Gold Storage Guide [Why, How, and Where]

You’ve finally made the decision to invest in gold and silver, but there’s one thing you might have overlooked—where are you going to store your gold?

Storing your gold protects your investment. While a bar of gold can be a real conversation starter, displaying it on your mantle is a perfect way for it to get damaged or stolen. The right storage keeps your investment secure and helps maintain its value.

Some people choose to store their gold in their homes, while others choose a secure vault. Here’s what you need to know about why, where, and how to store your gold to protect your investment.

Why Should I Store My Gold?

Precious metals don’t come with a replacement policy. If your coins or bars are lost or stolen, they’re gone for good. They are bearer instruments, whoever holds them, owns them. If you lose your gold, the investment you made is no longer available to you. Storing your gold in a secure location helps your investment last as long as you need it.

While precious metals retain their value over time and are fairly durable, if your bar or coin is damaged, they can lose value. If you want the best price for your gold, you need to keep it in good condition. That protection will only come when you properly store your gold.

How Can I Store My Gold?

You can store your gold at home, at a bank in a safety deposit box, or in a professional gold storage vault. Each option comes with its own pros and cons and a learning curve so you can best manage your precious metals. It’s important to know more about each option so you can make the best storage choice.

Do I Need to Prepare My Gold?

The short answer is no but take precautions. Pure gold bullion does not tarnish but it’s a good idea to keep your gold in an airtight container away from silver or other items that could tarnish.

Store your gold in a plastic storage capsule, tube or sealed blister pack.

Tips for Storage

No matter where you choose to store your gold, here are two important tips to keep your investment safe.

1. Don’t tell everyone. The more people who know about where and how you’re storing your investment, the higher the risk that one of them is going to share that information with the wrong person.

2. Tell at least one person. That being said, you should always tell at least one other person about where and how you’re storing your investment. If you become incapacitated or even pass away, you want your family or next of kin to know where your precious metals are so they don’t become forgotten, get overlooked, or fall into the wrong hands.

How Do I Check on My Gold?

Checking on your gold depends on where you choose to store it. If you store it at your home, you can always view your gold when you want. However, if you store it in a security deposit box at a bank, you are more restricted to when and how you can access your gold. Also security deposits at a bank are notoriously unreliable and go missing all the time. Banks also do not insure security boxes like a deposit account. If you choose to go with a professional vault, there are usually no options to access or view your gold in person to keep. In some rare cases, you can pick up your gold at the vault. But typically vaults do not allow any of the public inside for security reasons. They want to keep any knowledge of the inner workings of the vault and its security countermeasures a secret.

Where to Store Gold Bars and Coins

Gold bars and coins should always be stored to protect against damage and theft. While it is possible to store your gold bars at home, it can take a lot of time, planning, and money to make your gold secure. In most cases, it’s usually better to store precious metals in a secure professional vault. In a vault, you can sell back your gold in a few taps on your phone any time you want. And you’ll rest easy at night knowing it’s protected by armed guards and fully-insured for replacement value.

Storing Gold at Home

The first place people want to store gold is in their home, but exactly where do you keep gold coins and bars in your home? This can be hard to decide—if it’s the first place you think about storing your gold, then it’s the first place criminals will think about when trying to steal it.

If you do choose to store your gold at home, here are a few things you should consider for the best security.

1. Don’t be obvious. While it might seem exciting to hide your gold in a hollowed-out book, a fake rock, or behind a painting, it’s not as safe as you think. Obvious hiding spots are dangerous places to store your gold because they are the first locations criminals will check for it. If you’ve seen it in a movie or TV show, it’s not a good location to store gold.
2. Have at least three layers of protection. If you’re storing your gold at home, you should have at least three layers of protection between a thief and your bar or coin. This better protects your gold by requiring more work to access it. A fireproof safe is a good start, but that’s only one layer of protection. Instead, you want a fireproof floor safe (first layer), covered by floorboards (second layer) with a china cabinet over it (third layer).
3. Use a fireproof safe. Some people skip on making sure their safe is fireproof. If your safe doesn’t survive a home fire, it will be almost impossible to find your investment in the ash and rubble.
4. Use decoys. Thieves will look for the quick grab-and-go option. By using a decoy safe or hiding spot, you’ll have a better chance to divert thieves from the real location.
5. Don’t store all of your gold in one location. Doing this creates a perfect storm for you to lose your entire investment at once. Choose to use multiple secure locations throughout your home to prevent losing everything.
6. Don’t bury your gold outside. It can be tempting to be a pirate and have a secret pile of buried treasure in your yard, but buried gold is easy to misplace and can be difficult to find again when you need it.

Gold Storage Vaults

Professional gold storage vaults are designed to protect your investment. The security company becomes responsible for your investment and takes all responsibility off your shoulders.

Benefits of Using a Gold Storage Vault

There are multiple benefits of using a storage vault over any other option.

1. Vaults provide better security. Professional and reputable storage vaults are designed and protected with cutting-edge technology and constant surveillance. They have state-of-the-art vault storage that is well beyond what you would get from your average home storage options.
2. Your investment is 100% insured. Insurance is one of the most overlooked costs of owning gold. If you’re planning to store your gold at home, it can be costly to insure your investment through a home owner’s or specialized policy. Plus, most claims don’t cover the increase in value of your gold over time. The best gold storage vaults have insurance built into the cost of the vault.
3. Vaults are affordable. You don’t have to break the bank to keep your gold protected. The GoldSilver storage program only costs 0.06% of the metal value per month. This covers storage, insurance, independent audits, and accounting. In most cases, it is less than half of what a home insurance policy costs. And provides you with round-the-clock access online: add to your holdings, sell quickly, or monitor with one login.
4. External professional audits are included. Since you can’t visit your gold at the vault for security reasons, professional audits are the best way to know that your gold is safe and secure. Storage vaults should provide frequent external audits to certify the value of your gold holdings.

Types of Gold Storage

Now that you know where to store gold bars, you should also decide what type of secure storage vault to choose. Gold storage vaults are either allocated or segregated. Depending on your investment, you might have a different preference for your storage.

Allocated Storage

If you choose allocated storage, your precious metals are shipped directly to the storage location, preserving the chain of custody. When it arrives at the storage location, you receive a receipt certifying that the assets belong to you, and your gold is put together with other investors’ metals.

When you go to withdraw your gold, you are guaranteed to be able to withdraw a near-identical form of gold. For example, if you stored 10 Gold Eagles, you will get 10 Eagles back. You will always receive the proper weight and quality of gold that you deposited; however, it might not be the exact bar or coin you deposited.

Segregated Storage

Segregated is the best, and most expensive, form of gold storage. Segregated storage keeps your investment separate from all other deposits. It provides the assurance that what you deposit is exactly what you will withdraw.

This level of security and separation can be helpful if you have coins with deep emotional value or prefer to know your gold is secure and that your individual pieces will be returned to you in the same condition you deposited them.

GoldSilver Vault Storage

Secure your gold today with GoldSilver vault storage. Our integrated storage options provide you with the security and peace of mind you need. We understand the value your gold has to you and give you total control of your gold throughout the entire process.