Finding a safe, convenient and inexpensive place to store your gold is anything but obvious. Advantages and disadvantages of the different storage possibilities available to you by Jean-François Faure, president of Aucoffre.com.
I quickly pass on the obvious need to limit the handling of parts, even if it is very tempting. Your children will want to touch them with their little fingers that are not always clean or neat.
Now more and more coins are made of pure gold, the scratches appear quickly and when they fall from the height of a table they are immediately found with a marked edge. Difficult for a resale at the best price.
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The limits of “home care”
In fact, I’m mainly going to talk about theft. In 2017, burglaries increased by 4%, with thieves’ clear predilection for jewelry (54%). The increase in the theft of precious materials and their prices are closely correlated. Little wonder that the market for domestic safes, new or used, is booming.
However, it is not the most secure solution, nor the cheapest. A well-informed and ill-intentioned person can walk away with the loot without too much difficulty. Some safes resist fire but not theft, others are not, or poorly sealed … As for thefts with extortion, no safe can resist.
In addition, even when the safe is insured, the parts kept there are not reimbursed, often for lack of traceability, when they have for example been inherited or purchased from a private individual.
But above all because keeping investment gold coins at home is not provided by insurance!
Worse, telling your insurer that you have been the victim of a burglary, that gold has been stolen from you, and that you did not specifically declare it in your insurance contract, will be a reason for them not to not reimburse all of what was stolen, even your flat screen purchased the day before.
The reason being that your gold has made thieves come to your house, like a kind of magnet.
Simply hide your rooms at home, buried in the garden or walled in a cavity, it is the immediate risk that they fall into the wrong hands or into oblivion.
Real snitches
Securing his gold for his family, but finally seeing it found years later by the new owner of his house, during a pool landscaping or the cutting down of a wall, is not the best idea for preserve its heritage.
The mistake often made is not to tell anyone where the gold is placed and therefore risk that in the event of an accident you will not be able to transmit the information.
The other mistake is to tell at least one person about it. This person has friends, who have friends, themselves with friends who can invite themselves to your place but not for an aperitif.
In short, it is clear that the house is not the right solution since there is no third option, except to remain reasonable on the values held.
You can afford to keep silver coins at home, which are of lesser market value than gold ones. Very liquid, they are a safe bet in times of crisis because they are easily exchanged for everyday consumer goods.
But if we have a lot of them, their storage becomes problematic especially because of the space occupied and oxidation.
Possibly a few small gold coins can also be kept at home. Some incorporate innovative security processes into their manufacture (engraved QR code, synthetic DNA, unique references, seals, etc.) which ensure their traceability, protect them from wear and tear and therefore potentially help their reimbursement by insurance in the event of theft.
These pieces can become real cookies to mark the rest of your treasures, but in the event of a redesign all will be lost.
In the safe of a bank
The bank safe is an outsourced custody solution that is less expensive and more secure than the personal safe, but also more restrictive.
Among the advantages, the parts are kept safe from manipulation, in their original condition. Banks also benefit from the trust of their customers.
This solution certainly exempts from taking out specific insurance, but the annual rental rates vary enormously from one bank to another, depending on a wide variety of criteria.
For a 30 dm3 box, they can range from 90 to 400 euros *. In addition, not all agencies offer a safe, either because they do not have one, or because it is not part of their offer (like the Banque Postale).
Knowing that the conservation of the goods of their customers is expensive in terms of security, maintenance and especially that it does not bring them anything, some big banks like HSBC even plan to stop little by little to store the gold of the individuals.
Not to mention that the procedures for opening a safe are complicated. A bank safe is not very accessible, with imposed schedules and relatively long deadlines for removing parts for resale.
In this case, their liquidity is almost zero, because you do not have the products quickly. Their resale is therefore not guaranteed at the price you are considering. And if your agency closes, your gold will be stored in another agency. We have seen more practical.
We like being able to have access to our gold during crises. And it is precisely during these times that banks like to close on Friday evening so as not to reopen on Monday morning. Remember Argentina in 2000 and its bankruns, the many failed banks in 2008, Cyprus in 2013 or Greece in 2015.
Yes your gold is yours, it’s safe in a safe deposit box in the fourth basement, but you don’t have the key to open the three-ton door that protects it. Pity !
Storage outsourced by third-party services
An outsourced safe is located within an infrastructure managed by an intermediary, a specialist professional and authorized to provide specific procedures in the event of accident or death.
Located outside the banking circuit, this custody solution on behalf of third parties limits the risks and disadvantages inherent in banks. It makes it possible to manage the transactions of its products almost instantaneously, therefore at the best price, while making it possible under certain conditions to take physical possession of its products if one wishes to have them on one’s person or to resell them through another channel.
Many players offer outsourced custody of gold and silver coins, with storage typically representing a small percentage of proceeds.
We then choose from among the biggest players in the market, those who are well established, we compare, we ensure that the stocks of gold coins purchased are real (regular audits must attest) and we compare the stocks. price depending on the services and terms offered. It is a practical, comfortable, secure and competitive price solution.
When you buy gold coins you have to think about one thing above all: how quickly and at what price I will be able to resell them. The method of conservation is a corollary of this reflection.
To conclude, it is safer to mix several storage solutions in order to spread the risks: a few silver coins and gold coins secured at home and the rest in an outsourced safe. As for the distribution of assets, in terms of security also it is advisable to reason in a logic of diversification!