Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Doc's Top 10 Places to Hide Your Gold and Silver

We're assuming most of our readers don't have access to a deserted island to stash their store of gold and silver.
As such, we thought it would be useful to combine a reader list of great hiding places for your gold and silver with some ideas from The Doc.
We'll start the list off with 10 hiding places, and we encourage readers to post their ideas as well.
(please post your ideas anonymously or using a non-identifiable avatar as this is a public website)

The best hiding spot is secrecy.  Don't tell anyone that you own gold or silver.
The second best hiding spot is good deterrence.  Use an excellent alarm system, always keep your doors and windows locked, get a dog (a REAL dog, not a purse dog), keep lights on and make it look like you are always home, etc.

We also recommend having several different hiding spots for your precious metals. That way if a thief finds one of your spots they won't have your whole stash, and also if the thief puts a gun to your head and demands your gold/silver, you might be able to give him one of your smaller stashes, convince him that's all you have, and save the rest.

10 Hiding Spots for Gold and Silver
1. Dig a hole 3-4 feet deep and bury your stash. Fill the dirt back in, and at 1-2 feet deep, bury a few miscellaneous items.  That way if a metal detector is used, most likely the thief will stop/give up after digging up the items closer to the surface. 

2. Underneath trash/ recycle bins in kitchen
3. Behind insulation in attic
4. Spray paint a silver bar gray or black, and leave it in the open as a door stop
5. Hide your silver/gold in a place that would already set off a metal detector. 
6. Bury the coins in the bottom of the pot of your balcony/ porch plants
7. Empty out a tube of orange juice concentrate, fill will silver/gold rounds, pour orange juice back in, and place in freezer
8. Open up a half-used can of paint.  Take a ziplock bag, place your coins in the bag, and push all the air out. Put the ziplock back inside a second ziplock bag, then submerge in the half-used paint can, and reseal the top.
The metal of the paint can will foil metal detectors, and no thief is likely to steal used paint cans sitting in your garage or basement.  (Be sure to inform your spouse to prevent a costly "spring cleaning" when she empties the garage/basement)
9. Use a decoy safe and fill with $100-$200 in cash, and petty jewelry.  Make sure the safe is easily found, and always leave the key "accidentally" in it.  Leave some cash in other common places as well such as drawers, etc.
10. Inside stuffed animals in your kid's room. Most people will not keep/store any valuables in young children's rooms, and they are also often very messy (meaning no quick in and out for the thief) so thieves tend to typically avoid them.

The important thing is to think like a thief.  A thief's main goal is to steal as much as possible, and leave your home as fast as possible.

Again, we're sure our readers have much better and many more suggestions than we have!
Good luck, and good hiding!