection and if so, what is involved and how much does it generally cost? Also, are SDBs insured from bank robbery and civil unrest?

Thanks in advance for any insights you can provide!

HH,

$ilver$urfer

 

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[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

I was thinking about a big ol' safe, but now I may be leaning toward the old timer "bury it in the back yard" method of security.

 

[mts]

I think that it depends on how much bullion and insurance coverage you have. Your current homeowner's insurance will only cover up to a certain amount. You should know what the cap is on your coverage. If you own more coins/bullion than what your insurance covers then you may want to talk to your insurance company and find out what it will cost to get more coverage.

As far as where to store your coins/bullion, the best bet is to diversify. Put some in the SDB, some at home in a fireproof safe, and some in my back yard...

 

[mts]

As for safety deposit boxes, they are not insured by the FDIC but could potentially be insured by the bank. It all depends on the bank so read the contract.

 

[StevoCBR]

A quick call to your agent should clarify. My insurance company requires a separate "special" policy for bullion. And based on how much i have it wasn't cheap. Basically i felt like they don't want to mess with it. Bury it under the house Any way you can bury it and protect against metal detectors, i think would just about be the safest way. Gov has seized safety deposit boxes before. In the absolute worst case that insurance policy won't mean a thing, and of course your little fire safe can be carried off. Just my thoughts

 

[Bigheed]

bolt the safe to the floor in your garage!

 

[mts]

A quick call to your agent should clarify. My insurance company requires a separate "special" policy for bullion. And based on how much i have it wasn't cheap. Basically i felt like they don't want to mess with it. Bury it under the house Any way you can bury it and protect against metal detectors, i think would just about be the safest way. Gov has seized safety deposit boxes before. In the absolute worst case that insurance policy won't mean a thing, and of course your little fire safe can be carried off. Just my thoughts

It is an Internet fallacy that the government has "seized safety deposit boxes before". The only known cases of the government doing this was for prosecution of crimes like tax evasion which makes complete sense. Basically, if you don't commit a crime the government is not going to take the contents of your safe deposit box. That doesn't mean that a mistake can't be made by the bank or the government. That does occasionally happen. But not nearly as often as the conspiracy theorists would have you believe. Keep your box paid up and you will likely have no problems.

And no.... California did not walk in and confiscate a bunch of boxes. I've already been through this fallacy with someone else so let's please not go there. Safe deposit boxes are no more or less safe than any other place that you can keep your bullion. However, they do have their downsides. That's why it is important to diversify.

 

[captainfwiffo]

While we're picking nits, The word you're looking for is "falsehood", i.e. something that is not true. A fallacy is an error in logic or argumentation, e.g. a straw man argument, ad hominem, begging the question, etc.

 

[mts]

While we're picking nits, The word you're looking for is "falsehood", i.e. something that is not true. A fallacy is an error in logic or argumentation, e.g. a straw man argument, ad hominem, begging the question, etc.

Fallacy: A mistaken belief, esp. one based on unsound argument. A deceptive, misleading, or false notion, belief, etc.: That the world is flat was at one time a popular fallacy.

I think my usage fits fairly well here. But falsehood would also work.

 

[jim4silver]

I have to agree with MTS. Some websites state that during the time of Roosevelt's executive order confiscating gold that treasury agents had to be present when you opened your safe deposit box and any gold was taken and replaced with fiat. I have never seen any proof of this procedure in any OFFICIAL document or decree so I don't personally believe it happened that way. I was not alive then so I might be wrong, but I would like to see actual proof to make me believe it happened.

I don't understand why anyone would stash junk silver in a SDB though. Not because it is unsafe, but because it is very heavy and you can only get so much in there. I can see storing gold and numismatics in a SDB, and maybe some .999 bullion, but not a bunch of junk silver. Most people have thousands of dollars worth of stuff in their homes, I don't see why they cannot stash the same amount in gold/silver PMs if they do it right (see below).

