Protect Your Gold and Silver

Introduction – In these trying times many of you are becoming distrustful of governments, their fiat currencies and the banks with all their toxic debt. We cannot say that we blame you. What we are going to do here is discuss various options for safe keeping of gold and silver.

Keep the Bullion Where you Are Living – This is a relatively direct and easy way to do things. The negatives are that the government can make private ownership illegal and go to confiscation. This is usually done with fixing a price for gold that will be well below what you would want it to be. The usually exemptions are jewelry and religious artifacts. Be careful before you go out and mold 15-pound candlestick holders.

There might be limits imposed on this. If the government steps in and regulates gold ownership like it has done in the past several times in the USA disposing of the gold will be difficult and the prices will be very low. Of course if you keep your gold and silver out of the USA or other privacy invasive high-tax country then you and your gold is safe. More on this later.

Safes for Gold and Silver Storage - We have previously written a discourse on home storage of gold and silver dealing with safes etc, this story can be found here: Safes for Storage of Gold, Diamonds and Documents

Stealth Storage of Gold and Silver – The idea here is to have gold and silver but keep it hidden in plain sight. The way this works is to make molds and have common household items cast out of gold or silver. This is best done by yourself so no one knows about it. You will need to learn a bit about melting the metals, pouring the molds, making the molds etc. You could have solid gold hammerheads. Just cover the gold hammerhead with some sort of paint coating. Then come screwdrivers.

Tools found in the trunk of a car are good like jack handles, etc. Paint them and grease them up. What about the blades on a fan? Doorknobs. Chest drawer handles. How about some dumbbell plates with a paint coating? How about the dumbbell bar with a chrome sleeve on it with weights and plates, fittings etc on the ends to cover it up. How about ashtrays? You could always make a cast iron skillet out of gold and paint it and then drench it in melted fat of course heated in another real skillet. Need to be simple.

Study bullet making as in reloading ammunition. They have all the equipment, molts, stoves, melting pots etc. Make yourself a few boxes of ordinary .38 caliber bullets, be generous and go for 158 grains and jacket them with brass. Load them into ammo with primers, powder etc. Who is going to think these are gold bullets? Reloading is fun and not very hard.

Read the books; ask questions in various reloading Internet forums and you too can be a bullet maker. Of course if they confiscate ammo, another problem ensues then you can always use a bullet puller to take them apart. If you make these bullets out of silver they might prove very useful against vampires – just a joke.

Remember that burying gold or hiding it in the walls is nice if those looking for it do not have a metal detector, only. Gold hidden in walls is at risk from fire, which will melt it, and it can run down the cracks and be not recoverable.

Perth Mint – There is an outfit, which is owned by a State government in Australia. It is not the national government, just one of the states. Think similar to Texas or Arizona versus the Federal Government. They will sell you gold and store it for you in their vaults. They have a certificate program. Do we like this – well let’s say we are not sending clients there. We do not trust the government of Australia when it comes to privacy; this is in our humble opinion after researching the many treaties tax and criminal that the country is a signatory to. They are known to freely share information with other nations that request it.

We do not think the Perth Mint allows ownership to be concealed adequately from them. If one tried to redeem the gold in person we feel the red tape, ID and declarations would be onerous and then the declarations when departing the country even worse. If they know who owns the gold then you are at risk for confiscation, lawsuits, etc. We do not use them but that is just our opinion and the position of our law firm. Everyone has a right to an opinion in a free country.

Bank Storage Vaults and Vault Boxes – This is of course secure against robbery and fire. The problem is a bank is a bank. They get into KYC, know your customer. Also referred to as due diligence. Banks are also subject to a lot of reporting to their governments. We can arrange for some banks in Central and South America to accept gold for storage in a vault. The fees will be substantial.

