A Stack of Decoy Coins

[Recyclersteve]

If you were going to keep something around the house that could look valuable, but really didn't have much value, what would it be? Let me clarify that this may be multiple items and that the purpose of having it is if you ever woke up in the middle of the night with a gun pointed at your head and heard the words "Give me your money."

My ideas:

Buckets of pennies (that should be a popular answer on this site)
Canadian .999 nickels in quantity
Mexican (10% silver) pesos
British pennies from around 50-100 years ago (big bronze coins that look really cool)
Counterfeit coins (I won't sell them, but will give them to a burglar)

Also, if you had a decoy vault with the "really good stuff" (maybe high end counterfeits), that would be all the better.

What else should be on the list?

[Thogey]

A broken gun.

A gift wrapped box containing lump of dog$hit

A bag of dope.

[NotABigDeal]

Just to get to the point of me being woke up with a gun to my head means so much has already gone wrong (security wise) that no decoy is going to remedy the situation. Final stand time. As I've expressed time and time again, my home is my castle. No amount of decoy crap is going to make the assailant forget about my rather large safe. I'm the only person with the combination. If the bad guy gets in, I'm dead anyway. Draw the line....

Deal

[Kurr]

What deal said. Your not thinking like a criminal. They're not gonna take your stuff and leave. Many, many, times at the very LEAST they try and eliminate witnesses before they're gone. It increases their chances of survival and they know this.

The only thing I'll give is a fight.

[Recyclersteve]

So if they break in when nobody is home a few well placed decoys could keep things from being catastrophic. I wouldn't dare have a huge safe sitting in plain sight. A small safe with decoy stuff inside and (perhaps) another safe that is well hidden would be more my style. Bulk stuff that has real value is stored offsite.

[NotABigDeal]

If nobody is home there isn't anything of great value that couldn't be replaced if stolen. While not hidden, the safe isn't exactly in plain sight. It's not some cheap safe that methhead-Fred is getting into. I have more than one safe (surprise, hehe) and all are top of the line. I know nothing is foolproof, but what I have is more than sufficient to keep my stuff safe. They can hack away at them all day if they want, they won't get in.

I wouldn't dare to store my guns off site. Wouldn't do me, or anyone else any good.

Deal

[fasteddy]

If you were going to keep something around the house that could look valuable, but really didn't have much value, what would it be?

Rs, I get what your saying....I always have a bag of pennies laying around, also a few stack's of NIFC half dollars in the living area...maybe some silver but never any gold....If I am not home and they can get in which will be hard cuz....I bought the door hardening kit from CopperCatcher a few years back and since I live in the Houston, we have had a hurricane or two I have very strong glass in my windows....but I also get Notabigdeal and Kurr...if there is a gun pointed at my head while in bed then I have a remedy for that and I don't even need to move my head off of my pillow to solve that problem.

[coppernickel]

No, the pennies are in plain site. I'd like to see a burglar running away from the house with boxes of pennies, how far would they get?

I do keep "copy" gold coins in the underwear drawer, a few are very realistic.

[Recyclersteve]

I do keep "copy" gold coins in the underwear drawer, a few are very realistic.

There you go- that's the kind of strategy I was referring to.

I definitely agree with keeping your guns handy and not stored offsite.

[TheJonasCollegeFund]

Fake safe

[Recyclersteve]

Fake safe

What do you mean- is it empty?

[Silver4face]

If you were going to keep something around the house that could look valuable, but really didn't have much value, what would it be? Let me clarify that this may be multiple items and that the purpose of having it is if you ever woke up in the middle of the night with a gun pointed at your head and heard the words "Give me your money."

My ideas:

Buckets of pennies (that should be a popular answer on this site)
Canadian .999 nickels in quantity
Mexican (10% silver) pesos
British pennies from around 50-100 years ago (big bronze coins that look really cool)
Counterfeit coins (I won't sell them, but will give them to a burglar)

Also, if you had a decoy vault with the "really good stuff" (maybe high end counterfeits), that would be all the better.

What else should be on the list?

I came across this thread and felt compelled to chime in. For the most part Steve, your list is pretty good, but I feel that it should be modified. For example, the bucket of pennies is very good, but maybe put a few nickels and dimes on the top to make it look like a significantly higher face value. Also, the .999 Canadian nickels have doubled in value since you started this thread. Therefore, your nickel decoy needs to be 1982 and newer. As for the large British pennies, the decoys need to be 1953-1967. If you put out a bunch of queen vic , prince Edward etc, you would be doing the burglar a favor. That would possibly be equivalent to leaving a bucket of war nickels which by the way was not on your list nor should it be.
Add to the list FAKE ASE's !!!!!!

[Lemon Thrower]

I used to have a crappy Sentry safe in my closet. I got it for $50 off CL 15 years ago, not sure what they go for now. I had a few stacks of fake gold coins in plastic numi cases and various worthless foregin paper money. Very modest investment for a lot of security.

[thecrazyone]

I had a family member that kept their money wrapped in aluminum foil in the freezer. Great example to live by, in my opinion!

[TXSTARFIRE]

Cold cash!

[Doctor Steuss]

I came across this thread and felt compelled to chime in. For the most part Steve, your list is pretty good, but I feel that it should be modified. For example, the bucket of pennies is very good, but maybe put a few nickels and dimes on the top to make it look like a significantly higher face value.

I am giggling at the visual of robbers passing up electronics and other items, in order to lug a 30 pound bucket out of the house, later cashing it in to discover it's $60.

[MaxGravy]

When we were still in the states I would leave this on my dresser. Fake Krugerrands and misc fake silver coins.

decoystuff.jpg (101.42 KiB) Viewed 1482 times

[Recyclersteve]

Max, that is brilliant!