The Pharaoh’s Treasure

If you own gold and silver, you can probably sympathize with one of the most famous pharaohs in Egyptian history, Ramses III.

Ramses III was a noted collector of treasure. In fact, he may have ended up with the Lost Ark of the Covenant after sacking Jerusalem — Stephen Spielberg borrowed heavily from this story for the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.

According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, Ramses’ vast and valuable hoard of gold dwarfed all others. So he faced a problem that has bothered gold owners to this very day; a problem that may be bothering you: “How do I keep my gold safe?”

Ramses thought he had the answer. He hired two of the most famous architects in the then-known world: The Greek brothers Agamedes and Trophonious.

They’d made quite a name for themselves designing temples and palaces — the kind of places that have a lot of gold to keep safe. And sure enough, the brothers designed an “impregnable” treasury for Ramses.

Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses III thought he had a burglar-proof treasury for his gold.

The treasury was a huge stone building built next door to Ramses’ palace — all the better for him to keep his watchful eye on it — and it was considered burglar-proof.

The walls were thick stone, there were no windows, the door was sealed by the pharaoh’s personal seal AND the door was manned around the clock by armed guards. Ramses made sure he was there in person every time the seal was broken and the building entered.

So it was especially disturbing for the watchful pharaoh when his treasure started disappearing.

The pharaoh was determined to solve this mystery. He had his personal guard set deadly traps throughout the treasury, traps that were kept secret from everyone else.

The Pharaoh Takes a Head Count

On his next visit the pharaoh found that indeed, one of the traps had worked and killed a would-be thief. However, the mystery deepened — the thief’s head was missing! And along with the missing head, the biggest share yet of the pharaoh’s treasure was pilfered.

The thieving stopped, but with no head, the thief couldn’t be identified. It took some time for the persistent pharaoh to figure out the truth … when he realized that his two architects had also disappeared.

The body was the corpse of Trophonious. He and Agamedes designed the treasury walls with one outer stone that could be easily moved away — making a secret entrance. Thus, while guards stood dutifully at the front door, the unscrupulous Agamedes and Trophonius constantly snuck around the back and robbed the “impregnable” treasury.

When Trophonius was killed by the trap, Agamedes didn’t panic. Keeping a cool head (sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun) he beheaded his dead brother and took as much gold as he could carry. And then he high-tailed it out of Egypt.

Agamedes vanished into legend — he was supposedly swallowed by the Earth. Maybe the pharaoh’s treasure still remains to be discovered.

Though Ramses solved the mystery, things didn’t go well for the pharaoh either. Soon afterward, Egypt was beset by invaders. With one calamity after another, Ramses found himself chronically short of funds.

Eventually, he couldn’t pay his workers — and got hit with the first known labor strike in recorded history. Oh, if only he’d been able to safeguard his gold better.

And that brings me to the question — how best to store your gold.

I’ve asked some of the world’s smartest precious metals investors their ideas on storing treasure. While they insist on remaining anonymous (of course), they were willing to share the pros and cons of different choices …

Expert Tips to Keep Your Treasure Safe

Home safe. Make sure the safe is bolted to the floor, or otherwise secured, and it’s much better if it’s concealed. Our experts recommended keeping a “small amount” of gold and/or silver in the safe, with the rest stored elsewhere.

For that matter, if you have a gun vault, you can also use it for gold storage. If big trouble arrives on your doorstep, you might be going for both your guns and your gold at the same time.

A well-concealed home safe can be a good place to secure some of your gold.

Secret cache. This is a concealed hiding spot in an ordinary wall, which anyone with even the most rudimentary skills (yes, even you) can construct. It works in typical wood-frame houses with sheet-rock walls.

1. Pick a section of wall in an interior bedroom where a mirror wouldn’t look out of place. Locate the wiring in the wall. It typically runs through the wall about one foot up from the floor. Do not choose a section of wall with vertical wiring in it.
   