The bank will issue you a SKR, safe keeping receipt but only if they have the gold assayed themselves after receipt. If you give them an assay certificate from a week before the gold arrives, how does the bank know that the gold was not switched for gold painted lead? Then the bank winds up being sued by you for fraud and theft when you redeem the gold. If you do not want to have the SKR state that it is gold of such and such a weight and purity you can have a SKR that says they are in receipt of some much weight of gold colored bars consisting of a metal that has not been determined to be gold. Another way is a small closet in the bank vault that only belongs to you. There you can put whatever you like, no SKR, just a double set of keys like a vault box.

It is possible in some countries to have the gold or silver placed in a bank vault complete with a SKR made out to an anonymous bearer share corporation (S.A.). The law firm can sign on the account as other than the beneficiary owner. The bank does not know who you the owner of the corporation is and the ownership of the corporation does not appear in any public registry or database, but you have the control through a general power of attorney for the corporation and through an International Trust Agreement with the lawyer signing at the bank. Very few countries allow this but it can be done and with large banks. There are storage fees and law firm fees, which are going to be points.

Vault Box Frauds - People call and say they want to store $250 million in diamonds and wish a SKR receipt. What we say is we can give you a receipt for so many clear colored stones, with a collective weight of this weight and take pictures of them and it is specified that the stones are not determined to be diamonds or anything else. The SKR is not going to say diamonds, clarity, grade or anything else unless the depositor pays for an appraisal after the stones are in the bank vault and cannot be switched. What we are describing is old scams that the bank needs to guard against.

Bank Closures and Vault Box Robberies - History tends to repeats itself. Vault box contents are never insured by the bank that has the vault boxes. This is not feasible. The inventory would need to be appraised, and in general no longer secret. When the banks closed in the USA in the 1930’s, the bank employees of course were allowed access into the banks to do the accounting etc. They routinely looted the vault boxes in the banks. In these trying financial times one must be careful about this sort of thing as well. It may be some time before the vault box holders are given access to a closed bank. The government might also go down to a closed bank they took over and require ID and inventory everything. They may ask for receipts to make sure box contents were not stolen goods. So your old wedding rings from 15 years ago might not be given back unless you can show a receipt. Bank storage vaults and bank vault boxes in the high tax no privacy countries are for good times not bad times. They should never be trusted in a police state.

The bank usually requires an account at the bank to get a vault box. Then any attachment order, confiscation orders etc will be broadened to include the vault box contents. The requesting party just has to pay for the locksmith to open the box and replace the lock with a new one since they generally just drill out the lock. They would also need to have some inventory taken of the goods and appraisals would follow. One could leave a lot of costume jewelry that looks good put in nice felt lined jewelry boxes rolled up copies of masterpiece paintings, old books from garage sales wrapped up nicely, old stamps from garage sales put in very nice stamp holders, in a vault box for your adversaries to find. Then not only do they have to pay a locksmith to get the box opened, now they have to have the contents appraised readied for an auction if they want to not return the contents to you by putting them back in the box and getting the new key to you.

If they return the contents to you because they think they are junk then their client could sue the daylights out of them if it was found that the contents were in fact valuable. The people using the courts to confiscate your assets to satisfy a debt, have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure fair value is obtained for the confiscated goods. They cannot arrange fire sale prices so as to keep going after you for more and more items to satisfy a debt. You could sue them for selling artwork or any other asset too cheap auction or no auction. If it was a masterpiece and was treated as a copy doom and gloom for them. Their client and you could have at them. You do not have to say anything or misrepresent anything-just sit back and let them get a court order to confiscate the contents of the box.

If they ask you any questions about the contents just refuse to answer, take the Fifth Amendment if in USA. Do not even meet with them if possible. This will really drive them on. If they ignore the contents and it turned out the art was real then their clients could sue them. Their clients will be told what they “think” the case is and asked to make a decision – spend the money on appraisals or not. Think how happy the client will be when he finds out the contents was not real. The auction houses will not give binding opinions for free. Want more fun. Get cheap imitation diamonds and have a jeweler laser etch serial numbers in them.

They will go and get second and third opinions for this thinking they hit the mother lode. Many of you need to learn how to enjoy yourself more often without running afoul of the law and let these stupid laws work in your favor. So Bank vault boxes are ok if not in a privacy invasive high tax police state, there are better options.

