Coin Collection in a Safety Deposit Box

[dean1345]

I was informed by a forum member that if my bank failed. The bank could seize the contents of my safety deposit box and pay me only face value. I talked to my bank's v.p. and he assured me they would ler me retrieve the contents of my safety deposit box. Do any of you in the same boat as me have any additional information? All comments appreciated.

 

Dean

[PerryHall]

The contents of your safety depost box are your private property.

[Schatzy]

When an insured bank or thrift closes, the FDIC usually arranges for another institution to take it over, including branches where you might have a safe deposit box. In those situations, you should be able to conduct business as usual. If the FDIC cannot find a buyer for your bank, it arranges for you to remove the contents of your box so you can obtain a box at another institution, if you wish. This is done within a few days after the bank fails.

 

[MarkFeld]

Dean, I believe that you were misinformed by the forum member and that you need not worry about being able to retrieve your property.

[WoodenJefferson]

Safety Deposit boxes were immune until President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 proclamation, but this was about holding gold, not bank failures.

 

 

Quote: All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed, pending action in the due course of the law. (end quote)

 

 

Under the authority of the Emergency Banking Relief Act, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 6102, which allowed the government to confiscate all privately owned gold in the United States. The owners would be repaid in paper dollars whether they liked it or not.

 

Dentists, jewelers and coin collectors were exempt from this Executive Order, and were allowed to own gold. (In terms of coins, the actual terminology used was ''gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.)

 

Still, there were many that did not understand the ruling and surrendered even collectable gold coins.