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New member question - Best Safes?
JustMakesCents
Posts: 319 ✭✭✭
Any suggestions for the best home safes to use for coin storage?
I know that a bank box is probably the best solution, but I would prefer to be able to look at my coins whenever I want. Any members want to reveal their home setups? As a copper collector, I am especially looking for a safe where I can control the heat and humidity. Of course, has to fire and water resistant.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Jeff
I know that a bank box is probably the best solution, but I would prefer to be able to look at my coins whenever I want. Any members want to reveal their home setups? As a copper collector, I am especially looking for a safe where I can control the heat and humidity. Of course, has to fire and water resistant.
Thanks for your suggestions.
Jeff
1
Comments
You want a minimum TL-30 which means it will resist a professional attempt to enter with tools for a minimum of 30 minutes. TL-60 is one hour, etc.
They are heavy. I keep MOST of my stuff in the bank, but, like you also like to have a few to fondle and chortle over. I also have a home alarm. They are both necessary.
Gun safes are very easy to get into. However, since it is now a CRIME to have a burglar steal your guns and shoot someone, anyone who has guns without a safe is nuts.
If you look for fire AND burglar resistant, you can get into some real money and will probably have to buy a new one. Figure $2500 for cost on new jeweler safe.
Personally am content with the BURGLAR resistant TL-30 and don't pack coins close to the edges. I doubt my house is sturdy enough to burn long enough to heat a safe to the degree necessary for damage to the coins.
Hmmm....wonder what it costs to reholder plastic blobs.
Check out the Sentry models
What's nice is if you take out the drawers you can fit 9 PCGS boxes in perfectly (2 rows of 3 and 1 row of 3 on their side).
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Jeff
<< <i>Thanks for the informative replies so far. Any tips to keeping the humidity under control?
Jeff >>
Occasionally open the door to let it air out.
i decided that if i had to sell all my coins for the money to buy a safe, then i wouldn't have anything to put in it anyway...
just bury them in the back yard.
2 Cam-Slams!
1 Russ POTD!
I have a product by the trade name "Golden Rod" which is inside the safe and produces a small amount of heat to drive out moisture. A small wattage incandesent light bulb inside will also work.
Keep in mind that the first time a burglar breaks into your house he finds a safe he can't open.
But now a felon knows you have a safe with valuables in your house. After that any knock on your door could be a girl scout selling cookies, or the burglar back with a gun.
Safes only work the first time, then they become a liablity.
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In which case, he is looking at the business end of an Anaconda.....AKA Colt .44 magnum!!
Last August 8th my home burnt. The gun safe was basically in the middle of the house and spent about 20 minutes in the extreme heat. The guns were OK, but, have you ever seen a baked complete collection of Lincoln cents? Not a pretty sight. Just wanted to give a real life opinion......Ken
I think tonecoin3000 may have a set like that.
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I bought a used safe from a lock shop. It cost me about 1/3 of what a new one runs. The safe is bolted to a concrete floor and it weighs about 1000 lbs! To keep the air inside the safe dry, I have several canisters of silica gel inside, which I recharge in the oven every few months.
Sorry to hear about your loss. Thanks for the heads-up on the heat. I always figured the basement was the best place for a safe. What about a flooded basement (water pipe, sewer, etc.)? Anyone dealt with a safe under water?
Jeff
Insurance coverage (State Farm) is only when they are locked with a "combination" and walls 1.5" thick.........
Still looking
Welcome
Good luck........
John
Enjoy the day.........
I would want a safe that is heavy enough that two people would have a hard time moving it (of course a quality dolly can overcome this). If you are creative, you can hide it such as under a larger table that has a table cloth so visitors do not see it. Bedroom closets are probably the first place theives look.
Fire-resistant safes made for guns, on the other hand, should be fine. Both guns and coins need a similar environment. Unfortunately you don't get as high levels of fire protection (unless you get into the really big bucks).
A good quality gun safe also gives you a lot of space per dollar, which is nice if you have a bulky collection or want to store other things in it. Like guns. Although it has been mentioned here in the past that some gun cleaning products can cause a reaction on coins (hasn't been a problem for me, though).
Although I'd love to be able to admire my stuff at will, I'm still of the safe deposit box at the bank category. It's starting to get expensive, and I find myself upgrading to bigger boxes (more money), but
I've been robbed once and never got over mourning the loss of those coins. Call me paranoid, but I
picture the thief just carrying the safe out with him to crack with his expert safecracking felons.
Sometimes I feel like a father with visitng rights with my coins in the bank though... go down there
when I can to view them, talk with them (Oh, you beautiful little baby, you!"), and generally just visit and
check over my inventory list. I just don't ever want to go through the experience of finding them stolen again.