Private Vault Boxes – This is a vault box company run by a private corporation. It is not owned by any bank or licensed financial institution thus not subject to any of the KYC due diligence rules. This is a horse of another color entirely. The vault box should be double keyed. You each have one key and both are needed to open the box. In addition there should be a secret master password required to be given before you are granted access to the box. This prevents someone else from using your key. There should be access to the boxes 24/7.

This is important. The renting of the vault box should require no ID at all. Nothing. No corporation papers, no foundation papers, nothing at all. Access is granted by key and password. Lose both and it is end game- no access to contents. Lose just the key and have the password then you pay for the locksmith only ($150). The box can be set with two passwords if you like. You can also not keep a key for privacy reasons just use password(s) and the box attendants will open the box for you. You should be able to pay for the box with cash or by western union. Bank wires also easy but then there is a trail.

If the vault box has no ID associated with it how can a court order the opening or seizure of contents of any box? Well not very easily at all. The box identified by number would have to be associated to some criminal act directly. Very unlikely circumstances that would most likely never occur. If a person told someone that they put the illegal fruits of a crime in box number so and so then such a scenario could arise. If someone was following you and they saw you enter the private vault business would that be enough to get into a box by court order. No! They would not know which box you accessed. What if you were to be questioned about why you went in? You could refuse to answer; you could rent more than one box and give them the key and password to a box that has $300 in it for instance. You could also arrange to not have any keys just passwords to the box with the valuables and let them have the key to the box with $300 in it.

You could have multiple boxes all without you keeping the keys for access. Make sure you always check the keyed box after the other box for which you have no key so if the records were checked things would line up. You also did not lie when you said this is your box. Would they be bright enough to ask you about other boxes when you only had one key – most unlikely. Keep the box a secret is your best position. Want to go deeper. Take the battery out of any cell phones you have so there is no GPS or signal. We did not say shut them off, we said remove the battery. Same can apply to your car. Consider disconnecting any GPS device period and forever. It is not worth it. Get a store bought hand held GPS and pay cash for it, no credit cards for service or purchase.

This will let you use the GPS anonymously. In many countries car insurance companies install two lojack devices, one easily found and one hard to find. Never agree to having these devices installed. These are generally USA owned companies thus your location is never a secret. Have mechanic check to make sure your car has no GPS or lojack type device. If it does get it off the car. Off the car, do not trust disabling the power, take it off and throw it in the river.

Vault Box Jurisdiction – This makes or breaks the whole private vault box structure. In the USA there are private vault box services now. I doubt they will last long. Back in the 1980’s they existed but all eventually went away. One of them in the USA is actually using retinal scans as a means of ID. Who in the world is dumb enough to go for that? Where do these retinal scans wind up? Are they associated with the video camera footage at the time they were take? What about license plates from the camera parking lot cameras. See what I mean, makes one wonder.

The government in the USA will eventually go in and seize all the private vault boxes there are all over the country under a John Doe order or a blanket confiscation order. The contents will be inventoried. There will be postings in papers and on the building explaining how to contact the US Marshall Service to get your goods back. We really could stop here but we won’t. The IRS will enter into it for sure so think audits. Receipts for hard goods will be required which many people will not be able to produce and lose their goods that way.

Don’t think they are going to be nice about this after all you were trying to maintain privacy in a police state, which are grounds for suspicion and harassment. Probably 75% of the people will never go to redeem their contents. This will more than pay for the cost of the investigation and some Federal Agency will eventually get around to it because it will pay so well. Sooner or later a person of interest will be associated with the private vault service and then they will be aware of these businesses and then concoct a plan (this will probably take less than one hour for them since they do what they want). They will file in court ex-parte (secret tribunal with no other side present in the proceedings). They will assemble a bunch of locksmiths under a gag order, 15 or so federal agents, clerks with cameras, boxes and inventory tags and then the show starts. The contents get hauled off in trucks to Federal Buildings and much of it winds up in government auctions. Of course the cash goes right into their budgets since most would never claim it.

