BankThink

Coin purveyor to depositors: Wake up and get a safe

Banks and regulators have one good reason to celebrate the decline in newspaper readership, but it doesn´t have much to do with journalism. A company that deals collector´s coins took out a full page advertisement in the Washington Post on Thursday touting the merits of armored safes. Mock news articles on the ad page warned of the dangers of depository institutions.

"Insured or not, the fact is this. The FDIC has only enough cash on hand to cover about 2% of nationwide deposits," the ad read in one section called "7 smart places to stash your cash." It continued, "it´s not always wise to have all your eggs in one basket."

It appears the company, World Reserve Monetary Exchange, Inc., is offering free armored safe giveaways. Another section of the ad featured an article whose headline described "public worry" over what to do with the "brilliant, never-circulated" coins the company sells. A photo featured squat, old-fashioned looking, black metal safes-the solution to coin owners´ anxieties.

To get a safe, coin collectors would have to spend $1,960.67 on 4,100 assorted coins the company sells. An newsy photo depicted an elderly woman at her door, receiving her free safe (apparently the delivery guy felt the best place to leave it was on her doorstep-the photo captures him in the act of triumphantly whipping away the cardboard shipping box). The woman was quoted in the photo caption saying, "Now I don´t have to worry where to keep my important papers and my grandfather´s gun since I have my new safe."

That´s right: Forget about bank vaults and safe deposit boxes at local branches; the best place for Americans to keep their valuables is in old-timey hunks of cast iron planted right outside their front doors. Did you hear that, IndyMac depositors? Get with the program.

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