Secret Hiding Places for your Coins

[dualstow]

Neat. I hope the thieves aren't reading that.

[Pointedstick]

I would worry about children, their friends, houseguests, pet-sitters, etc finding anything hidden in this way. A more secure approach, I, think, would be that of a hidden safe. Burglars won't find it, and those authorized to be in the house won't be able to access it if they do find it.

[Cortopassi]

PS is correct.  A hidden, preferably cemented/bolted into your foundation safe is probably the safest.  My next bet would be one of those gargantuan 700lb+ highly visible safes that would be impossible to carry out and take too long to open.

A decoy safe in some relatively accessible/visible location with a few silver coins and maybe a little bit of cash in it I also think is useful to throw anyone off the idea that there might be another one with the real stash.

And for me, I have gotten to the point when I put things away for safekeeping that I won't use for a long time, I tend to forget where I put them... so a bunch of hiding places would work out badly for me in the long run, but to the advantage of whoever might be buying my house!

[sophie]

I'd worry about getting burgled by a literate thief with internet access.  Also, I'd write down the location and put it in your safe deposit box - if something happens to you, you want your executor to know where to look.

Any suggestions on how to secure a hidden safe in an apartment?  There's no foundation just brick walls that I'd be highly reluctant to breach as it's technically coop property.  Also an apartment is theoretically safer from random visits, and it would also be harder to cart out a lot of stuff unnoticed, but once someone gets in they'd have plenty of time to search around.

[Pointedstick]

For dwellers of condos that they own and whose interior they can modify, I would recommend the hidden safe approach, with the safe hidden inside a wall cavity or something, and chained/bolted to something metal. If you can locate the place where there's a cast iron soil stack in a wall, that would be a perfect place. Then cover the hole in the wall with something that looks inconspicuous.

[dualstow]

And for me, I have gotten to the point when I put things away for safekeeping that I won't use for a long time, I tend to forget where I put them... 

I can't be certain, but I think I fed you acorns in the park the other day.

[WildAboutHarry]

Any film noir will demonstrate endless places to hide things.  Taped under a drawer, hidden in a cheap plaster statue, etc.

And one of my favorite bits of dialog from that classic bit of film noir, "The Maltese Falcon":

Kasper Gutman: Now, sir. We'll talk, if you like.  I'll tell you right out. I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk.

Sam Spade: Swell!

I think we need to bring the exclamation "Swell!" back into the lexicon.

And for those who think the last line in 'The Maltese Falcon is " The stuff that dreams are made of", the real last line of the film is Ward Bond responding to that line with "Huh?"

[Wooly Mammoth]

My brother had a few thousand 'tax free' dollars he wanted to hide in his apartment, so he hid it in the wall behind the bathroom medicine cabinet. He said it only took a couple minutes to remove and install, but then again he is quite handy.

When I was in Hawaii recently with my wife, we were staying at an AirBnB in a private home. I was a bit nervous about leaving our valuables in the room while we went to the beach, until i remembered how Dexter (from the TV series) hid his 'valuables' in the air conditioner. The filter panel on the unit in our room snapped off easily and provided jus enough space for passports and currency.

I bet that once one starts to look around, there is no end of nooks and crannies to tuck things into. Problem is, though, that some thieves know this and completely trash the place. As others have said, a safe bolted to the floor is the best bet, but even that doesn't protect you against a home invasion, where they torture your dog (or worse) until you tell them the combination.

Then again, a bank safe deposit box is pretty damned secure for things you won't be needing in a hurry.

[Tyler]

My brother had a few thousand 'tax free' dollars he wanted to hide in his apartment, so he hid it in the wall behind the bathroom medicine cabinet. He said it only took a couple minutes to remove and install, but then again he is quite handy.

I similarly enjoy exploring shared walls in apartment complexes and condos for hidden treasure.  Tell him to keep it up! 

[Wooly Mammoth]

My brother had a few thousand 'tax free' dollars he wanted to hide in his apartment, so he hid it in the wall behind the bathroom medicine cabinet. He said it only took a couple minutes to remove and install, but then again he is quite handy.

I similarly enjoy exploring shared walls in apartment complexes and condos for hidden treasure.  Tell him to keep it up! 

I believe it was an interior wall, but keep looking!