How to Correctly Do A Private Vault Box - You have to have a vault box out of any police state or high tax privacy invasive jurisdiction. It needs to not be part of a banks legal structure and a bank cannot own it. The country has to have strong privacy laws with search warrants very hard to get. Offshore income must not be taxed by the jurisdiction. The physical facility itself should be able to withstand a ground military attack. The box company has to require no ID at all. Passwords and a double key system work well. You should be able to declare cash coming into the country without any hassles, same for departing cash. Incoming bullion and jewels should also be allowed into the jurisdiction easily.

Private Vault Box Companies that Sell Gold Bullion – This is the ultimate scenario. You can wire such a private vault box company funds and have them convert it to gold bullion to be placed in your private vault box accessible by you 24/7. Forget gold coins now since they are at such a premium and in short supply. So you wire them funds or pay them in cash. The jurisdiction should be one that easily allows for payments in cash and for cash to be brought into the country easily with minimal declarations.

They have the gold bullion at the vault box site. They sell you a vault box, you or they place the gold in it and that is that. Alternatively you can retain a law firm to do the transaction for you in person. Another option is to do the transaction long distance. You send them the funds, they put the gold in the vault box, you set the password and then they Fed Ex you or anyone you designate a key only. The key without the password is of no value. They can also be instructed to keep the keys and only allow box access with two passwords that you set.

If you want a real SKR, Safe Keeping Receipt, they can do one since it is their gold they sold you and they know it is real gold so no assay would be needed. Have the SKR made out in blank as a Bearer SKR that requires a password for access to the gold. Now you have a bearer gold certificate in reality. It can be sent cross border since it does not have the password written in the SKR certificate, which says null and void without the password, inserted in the appropriate box, thus it is not a negotiable instrument until you insert the password. If you want the gold delivered to you physically anywhere (well almost anywhere, (no war zones, no USA, no UK, no Canada, no Germany) it is easily done. We use brinks or other couriers of precious metals. They offer insurance. The declarations if required need to be made. Many countries do not care about declarations when it comes to precious metal bullion. Of course the client pays for the delivery expenses.

E-Gold, Liberty Reserve and the other Virtual Gold Services – E-gold of course is just about dried up but was included anyway. These are services where you send a gold exchange merchant a wire. He then transfers some of his virtual gold into your account. You can then spend the virtual gold with another entity that accepts virtual gold as payment. This is generally done anonymously or close to anonymously. These transactions are not reversible thus no chargebacks. The gambling casinos and adult sites were fond of these services in years past. Credit card fraudsters, bank account hackers and other criminals also became avid users. It is a way to transfer vast sums cross border in real time with out any ID. Sums from virtual gold were transferred onto anonymous ATM cards and then the cash taken out of cash machines, again anonymously.

Well it then deteriorated in terms of anonymity for most of these services. The government of the USA attacked E-Gold who was the biggest by far, and got them to submit to a settlement of some sort. They now have an IRS agent located inside E-gold offices. See the way the USA likes to play. So the first rule here is never use any of these services that have any presence in the USA, UK, Canada or Australia where jurisdiction can be obtained. Some of these services say they are in other countries but fail to list any office addresses or locations. Warning, run away. They may just have a corporation registered there. Maybe they have a virtual office and they live in the USA. Anyone not in the USA should be able to provide a real visible presence. Do you want to give anyone your money if they are not findable?

As a law firm we always advise against this. We see a lot of these services come and go. Their virtual currency is supposed to be held securely in other countries. They use trusts that are full of holes as a rule. They use insecure jurisdictions to hold their gold. In a word they are good for casual holdings, for ease of transfer but not for serious wealth. They can abscond with your money and probably no government would chase them. Who would they chase anyway? How many people would actually ever step forward and file a formal complaint? Who would you file a complaint with? What country would have jurisdiction? Do you even know if they have any gold at all to back their business? How? Once again for casual use as an anonymous payment service these folks can be ok but not for your savings or for any real wealth.

Inquiries – If you need the assistance of our law firm with your precious metals storage Inquire. Thanks.