Goodbye coins...

Blade

Well, not completely gone. I decided that the value of my collection warranted getting it out of the house and into my safety deposit box at the bank. I am they type of guy that looks at my collection every couple of days so I'm sure this is going to drive me crazy, but at least I'll have more piece of mind.

Do I have good reasons to be this protective? I am in a low crime suburb with a monitored alarm. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

BlueCole

do you have room to install a bolt down safe? Unless the bank has safety deposit box insurance, they are better off at your house.

B.

mdwoods

Do you have the means to scan or photograph the coins. I know it isn't the same, but it might reduce the itch a bit. Mark

nwcs

I know how you feel. I am probably going to have to do the same thing soon enough. But I'll have to keep some at home to play with.

1907Quarter

how bout a simple rider on your homeowners insurance? That's what I do. It even covers theft if you take them outside the house on the way to a show, dealer, etc.

dan1ecu

Blade,

Would insurance be a viable alternative? Of course you don’t want the coins to be stolen, but if they were, you’d be reimbursed. Insurance might even be less expensive than a safety deposit box. I’ve chosen to insure my collection and keep it home where I can see it every day.

Dan

Russ

Blade,

Shoot nice pics of them puppies, than you can visit them any time you want without leaving the comfort of your computer chair.

Russ, NCNE

JLW

Blade,
Pics just aren't the same as the real thing! I recommend buying a safe and insurance. A good safe with a 2-hour fire rating won't set you back that much, and is a good place for any important documents or papers as well. Doesn't take too long to pay for itself.
Joe

ChrisMiller

Insurance + security system + fire proof safe + smith & wesson = safe coins

I don't know what I would do if I couldn't touch my coins every day, but as the old saying goes "a fool and his money will soon part". Just play it safe!

JLW

Good equation Chris, only in mine it's safe+insurance+Beretta+100 pound dog=safe everything!

ChrisMiller

I would have mentioned my dog too, but shes only 11 weeks old. I think my cat would attack an intruder before my dog would.

EVillageProwler

msg deleted, and pm sent.

baccaruda

you guys sound a little neurotic. half the time i just leave my car keys in the ignition.

MAULUMALL

you guys sound a little neurotic. half the time i just leave my car keys in the ignition.

I do too but nobody will take the freakin hint.[

BSqr

chris,

that's my formula for safe coins too

TheNumish

I say only leave the coins at home you can afford to lose. I live in a very safe neighborhood that has a crime patrol. A few years ago the family in the house next to the house directly across the street came home and were held up at gun point. A gun would have been useless. They were going into the house from the garage when they were attacked. The robbers made the guy lay on the floor with a gun against his head while the other one took the wife around the house to find the valuables. They had a 5 year old son to witness all of this. They wanted the wifes wedding ring and when she couldn't remove it from her finger she thought they were going to cut it off but fortunetely they didn't. The family was so freaked out about it they sold the house a few months later to live in a gated comunity. It was a terrible thing that unfortunetely can happen anywhere.

TWQG

coins are much safer in the bank, and insurance riders for coins and jewelry are prohibitively expensive. Banks won't insure the contents of boxes though.

Blade

All,
Great feedback. Here are my thoughts:
Alarm - covered
Semi-automatic firearm - covered
Digital camera for pics - covered, but I need to get the lenses, etc to do the close-ups.

Insurance - should not be necessary for safe deposit box, right?. If anyone knows a horror story about bank vault ripoffs, let me know. I'm not a big fan of a huge rider to cover the collection at home, so I would want a safe that is ripoff-proof.

Safe - I'm interested, but have read that these are all but useless unless massively anchored to the foundation. (Yes Russ, they will rip out your entire subfloor in the 8+ minute average it takes to respond to an alarm.) Not sure how I would do that since we are in a 1 story on a slab. We will likely build our next home like we did this one, and my safe of choice will be embedded into the foundation and anchored with rebar in the concrete. Maybe I'm too paranoid. Gun safe is an interesting idea - (one tradeoff is less thermal protection, right?) loaded up to a ton, I don't think it would be going anywhere.

The hostage robbery is a frightening scenario, at which point I say screw the coins, my family is much more important.

keets

hey tom

one point often overlooked and seldom mentioned-----be careful about who knows of your collection. i really don't think robbers just strike houses randomly. my collecting is pretty much on a need to know basis. it might sound simple-minded, but aside from coin shops, shows, clubs and here online my coin collecting isn't common knowledge. that's where my security starts and it ends with all the other suggestions.

al h.

EVillageProwler

Good point, Keets. We all need to balance the desire to chat about coins and even to brag about our ``conquests'' with the reality that one shouldn't be so talkative.