That's also why I said MOST stuff belongs in the safe deposit box. If the administration usurps many more liberties and trashes much more of the Constitution, I may change my mind.
(are you aware that as of the past 2 weeks the cops no longer have to submit an affidavit to get a search warrant? they can NOW search anybody anywhere.......no reason. homeland security, you know)
Gun safes will NOT be entered by the door side. But if they do want to go in doorside, a hydraulic spreader (like a tire jack) will pop one in less than 30 seconds. Gun safes will keep out the neighbor's kid usually.
The TL-30 burglar safes are STIFF and heavy. They don't pop.
But "awareness" is the key. Like your coins? Then SHUT UP about having any to your RELATIVES.
Of all the burglars who sold or pawned at our pawn shop, over 90% were FAMILY (or invited assorted live-ins) We had very few as selling at a pawn shop is a very stupid thing to do with the paper trail we generated.
Flea markets are the chief outlet for stolen stuff. Stats are that less than 1/2 of one percent of stolen items goes to a reporting pawn shop.
Back to safe:
Coin value
$1000- Any safe you get is OK
1000-5000 Gun safe OK
5000 - 10000 TL rated box.
Over 10k............bank
But homeowner's will NOt cover any lost from home except at additional cost.
First, highly recommend buying a used non-gun safe of various kinds on CL. There are old bank-vault type safes that provide more theft protection at a cheaper price than any gun safe you are probably looking at.
Second - personally, I think fire protection is overrated. Honestly, how worried are you about a fire at your house? How likely do you think that is? If you're thinking about documents, just get a small chest type fire rated "safe" and put your docs in that, and then put that in your gun safe.
If you're buying a gun safe like for example Sentry Safe https://beonhome.com/best-home-safe/ I would not get less than 10ga steel, and preferably not less than 8ga steel. Don't waste your time with huge safes that cost $800 and weigh 500 lbs. My *** has more steel in it than those things. I wouldn't buy a gun safe sized safe that weighs less than 1000 lbs, 900 absolute minimum, unless you're getting it for under $200 and just want to keep your kids out.
Curbside delivery is just like what it sounds. You and your buddies or a company you hire need to take it from there.
A safe is definitely worth it. It is really amazing to me will think nothing about spending $10,000 or more on guns and then balk at spending $2000 on a safe worth having. Would you leave $10K in cash lying around? No? Then why leave $10K in guns lying around?
I hope members find this helpful.
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
This is a 16 year old thread. Is that some kind of record?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
Perhaps so, but thanks to new member @Louietheo, he dug it up, and hopefully the information will be useful to other members. I don’t think the info posted by our members 16 years ago is outdated.
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
@Louietheo ....Welcome aboard....Yep... definitely an OLD thread... but some good information for members who were not around 16 years ago. I will add that while a safe is good (I have a good safe), security is a matter of layers .... perimeter, internal etc. Cheers, RickO
Definitely a good thread with a lot of useful information. I had never seen it before since it was from before I joined here many years ago. If you do buy a fire safe I suggest it may be more practical to put your slab boxes and a silica gel pack into heavy duty plastic bags with a zip lock closure. Otherwise you'll have to recharge your silica gel pack dehumidifier every few days which can quickly become rather tedious.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
For many years (at least 30 yrs.) I had a giant, old two-door safe in a garage that was not waterproof at all. I put any coins in old 50 cal. ammo boxes. Never had a wilted 2 by 2 or saw any humidity damage of any kind.
Avoid gun safes or safes you can buy from hardware stores/Costco - most of those can be carried away intact.
Go to a proper safe company and look for TL-rated quality. They are much heavier. Yes, more expensive, but worth the extra money. You can usually be refurbished ones for less that come with a warranty. Also - hook up a monitored alarm to it.
If you live in a big city, go check them out in person and get a tour of their warehouse. Last time I went in Los Angeles, they had an example of a TL-30 safe that was broken into (it took the crooks overnight to do it and I think they burnt up everything inside by accident) - was interesting to see.
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you definitely want the door to have locking bolts all the way around the door. Many safes do not have them on the hinged side of the door. In this case all a thief has to do is grind off the hinges and pry the door open.
"When the rule of law collapses, civilization can no longer survive." - Martin Armstrong
In all honesty, I don't think I've ever seen a safe like that. There are pigeon-hole pins or stationary bolts, or a tab that will tuck behind the door frame. I can't imagine anyone purchasing a box without such simple features.
I saw a video similar to this one some years ago and made me re-think the "high security" of a gun safe for securing "my coins". Mine is 1500 lbs (empty), has a UL fire resistance rating, is equipped with a pry resistant door (1" thick), is bolted to the slab and even has a re-locker (very important). But after seeing this, I took several "other" precautions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-9vWa-C44I