The first few times you buy a gold coin, there is an overwhelming temptation to store it at home. Heck, it’s gold, and you want to be able to take it out and see it from time to time.
And that’s fine.
But even if you don’t buy any more gold for a while, you might start to feel nervous about that coin. What you your house is burgled? What if a visitor, or one of your kids’ friends finds it? What if there is a fire?
And what if you now own five, ten or twenty gold coins?
After having your gold coins or bars hidden away in the basement, your next step might be to install a home safe.
Or, you might decide the safest place to store your gold is outside of your home, in a safety deposit box at your bank.
If you do decide to rent a safety deposit box, here is the one question you must ask.
“Under what circumstances could my box be opened by anyone other than me?”
I called a couple of banks up here in Canada, and in both cases their answer was pretty much the same.
“If you repeatedly fail to pay the rental fee, or if we receive a court order to drill the box.”
Well, if I don’t pay the fee, I can understand why they might decide to open the box. The issue of the court order is a little more troubling, simply because it provides a very broad mandate.
So my next question was, “Under what circumstances would a court order be issued to open my box?”
Neither bank could answer that for me, but one suggested that in their own experience, court orders were sometimes issued when an individual was charged with a serious crime, like theft, fraud or gang activity.
As for your own jurisdiction, you’ll have to call your own bank, or even some of the companies which operate private vaults.
This is important, because different countries and jurisdictions have very different rules. For example, some time ago I wrote about a story where safety deposit boxes in California were being opened under some very unfair circumstances.
As always, when it comes to storing gold, you have to balance the risks.
My own feeling is that a safety deposit box is a good option, just as long as you ask that key question first, and feel comfortable with the answer.
Further reading on buying gold and Bitcoin…
Bitcoin… It’s like gold, but digital. There’s plenty to love about it.
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