The best and cheapest form of protecting your PMs (other than SDB, which is what I use because I currently rent) is to have a secure, preferably bolted safe that is HIDDEN in your home. Plus have a decoy safe with some cash and cheapo coins in it. Further, and this is the most important, is get a home security system. They are basically cheap (if you can afford cable, a cell phone and internet, you can afford a burglar alarm). If you have the burglar alarm system with a hidden safe nobody will get to your valuables unless it is an inside job. Crooks know that they cannot stay inside more than a few minutes if your burglar alarm goes off. Unless the thief is a high level gov agent or such, they will not be able to disable your burglar alarm. Plus the fact that the safe is hidden will cause them to not find it if they spot the decoy safe.

There is no perfect system of safe guarding your PMs. Every choice has a drawback, but the PMs in your home with a hidden, bolted safe plus a burglar alarm is the best assuming your spouse/children do not decide to steal from you. Believe it or not you probably have a better chance that your spouse or other family/friend will be the one to take your PMs than a burglar anyway. I have seen it before and in some states the spouse might get away with it if it is considered marital property. How sad would that be?

Jim

 

[fistfulladirt]

Good info Jim, my stash is currently in safe-deposit, which costs $20 a year. A security system (land-line based) would only run me about $70 a month.
ffd

 

[quiksilver]

A quick call to your agent should clarify. My insurance company requires a separate "special" policy for bullion. And based on how much i have it wasn't cheap. Basically i felt like they don't want to mess with it. Bury it under the house Any way you can bury it and protect against metal detectors, i think would just about be the safest way. Gov has seized safety deposit boxes before. In the absolute worst case that insurance policy won't mean a thing, and of course your little fire safe can be carried off. Just my thoughts

It is an Internet fallacy that the government has "seized safety deposit boxes before". The only known cases of the government doing this was for prosecution of crimes like tax evasion which makes complete sense. Basically, if you don't commit a crime the government is not going to take the contents of your safe deposit box. That doesn't mean that a mistake can't be made by the bank or the government. That does occasionally happen. But not nearly as often as the conspiracy theorists would have you believe. Keep your box paid up and you will likely have no problems.

And no.... California did not walk in and confiscate a bunch of boxes. I've already been through this fallacy with someone else so let's please not go there. Safe deposit boxes are no more or less safe than any other place that you can keep your bullion. However, they do have their downsides. That's why it is important to diversify.

Like with anything else i have read it may be false but i have read that safety deposit boxes have been seized by the goverment , except i read it in a couple of books tho at the moment i can not recall exactly which ones as i have in the past read quite a few or at least quite a few chapters. I believe the last time i read it it was in a rich dad poor dad book.

 

[mts]

Like with anything else i have read it may be false but i have read that safety deposit boxes have been seized by the goverment , except i read it in a couple of books tho at the moment i can not recall exactly which ones as i have in the past read quite a few or at least quite a few chapters. I believe the last time i read it it was in a rich dad poor dad book.

Sometimes it seems like these sources imply that the government seized safety deposit boxes. But when you read the details closely you will likely find that the safety deposit box was turned into the unclaimed property department of the state and the state ended up selling the contents when they shouldn't have (that's what happened in California). I went round and round with a guy out here last year who swore that the stories he was reading said that the government had seized safety deposit boxes. But his viewpoint was clearly being clouded by his mistrust of the government. Upon further inspection it could be seen that the he was clearly misinterpreting the story and in all cases the boxes hadn't been paid for and were turned over to the state's bureau of unclaimed property. If someone can post any information about a case where the government walked into a bank and confiscated a box I'd be happy to hear about it. But so far I've never heard more than just heresay and misinterpretations of actual events.

That doesn't mean that a SDB is totally safe. You NEED to pay the bill. The bank is not going to hold your box for you for free. And you NEED to check up on it at least once every six months to make sure that the bank hasn't made a mistake. With that said, it is a viable option as part of a diversified solution. There are legitimate reasons to fear the government. SDB confiscation should not be high on the list.