Home U.S. Coin Forum

Poll: How safe is a safety deposit box?

2»

Comments

  • How do you figure? There is not a bank in this country that FDIC covers loss from safety deposit boxes.
    Call your bank! FDIC Insurance covers depositers in the event of bank default. Safety Deposit Boxes are not considered bank deposits and thus do not fall under FDIC Regs.
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,636 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>Sounds like some on this board haven't studied the great depression, 83 banks is a lot? The whole ecomony was in the crapper back then and if it hadn't been for a few wealthly people proping up the goverment it was toast. There's no "gold standard" now to prevent them from printing money so your $100k will be printed but it may take $100 dollars to buy a loaf of bread. Think about it people history will repeat itself someday in the future and trust in paper is all that's holding together this new experiment of promisary notes. Man this sounds like those in the 90's when people thought the stock market was going up forever. There will always be peaks and valleys in our ecomony, so prepare for the worst and hope for the best. It may not happen in our lifetime if we're lucky.

    Now even though they shut the doors of the banks the end of the world didn't come like some suggest on this board. This go around it won't be lack of money, it will be too much money that's totally worthless IMO. Hard assests have been currency before Christ and is trusted around the world, you can't barter/work for everything when you need it. If we go into a "great depression" type era gold and silver will be just as good as it was in 1929/1930 IMO. >>



    The trust in the currency is based on many things and the FDIC insurance of bank
    deposits is just one of them. While I agree with your points, it doesn't seem poss-
    ible to have a run on banks so long as accounts are insured. Obviously it is poss-
    ible for conditions to change to make it possible for a bank run but this should re-
    quire years. If there is a collapse then the banks probably would lock their doors
    but, again, there will be much more pressing concerns for most people. As you say;
    hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

    Remember that the world is a different place today than it was in the '30's. People
    lived on farms then and there were many farmers. Today fewer than 1% of people
    are farmers and like us all they are entirely dependent on the modern world to func-
    tion. Even if they were to somehow grow a crop, it would not stand up to the onslaught
    of hungry city dwellers. If it were harvested there would be no factory to process it
    and no way to get it to market.

    The odds of a collapse are much lower than they've ever been before for a multitude
    of reasons but one of the greatest is that they are not politically acceptable. The lead-
    ers would inflate long before they ever allowed the conditions which are likely to pre-
    cipitate a collapse. The basis of all money has always been the faith of the people in
    the money and this is unlikely to change rapidly with our currency. The only other likely
    cause of collapse is panic, but here too the odds seem to be lower than in the past. No
    one can see the future but it certainly doesn't seem the conditions which might presage
    such a failure are rampant. The economy is picking up, and capital programs seem to be
    everywhere. There are a lot of people earning or making a lot of money. While there
    are obviously problems which have been ignored for some time and need to be addressed
    now, none seem to be acute yet.

    It seems there are more opportunities than dangers. But, don't count on anything in a
    safety deposit box to help in a downturn. You'll almost certainly either have access to it
    or won't need access to it.
    Tempus fugit.
  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    Good offshoot topic and food for thought............In the Red states, you know the worthless ones to the blue states, we still hunt, fish, and many of us live on farms and ranches. So now you know where I'm coming from and after all I can only can or eat so much food and have plenty of well water. We have the cheapest gas in the nation right now $1.68 a gallon and set on a huge natural gas reserves. Everyone doesn't live in NYC although to hear the media talk about it they should and everyone else should be their slaves.

    You can throw in India in this mix too (see link), they are demanding huge resources right now along with China and something is going to give. The most stable? I don't think we're as smart as we think we are and the US doesn't control the world anymore IMO. The 30's we were isolated, today it's a global ecomony and no one country controls it with everyone looking to take advantage for their benfit.

    TextFahrenheit Oil and Gold: China & the Final War for Resources
  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,660 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I don't worry about much, but the security of my safety deposit box doesn't even make the list.

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • I have a SD box, but really don't like the effect it has on my most important collection. I keep all the coins my grandfather gave me in that SDB. They are worn circulated Mercs, Barbers, Morgans and Buffs. Absolutely invaluable! Can't be replaced. They are the legacy passed down through the generations and will be given to my children to get them started in collecting as they were given to me as a child.

    But they have started to tone because of the environmental conditions. Granted they aren't slabbed, but I think a bank vault might be the safest from theft, fire ect, standpoint but actually a SDB can be harmful to your collection environmentally.

    image
    TPN
  • My feelings on safety deposit boxes is that they are inconvenient if you want to see your coins. It is fine if you are putting something away for a while, but otherwise...
    Additionally, others mention problems with identification. Even if the bank has good policies on paper, that doesn't mean they will be obeyed.

    At home, you can get a safe as big as you like. You don't have to worry about the bank humidifying the air to protect documents. As far as security goes, I'd get a high-security burglar safe and alarms for when you are not home, and this for when you are:

    image

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file