Safe deposit box or Home safe?

[mitchtv]

Poll question: Safe deposit box or Home safe?

Is your safe deposit box secure? Has the Gov't. ever wholesale closed access of Customers to their boxes? I understand if you have reason to be looked at , that they will go after individuals' boxes. Has mass seizures ever happened can it?
Should I keep my valuables in the bank?

[Warpy]

1. DHS has been allowed to rifle through your deposit box at the bank

for any precious metals stored there in times of completely unspecified national emergency.

Think about that one before you put Granny's good jewelry in one.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. "Has been allowed." Cite?

I know that any investigative agency can, with (and theoretically, only with) a warrant, go through safe deposit boxes with the proviso that when any items are seized they MUST be documented, the customer MUST be informed immediately and once its use as evidence is finished it MUST be returned to the customer. The exact same conditions and provisos exist for searches involving home safes.

That said, I would feel more comfortable with a home safe.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

3. Wasn't gold confiscated at one point in our history?

How did they legally do that, I wonder.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. Not by the Department of Homeland Security

There have been periods in US history when we were on a gold and/or silver standard; then, it was illegal to hoard coinage metals, as this took money out of circulation and created inflation.

Instead, people with large supplies of gold and silver were obligated by law to deposit the specie with a federally chartered bank and receive in exchange an equivalent amount of a special class of paper money called "gold certificates" and "silver certificates." Often times the anti-hoarding laws were ignored, but there have been occasions (the Spanish-American War, both world wars, etc.) when they were enforced. Even then, there was usually no penalty beyond the exchange of specie for certificates.

Gold and silver fashioned into decorative and utilitarian objects -- candlesticks, eating utensils and the like -- was usually exempt from the hoarding laws. During times of extreme crisis, however, the government could obligate a person to turn over such things and get an equivalent value in certificates. The only time I know of when this was mandatory, however, was in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

Ore, almost by definition, belonged to the US government; mining operations that did not convert metal into coinage and certificates faced very severe penalties. That is why mints were built near big mining operations: US mint in Carson City built specifically to handle the Nevada silver rush, and the mint in San Francisco was built to deal with the California gold rush and latter the gold rush in Alaska. Anyone, be it a large mine owner making his daily deposit or a wildcat prospector on his monthy visit to town, could walk into an assay office with an amount of gold or silver and walk out with an equivalent amount of gold or silver coins or certificates.

[shraby]

4. Those are the old rules..I think the FBI using

National Security letters can go to the bank and check the contents of your safety deposit box and the bank is not allowed to notify you.

[better tomorrow]

5. yeah, gold is way up......

better in your hand than in theirs.....

[sarcasmo]

6. Home Safe, sunken into a basement wall.

[Wizard777]

8. Actually even a home safe isn't safe. The government can and will seize them and their contents.

That's why I use Swiss bank accounts. Neither American banks or government can steal what they can't find. Switzerland has some very tough privacy laws when it comes to banking. It's illegal for swiss banks to tell anyone that you have an account with them. Don't ever lose your account number. That also includes them telling you that you have an account with them.

[melm00se]

9. safety depost boxes

To my knowledge there has never been such a situation. the most common concern is during bank failures, what happens to the box?

http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnspr97/sfdpstbx.html

What happens to my box if my bank fails?

When an insured bank or thrift closes, the FDIC usually arranges for another institution to take it over, including branches where you might have a safe deposit box. In those situations, you should be able to conduct business as usual. If the FDIC cannot find a buyer for your bank, it arranges for you to remove the contents of your box so you can obtain a box at another institution, if you wish. This is done within a few days after the bank fails.

now as to "valuables": the contents of a box are not protected by FDIC insurance, nor, in most cases, your homeowners insurance. Could the contents disappear? possible but highly unlikely.