   
2. Use a magnetic stud finder or otherwise locate the studs in the wall. Make small holes to confirm where the studs are. You also want to avoid sections of walls that contain fire stops — building materials installed to slow the free passage of flame through concealed spaces.
   
   
3. Buy a vertical mirror that is at least 16 inches wide and three or four feet tall. It works best if you can find a mirror the same width as the distance between the studs in your wall. These mirrors usually come with a set of L-shaped mounting clips that attach to the wall with screws.
   
   
4. Cut a hole in the wall between two 2×4 studs. This hole is your cache. Don’t rest anything heavy directly on wiring. Mount the mirror over the hole. You can access it by twisting the L-mountings, or if you’re in a hurry to “Get Out Of Dodge”, by smashing the mirror.

What’s the point of all this work? A determined thief will sometimes steal a safe even if it’s “secured” to the floor (”hello, Mister Sledgehammer”). You not only lose your safe, but your floor is busted up as well. But most thieves who find a mirror attached to a wall won’t bother investigating further — they’re in a hurry, too.

Bank safe deposit box. This is the old standby, and it’s safe unless someone actually robs the bank vault and takes the time to crack open the safe deposit boxes.

It is best if you use a small, local bank with no investment portfolio that could sink it, a la Wall Street Banks. However, in the event of a “bank holiday,” you will not have access to your gold or silver. Many of the more paranoid gold and silver collectors (and that’s a lot of people nowadays) will remind you that President Roosevelt confiscated gold in 1933, and gold in a bank vault would be an easy target if that happened again.

Sean’s note — I don’t think that’s going to happen again. But a year ago, I didn’t think Citibank would be trading for under a buck a share, either.

Private non-bank depository. Make sure it’s close to home for quick access, and 24-hour access is a plus. Larger cities have these, especially overseas. And a private depository which is not a bank will not be affected by a banking crisis.

Segregated storage at a professional gold vault or mint. The Perth Mint in Australia offers this service as do others.

The Perth Mint is one of the most trusted names in the business, and it is owned by the government of Western Australia. Some Swiss banks offer this service as well. But do your own due diligence — do not store your money with some outfit just because you read about it on the Internet. In segregated storage, specific bars are yours.

In non-segregated (pooled) storage, the client does not have title to specific bars or coins. If you’re storing gold bars at some location other than your home or local bank, you’ll probably want to go the full mile and get segregated storage as well, even if it’s more expensive.

Because if you’re really paranoid, you know that if there is a run on gold or silver from that particular pool, then the pool management may be hard put to supply enough gold to cover all physical deliveries.

Low-Tech, Little-Effort Ways to Hide Gold

Underneath the silverware. As in, taped or glued to the bottom (or top) of the drawer that the silverware is in. If thieves are using a metal detector, they’ll assume that it was set off by the silverware and not look any further. For the same reason, the back of your tool cabinet can also a good place to hide gold.

Hidden in your car. If you do this, make it a place that you need at least a screwdriver to access. The advantage is that if you’re racing for the border, you already have some gold in the car.

The disadvantage is that if you’re in a car accident severe enough to rip up your car, you might lose your gold, too. Also, remove the gold before you have any work done on the car, or your mechanic could get one heck of a tip!

In your attic, in the insulation. Most thieves are A) not looking in the attic and B) lazy SOBs who aren’t going to go crawling around in fiberglass insulation. If you have a hanging ceiling with removable panels, you can also tape gold coins to the opposite (hidden) side of the panels. Just be sure not to put so much up there that it comes crashing down.

There are pros and cons for all of these hiding places. For one thing, the safest way to hide gold or silver is to NOT TELL ANYONE WHERE IT IS.

And yet, supposing you croak next week … after all, along with taxes, death is unavoidable. If you hide your gold too well, your family may not be able to find it.

Thus, we are back to the Pharoah’s predicament — who to trust. Ramses III chose poorly. I hope you choose more wisely.

Good luck and good trades

Sean

P.S. For my daily views on gold, natural resources and the markets, be sure to check out my blog at http://blogs.moneyandmarkets.com/red-hot-energy-and-gold/

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