Some people like to store their gold at home, hiding it either within their house or buried in the yard.
If you choose not to install a safe, and decide either to hide your gold coins or bars in hard-to-find places in the house, or your yard, don’t forget to think about thieves with metal detectors.
If you hide your gold well, that can work just fine for you. But as I have written elsewhere, I think a strong, in-floor safe, cased in concrete, is the only really secure place for your gold in the house.
Certainly, a casual thief isn’t going to come to your home with a metal detector.
But what if the thief knows or suspects you have gold in or around your home? What if, over the years, a careless word or two has been picked up by someone who isn’t a close friend?
Armed with a modern metal detector, a thief can find your coins with little trouble, whether they are buried in the yard, or hidden in your basement or attic.
And yes, today’s metal detectors
How do you beat someone with a metal detector? You shield your coins. In other words, you hide them behind other pieces of metal.
For example, in your yard, you might hide your gold coins directly beneath some metal drainage piping. Or beneath a larger collection of buried metal scrap.
In your basement, you could hide your gold within a length of metal piping. Of course, you need to install that length of piping in such a way that it looks like it belongs.
Just keep in mind that unless your gold is shielded from view in some way, a modern metal detector will find it very quickly. In fact, many metal detectors have settings specifically for finding gold coins.
Just be aware that your hidden gold may not be as invisible as you think.
And as I said at the outset, the very best way to shield your gold from detection is to have it secured within an in-floor safe with a steel lid.
Further reading…
Best practices for the safe storage of your gold coins and bars.