Never store your gold coins in a diversion safe.

If you don’t know what a diversion safe is, it is a household item that is actually a hiding place.

For example, if you search for diversion safe at Amazon.com, you’ll see safes that look like cans of pop, household cleaner containers, books and electrical outlets.

Or, put the other way around, it’s a small hiding place masquerading as a can, jar, book or something else.

These are fine is you want a place to hide a few dollars, but they are not what you want when storing gold coins, small gold bars, or any other items of high value.

First, thieves know about diversion safes. They go to Amazon as well. So there is no guarantee that they won’t pick up and shake that beer can at the back of the fridge or the jug of cleaning fluid under the sink

Second, once someone has found your mini-safe disguised as a beer can, they can just stuff it in a jacket pocket and walk away. Once at their own home, a hammer, knife or screwdriver is all they need to open the can and get your gold coins.

Third, your can, book or jar can be thrown out accidentally.

Maybe it’s Spring cleaning time and while you away from the house someone throws out the “can of peas” that has been sitting on a shelf in the kitchen for the last few years. Or that old “book” that has been gathering dust for so long.

I read once about a guy who hid several gold coins in the battery compartment of an old boombox, stored on a shelf in the basement. He never told his wife about it. One year she decides it’s time to clear some of the old junk from the basement and throws the old boombox out… along with all their gold.

The bottom line is that it makes no sense to store something as valuable as gold in such an insecure way.

If you are going to store gold at home, in a safe, then you should install a floor safe. This should preferably be set in concrete and in a spot where you can cover it up with some old boxes, or whatever else piles up in your basement. You can also find floor safes at Amazon.com.

The idea here is that any safe should be as secure as possible, and as hard to find as possible.

As for diversion safes, you are probably better off storing your gold in your sock drawer. (Also not recommended!)