Bury Your Treasure
November 23, 2011 by John Myers
Even at these prices, I like physical gold as an investment. I prefer bullion to gold stocks. Everyone who has ever owned an ounce of gold wonders how to store it safely. I have experienced a search for missing gold; it was a nightmare.
It happened at my dad’s home in Spokane, Wash.
“Boys,” shouted the old man. “I need you in here.”
It was autumn 1979. My brother, Brian, and I had flown in only hours earlier to be with our dad. It was a Friday, and Dad was pleased as punch about our visit and the fishing trip we had planned the next day.
“Let’s have a nice cup of coffee,” said the old man. He often said that.
After he poured three cups, we sat at the kitchen table. The kitchen was always the meeting point for important Myers gatherings or even entertainment. Living rooms were something left for city folk.
“Boys, we need to do something.”
Brian and I shared a look. Dad always said we, which meant us not him.
He said he needed us to dig up some of his secure “assets.”
Brian and I both knew that secure meant buried, and that buried meant gold, silver or cash. On that particular night, it meant all three. The old man often dug deep when it came to putting away such things.
Brian and I had been on such digs before. They could be a pain, but they were always exciting.
“Down there by the garden,” Dad said, pointing to part of the property. “I need you two to go down and fetch something. I have about 300 ounces of gold, 2,000 ounces of silver and some cash.”
Some cash certainly meant a lot of money.
“I want you to go down there and dig it up and fetch it back.”
We knew we were in for some work, and the day’s light had faded. We had a job to do, and Brian knew how we could get it done.
As Dad continued to drink his coffee, Brian gave me my instructions: Get a shovel and a flashlight.
We got to the spot and began digging.
It was a moonless night. We each took turns with the shovel while the other held the light. Soon, our hole grew deeper and wider. Then, we hit pay dirt.
Brian’s shovel hit something, so we both fell to our knees to retrieve a multi-gallon container filled with silver.
Brian motioned to me and said, “We’re not done yet.”
We returned to our pit, dug some more and found a set of plastic lunch boxes. Inside them were Thermos™ containers stuffed with $1,000 bills (this was back when $1,000 bills were in circulation).
“Just the gold to get now,” encouraged Brian.
We were in the country, but there were houses nearby. Beside us was a lot of silver and money.
I told Brian I had read that a guy in New York was killed over $20.
“Oh, I know,” said Brian, his brown eyes expressing both our fears.
We both began to dig furiously.
It felt like we were being swallowed up. We were waist-deep when we struck a large rock.
Brian knelt down and began to tug on the boulder. I scrunched in tight beside him. Out of nowhere came one word: “Well?”
I jumped up, my arms swinging as I desperately tried to see what evil had crept up behind us.
I struck something hard with my elbow. It was my brother.
“Ahh,” moaned Brian pulling his hands toward his face.
“It’s just me,” Dad announced. “I just wanted to see if you boys needed anything.” Then, he told us to climb out of the ditch, and he scanned the hole in the ground with the flashlight. The gold was missing.
Over coffee we talked about how our hole could be so big and deep and still no gold to be found. Dad decided that the morning sun would shed some light on where he may have put it.
The next morning, he remembered that he had buried the gold in another spot. (My father had been accumulating gold coins in Canada since the 1960s. Under Canadian law, they were legal to own.)
I tell you this story because I know some of you wonder exactly where it is safe to store physical gold. Make no mistake: If things get as bad as I think they might, you will want physical gold. I don’t have faith in putting it in a bank safety deposit box.
Most of you probably don’t live in the country, so I recommend a really good safe. A word to the wise, don’t tell anyone about the safe or the gold. The second worst thing that can happen is to have thugs show up with guns and force you to open your safe. The worst thing would be for them not to leave any witnesses.
If you bury assets, make sure you keep them in something that is airtight and watertight.
Also, put aside a coded map somewhere and tell the person you trust the most in the world where you keep it in case something happens to you. There’s no need to tell him or anybody else what is buried there. All he needs to know is that you have something important and that it will be necessary to dig it up and distribute it to the people you love.
Yours in good times and bad,
–John Myers
Editor, Myers Energy & Gold Report
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