During the summer ANA, I bragged out a major score, turning a raw high-priced rarity into a higher-priced slabbed rarity. I was vague with the details, and a forum member was curious. I discreetly inquired about him, and finally decided that he's a good guy and so I shared with him my story.

He wasn't insulted that I initially balked at answering him.

EVP

TheNumish

Tom,
You need one last thing to really be secure. Some big dogs. I have two big dogs and they scare everyone including my neighbors. Don't know what would happen if someone came into my house uninvited. The dogs probably wouldn't do anything but they sure make a lot of mean noise.

Blade

Numish,
Covered there with a 50 pound Aussie shepard. She scares the daylights out of me when someone rings the doorbell.

EVP and Keets - Agree 100%. Defense is the best offense. No one knows I collect except my immediate family, Dad and coin contacts like this forum. Not friends or even other family members. It will be important to let my kids know someday that it is not discussed with anyone (fortunately my daughter cannot yet talk). I re-entered collecting about a year ago and realize the benefit of tight lips. My collection isn't worth a whole lot now, but who knows what some slimeball is willing to resort to.

As always, ya'll provide great advice. Thanks!

JLW

<< <i>you guys sound a little neurotic. half the time i just leave my car keys in the ignition. >>



I was robbed once, shame on them, if I get robbed again, shame on me!

P.S. This too, happened in a fairly affluent suburb.
Joe

lathmach

<< <i>you guys sound a little neurotic. half the time i just leave my car keys in the ignition. >>



Trying to sell your old bomb to the insurance company, are you?

Ray

Elcontador

I just got a cherry 1899 Liberty Nickel in MS 66 from Heritage's Long Beach Signature Auction. It is one of the three nicest business strike Liberty Nickels I have ever seen. As a bonus, I didn't even have to pay my max bid to get it!

Friday I picked it up at Long Beach, Saturday it went into my safety deposit box. Yes, I live in a nice neighborhood, yes I have an alarm, yes, I have a 30-06. Still, as others have pointed out, things can happen. Even if the coins were insured & stolen, putting together a collection like this from insurance proceeds would take an obscene amount of time, as it took several years to pick up a number of individual coins in my collection.

1jester

Keets brings up a seriously important point about the need-to-know basis of a coin collection. Better safe than sorry. I'm glad you're security-conscious, Blade!

I'm wondering if it's really a good idea to get an insurance rider; personally, I'd stay away from that, not only because it'd be difficult to re-assemble the collection, but more importantly, I'm wary of reporting what I have to any data base, even with an insurance company. How would you ensure that that confidential info (including your name and address) wouldn't find its way into the hands of a criminal?! I'd prefer to keep a very low profile, and hide the collection so well that no thief would even have a clue about it. Keeping a dummy collection of not so valuable coins seems to fit in well with that plan.

Any other comments about mine? I'd like to know; I think this topic is of paramount importance to us all.

IrishMike

Very rarely are bank safe deposits boxes robbed. As mentioned before banks do not and will not insure the contents, for a very simple reason, they have no way of knowing what is in their boxes. Many people do not realize that the bank does not have a key to your box. So if you rent one make sure that you do not lose the key. It costs anywhere from $75 to $150 to drill them open and guess what they pass that cost on to the box holder. Twice in my career after drilling boxes for non-payment I discovered coins in them. Once there were about $35,000 worth of gold coins and IHC's, all BU. We were able to contact the holder of the box and return them to him. If we had not been able to, they would have escheated to the State of Indiana. The second time there were 6 Morgans, all AG or VF and yep one of them was a 1893-S in VF. Unfortunately we were never able to track the owner down they escheated.

If you store them at home, like others have said, keep it on a need to know. I heard a story of a guy who had a party at his house and couldn't resist showing off his coins. Eventually someone broke in while he was on vacation and cleaned him out.

baccaruda

of course i am a bit trusting in nature...

oldcameoproofsguy

The way I figure it if someone breaks into my house they are more than welcome to my outdated computer, my DVD player my guitar and a whole lot of other crap. I sleep alot easier knowing that my coin collection is at the safety deposit box. It would be alot easier replacing this computer, the DVD player or my guitar than a pop 1(0) Barber proof quarter.

DesertLizard

Here's a great tip.....don't fear a stranger!

You could be set up by an employee of an auction house / coin dealer, your mailman, ex-spouse, etc.

If you get a coin magazine your mailman knows as does your garbage man. Maybe even your neighbor if it got into the wrong mailbox!

My coins live in the bank!

ChrisMiller

Dezert lizard,
You have a good point. Having worked in the security industry for 4+ years (covert cameras, cctv, burglary, etc) we all agreed on one thing. The systems we install are to keep the honest man honest. The crook will get what he wants, no matter the consequence.

mercury1

I had to put mine in a bank safe too. I just scanned them off and used them as screen savers.