Cold Storage Hiding Place for Coins
Posted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 2:35 amI have a rather odd item to ask everyone. A friend of mine that I used to work with before semi-retiring does bring up some interesting questions and comments from time to time. Basically he and I were going back and forth on safe storage places for coins and he came up with three places that are somewhat related. Here are the three:
1) Underground in an area where it frequently gets below zero in the winter. He said the depth would probably be a foot to 18"- let's assume that the actual freeze line goes down to a depth of 3-4 feet- in other words let's assume he lives in Minneapolis or some similarly very cold place;
2) In a shed that doesn't have any heating or cooling (presumably the roof doesn't leak); and
3) In a freezer in a pantry in his basement.
He has gold and silver bullion (from tiny stuff up to 100 oz. silver bars), silver and gold American Eagles (including fractionals), slabbed coins (PCGS/NGC), coins in the standard cardboard 2"x2"'s, and more.
So far I told him that he might want to experiment with something like an unslabbed silver American Eagle. I felt like the slabs could have several problems if not stored in exactly the perfect manner. In a freezer I imagine they could crack from the cold. Does anyone know about that?
Also, I would imagine that in a freezer a slab could fog up and it might be hard to see the coin once you took it back out of cold storage into a room temperature environment.
Also, I would think silver bars would be safe in a freezer- it is hard for me to imagine bars cracking in the cold. But would the bars change colors or become real ugly looking in a freezer? That I don't know.
Now in terms of storing something underground I would imagine that you'd have to be very careful with something like slabs due to the dirt and moisture involved. Except for someone living in an area with lots of seismic activity, I would think that storing underground would be fairly safe for bullion items that are not slabbed. That is just my speculation.
I don't have the luxury of taking a lot of time to do an experiment, so that is why I am bringing this to the attention of the masses.
If anyone has any good links (Youtube or elsewhere) that are helpful, I would certainly appreciate it.
1) Underground in an area where it frequently gets below zero in the winter. He said the depth would probably be a foot to 18"- let's assume that the actual freeze line goes down to a depth of 3-4 feet- in other words let's assume he lives in Minneapolis or some similarly very cold place;
2) In a shed that doesn't have any heating or cooling (presumably the roof doesn't leak); and
3) In a freezer in a pantry in his basement.
He has gold and silver bullion (from tiny stuff up to 100 oz. silver bars), silver and gold American Eagles (including fractionals), slabbed coins (PCGS/NGC), coins in the standard cardboard 2"x2"'s, and more.
So far I told him that he might want to experiment with something like an unslabbed silver American Eagle. I felt like the slabs could have several problems if not stored in exactly the perfect manner. In a freezer I imagine they could crack from the cold. Does anyone know about that?
Also, I would imagine that in a freezer a slab could fog up and it might be hard to see the coin once you took it back out of cold storage into a room temperature environment.
Also, I would think silver bars would be safe in a freezer- it is hard for me to imagine bars cracking in the cold. But would the bars change colors or become real ugly looking in a freezer? That I don't know.
Now in terms of storing something underground I would imagine that you'd have to be very careful with something like slabs due to the dirt and moisture involved. Except for someone living in an area with lots of seismic activity, I would think that storing underground would be fairly safe for bullion items that are not slabbed. That is just my speculation.
I don't have the luxury of taking a lot of time to do an experiment, so that is why I am bringing this to the attention of the masses.
If anyone has any good links (Youtube or elsewhere) that are helpful, I would certainly appreciate it.