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Letter Re: Advice on Storing Precious Metals–Are Safe Deposit Boxes Safe?

Good Morning.
I have been diversifying my investments, with a strong emphasis on gold and pre-1965 [silver] coins. Currently, the coins are stored in a bank safe deposit box.

Can you tell me, in the event of a “bank holiday” will safe deposit boxes be available? In other words, I understand that they won’t allow me to withdraw cash from my account (my understanding of the term, bank holiday). But, would the bank allow customers access to the safe deposit boxes to withdraw whatever might be stored in the vault?

Thanks for all you do. Keep up the good work. – RBH

JWR Replies: No, bank boxes will probably be unavailable, since in bank holiday, bank lobbies will be closed to the public. In fact, the “worst case” for hard money preppers would be the combination of a bank holiday and a simultaneous gold confiscation a la 1933 [1]. I can foresee that you would only have access to your safe deposit box under the watchful eye of a sworn officer, on your first deposit box access following a gold seizure–either by executive order or by an act of congress. So your options include private (non-bank vault companies–very few and far between, unless you live in Las Vegas [2]), or hidden storage caches at home. I prefer the latter. For details, see this piece that I wrote about wall and door caches in SurvivalBlog [3].

Coincidentally, reader Mike O. recently sent me the link to this LifeHacker article: Where and How to Safely Hide Cash in Your Home [4]. And soon after, reader Andrew D. sent this: Seven Secret Places to Hide Cash in Your Home [5]. You gotta love synchronicity.