Fire and Heat the two perils that may cause the destruction of your precious metals!

The back story.

What follows is the reason for the creation of Precious Metal Solutions.  It began long after I had started accumulating precious metals ie ‘Stacking’.  While what I have is quite insignificant when compared to others, it represents years of occasionally putting some money together and purchasing a tube of Standing Liberty rounds and the few and far between years of purchasing a single ounce gold Eagle or Buffalo.  Now, at current prices, my purchases can no longer happen on a regular basis unless I switch single silver rounds or fractional pieces of gold. 

 

Recently when precious metals made their historic move to the upside, I realized my ‘insignificant’ purchases over the years now had actually become more than significant to me.  I also realized that losing my ‘stack’ would be permanent as I could not replace it at today’s prices. 

 

So my quest to protect my holdings began in earnest.  Yes, they were in a safe.  They shared space with my Second Amendment ‘tools’.  However, to put my mind at ease, I looked into the finer details of the typical safe's theft or fire attributes.  My safe, could be easily breached quickly by anyone with a prybar – it isn’t pretty, but there are numerous videos on the Internet.  Not comforting at all.   I then moved on to the more likely peril, fire.

 

This was devastating.  A typical safe’s fire rating is 350 degrees, internal temperature, for a designated time (safe brand determines that time).  I looked at the plastic tubes holding my silver and wondered how they would react to that 350 degree threshold.  So I set up a test with our oven.  30 minutes at 350 degrees turned an empty coin tube into a molten glob of plastic.  Thus began my search for an alternative means of storing my stack.

 

I looked online and found several options:

1 - Paper tubes – they would survive those temperatures, but paper manufacturing often requires the addition of sulfur.  Sulfur outgasses or releases gas over time without any fire and will tone or discolor silver.

2 – Aluminum tubes – these also would survive those temperatures, but silver reacts chemically and physically with aluminum.

3 – Titanium alloy tubes – a winner - these not only would survive at those temperatures, but they do not react in any way to the silver.

 

I found several that were suitable on Amazon.  Some pretty spendy, others more affordable.  I ordered some from different manufacturers.  They all seemed to be identical so I ordered a larger quantity.  What arrived was a plastic bag with up to 6 tubes in the bag.  Yes, they were what I wanted, but most had arrived with  dings or dents from being mishandled during shipping.

 

This resulted in my reaching out to the manufacturer.  Yes, they can ship to me.  All I need is a formal business and an order for 1,000 or more.  The end result is that I now have enough tubes to satisfy my own needs and hopefully hundreds and hundreds to offer at prices that not only compete with Amazon, but go far and above with additional included items that will ensure your precious metals retain their value through the peril of a fire.  In the near future there will be more products, ideas, and helpful solutions to help you protect your own precious metal stack in other ways, be your stack be small or large.