Silver, Gold, and House Fires

Can silver and gold bullion survive a house fire? The quick answer is yes but the truthful answer is that while gold and silver can survive a home fire, your silver and gold will most likely not survive. This is because you have stored it incorrectly to make it through a fire in your home unscathed.

While the melting point for silver is 1763 degrees Fahrenheit (961.8 C) and gold is 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit (1,064 C) the metal of the precious metals will not be your problem. The plastic that is all around your silver and gold is what will be the mess.

The average home fire can reach the higher end of the temperature spectrum to melt silver. Homefires can easily melt your silver and possibly your gold which obviously requires a higher temperature. The issue most home fire victims must deal with is all the stuff that is melted into or onto the silver. If you have coins in plastic containers you can bet they will melt which creates a mess.

Storage of Silver and Gold

Where you store your silver and gold will determine how well it survives a home fire. I will not cover what you shouldn’t do. I will only cover what should be done, at least for my situation.

You need a safe. Everyone gets hung up on whether fireproof or break-in rating is more important. The heck with all that. I bought a safe many years ago and it has a 1-hour fire rating. It has a tumbler with internal bolts that release and permanently lock the door if tampered with. A safecracker could probably open it but I doubt I have any of those people in my neighborhood. The typical person that would rob my home at most would beat the heck out of it during the short amount of time they would have. With me retaining my possessions in the end.

You Need Your Own Answer

I know that when empty my safe weighs in at 300 pounds. Put some silver in it and it quickly becomes too heavy to easily remove at all. The benefit of the safe being bolted down and disguised and hidden away at a secret location further complicates removal.

So I recommend getting a very heavy fire-resistant safe that is bolted down. Make sure it is not just a fire safe as they are much, much easier to break open.

The small portable safes that can easily be carried away are a joke. Big, heavy, and cumbersome makes it challenging to say the least.

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The Problem of Plastic

Plastic melts at around 320 to 410 degrees. A fire-safe may not prevent the destruction of the plastic that encapsulates all of your precious metals. If not stored correctly you could end up with a pile of melted plastic all over deformed and burnt silver and gold. The damage will lower the value of plain bullion and could devastate the humanistic value of a collection. Bullion would have to be remelted and assayed to be able to sell.

I Collect Bullion

Since I merely stack silver for a hedge against starving to death during a total collapse of the world’s currency… I value silver more for the metal value than the value of a coin. My concern is not because of the worth of a misstrike or rarity. I stack silver solely for the reason of being able to have a method of survival in dire times.

Get Fire AND Theft Resistance

I recommend having a big heavy safe with a fire rating and also a theft rating. Do not settle for either. Get both. Do not buy your safe at Walmart or Costco. Purchase it from a safe company. Do research to figure out what will work best for you. Whatever you decide remember if the fire is hot enough it will melt any plastic you have around your silver and gold. A fire-safe MAY prevent this melting. If it did melt it would be transformed into one clean chunk without any plastics mixed in. Any silver stored outside a fire safe will be literally toasted.

I also utilize a heavy smaller safe with metal ammo boxes for internal storage. The silver and gold piled in like pirate loot. Remember that if you start with a 300-pound safe and add bullion to it helps it be less moveable. Ensure the safe is bolted down. Also never store all your riches in one place. In case you are forced to open the safe.

No answer on the web will answer the question of what safe you should get… every answer will be different depending on your needs. Either way… beware of the plastic you wrap all your metals with. The cheapest part of the equation will be what destroys the value. Silver, gold, and home fires do not go well together and this part of the overall plan is a simple fix.