[dragoncar]

My brother had a few thousand 'tax free' dollars he wanted to hide in his apartment, so he hid it in the wall behind the bathroom medicine cabinet. He said it only took a couple minutes to remove and install, but then again he is quite handy.

I similarly enjoy exploring shared walls in apartment complexes and condos for hidden treasure.  Tell him to keep it up! 

I believe it was an interior wall, but keep looking!

Thermal imaging is getting really good and cheap.  I hear burglars are starting to use it to see if anyone is really home.  Maybe it finds stuff hidden in walls, too!

[Pointedstick]

Thermal imaging is getting really good and cheap.  I hear burglars are starting to use it to see if anyone is really home.  Maybe it finds stuff hidden in walls, too!

I own a thermal camera and can confirm that it does not, unless the thing hidden in the wall is consistently hotter or colder than the rest of the wall. This would only be the case if it generates its own heat or if its mass is very high and the wall regularly experiences high temperature fluctuations, leading to a lag in the hidden object reaching thermal equilibrium with the wall.

Run of the mill thermal cameras also will not tell you if anyone's home; they don't see through walls. They can only tell you if the exterior walls are hot or cold, or whatever. If there are people inside the house generating body heat, that's not going to be reflected in the temperature of the exterior walls, even if the walls have no insulation. Maybe this would work for a tent, but not a house.

[dragoncar]

Thermal imaging is getting really good and cheap.  I hear burglars are starting to use it to see if anyone is really home.  Maybe it finds stuff hidden in walls, too!

I own a thermal camera and can confirm that it does not, unless the thing hidden in the wall is consistently hotter or colder than the rest of the wall. This would only be the case if it generates its own heat or if its mass is very high and the wall regularly experiences high temperature fluctuations, leading to a lag in the hidden object reaching thermal equilibrium with the wall.

Run of the mill thermal cameras also will not tell you if anyone's home; they don't see through walls. They can only tell you if the exterior walls are hot or cold, or whatever. If there are people inside the house generating body heat, that's not going to be reflected in the temperature of the exterior walls, even if the walls have no insulation. Maybe this would work for a tent, but not a house.

I heard superman can still find it

[rickb]

Thermal imaging is getting really good and cheap.  I hear burglars are starting to use it to see if anyone is really home.  Maybe it finds stuff hidden in walls, too!

I own a thermal camera and can confirm that it does not, unless the thing hidden in the wall is consistently hotter or colder than the rest of the wall. This would only be the case if it generates its own heat or if its mass is very high and the wall regularly experiences high temperature fluctuations, leading to a lag in the hidden object reaching thermal equilibrium with the wall.

Run of the mill thermal cameras also will not tell you if anyone's home; they don't see through walls. They can only tell you if the exterior walls are hot or cold, or whatever. If there are people inside the house generating body heat, that's not going to be reflected in the temperature of the exterior walls, even if the walls have no insulation. Maybe this would work for a tent, but not a house.

I heard superman can still find it

And metal detectors - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... llery.html

[MWKXJ]

Secret Hiding Places for your Coins

Hollowed out, redundant smoke detectors.  Plain site yet completely overlooked.

[dragoncar]

Secret Hiding Places for your Coins

Hollowed out, redundant smoke detectors.  Plain site yet completely overlooked.

I steal smoke detectors for the precious americium-241.

[madbean]

When you consider all the possible hiding places available in a home it makes me think that with a modicum of ingenuity you can reduce the possibility of a burglar ever finding it to something close to zero. Does anybody have any stories to share about how somebody hid some gold coins in a place they thought they would never look but did? That would be interesting. The only way I can see that happening is if the thieves already knew you were hiding gold somewhere and had plenty of time to look for it.

I have been the victim of a robbery including gold jewelry BTW. My wife stored hers in a jewelry box that she kept on a dresser in the bedroom. Probably not the best place.

[Mark Leavy]

Great article on hiding two Nobel gold prize medals from the Nazis.  Discovery would have been a death sentence for the medal holders.

The medals were dissolved in aqua regia (3 parts hydrochloric acid, 1 part nitric acid) and then hidden in plain sight on a shelf with a bunch of other bottles of solutions. (re: "The Purloined Letter").

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/ ... true-story

[MachineGhost]

And one of my favorite bits of dialog from that classic bit of film noir, "The Maltese Falcon":

Pre-Code or Post-Code?  I didn't like the latter.