What You Need to Know About Safely Storing Precious Metal at Home
One of the most important factors to consider when you’re investing in precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion is how you’re going to safely store it.
There are three common ways to store precious metals, including:
- Bank Vault or Safe Deposit Box
- Third-Party Depository
- At Home
Why Store Your Precious Metals at Home
While each of the above solutions offers different benefits, many precious metal investors are choosing to store their investment at home. Storing precious metals, like gold coins, in your own home gives you the highest level of control and access to your assets.
Safety deposit boxes and third-party depositories require you to contact the institution in order to access your wealth. With an at-home safe, you can access your items whenever you need or want. This level of access is particularly ideal in the event that banks and financial institutions begin to close and access is limited.
6 FAQs About Storing Your Precious Metal in a Safe
How Easy is it to Break into Your Safe?
Not all safes are built equally. The materials used, how a safe is constructed, and the locking mechanisms utilized all play a role in how difficult it is to break into a safe.
One thing you need to know is that no safe is un-crackable. With enough time, resources, and expertise, any safe can be broken into. That being said, some safes take substantially longer to breach than others.
For instance, American-made Liberty safes use a unique and secure 2-piece design. This design means that Liberty safes do not have seams on the front, sides or top of the safe - the most vulnerable places for prying or breaking welds.
Commercial safes, like the American Security safes, are considered almost impervious to a burglary attack. Not only do the walls feature heavy-duty steel, but they are also filled with high-strength concrete and high-density ceramic that keep thieves from drilling or welding their way in quickly.
What is the Fire Rating of Your Safe?
It can be misleading because fire ratings are not regulated. A safe manufacturer can assign any fire rating they want without doing any research.
On paper, an imported Costco gun safe may seem just as reliable as an American-made Liberty safe. But when the heat meets the steal, there’s often a different tale to be told.
Safe manufacturers like Liberty do in-house testing to provide their fire-ratings. And, they are transparent about their results, showing the testing process and outcome on their website. This means you can trust Liberty’s 2-hour fire rating.
Do You Need a Safe with a High Fire Rating?
How high of a fire rating you need depends on you. Like investing in the stock market, you need to consider what’s an acceptable level of risk for you personally.
How likely is it your safe will be exposed to fire? What will it cost you if you lose the contents of your safe to a fire?
Generally speaking, we recommend the more expensive the items you are storing, the higher the fire rating you want. Or in terms of risk, the higher the fire rating, the lower the risk.
Is the Safe Big Enough to Store All Your Precious Metals?
We don’t hear customers complain very often; but when they do, it’s almost always because they wish they’d bought a bigger safe. As a rule of thumb, we recommend looking at all the items you want to store and then buying a safe one size bigger.
Learn more about how to decide what size safe you need.
Where Will Your Safe Be Installed?
In order for the contents of your safe to be as secure and protected as possible, your safe needs to be properly installed. Three of the most important aspects of installing your safe include:
- Leveling your safe to ensure the door swings properly and no additional stress is placed on the hinges and locking mechanism.
- Making sure your safe has proper airflow beneath it to prevent excess moisture from building up underneath and getting inside.
- Ensuring your safe is bolted to the floor so it’s as difficult for burglars to tip over and move as possible.
Our professional delivery and installation team moves and installs thousands of safes a year. Learn more about our exclusive delivery and installation process.
Do I Need to Take Any Additional Precautions When Storing Precious Metals?
Some precious metals can become damaged when exposed to elements, such as water. For example, many investors have both gold and silver bullion. Silver bullion needs be kept in a dray space in order to maintain its integrity.
In order to minimize moisture in your safe, we recommend using both a dehumidifier rod and a rechargeable desiccant device. Learn more about how to minimize moisture in your safe.