If it locks and was made to keep money or papers safe, it’s a strongbox of some kind. Here’s how to tell an iron Armada chest from a Victorian cash box or a Wells Fargo treasure box, how to date it, and what they really sell for.
£10
hammer price for a vintage cash box with its key, 2024
£1,100
a 17th-century German Armada chest at auction in Dumfries, 2023
$18,000
a Wells Fargo strongbox made by J. Y. Ayer, with premium, 2017
$550
a reproduction Wells Fargo box with a copied Ayer stencil, 2022
Key takeaways
- Most old strongboxes belong to one of three families: wrought-iron “Armada” chests from southern Germany, japanned tin or steel cash and deed boxes from Britain, and the wooden treasure boxes of Wells Fargo.
- In British English a “money box” is usually a child’s coin bank, which is a separate collecting field with its own reproductions.
- On an Armada chest the showy keyhole on the front is often a dummy; the real lock fills the underside of the lid.
- Ordinary cash and deed boxes sell for tens of pounds at auction and a few hundred from dealers. Armada chests made about £1,000 to £1,500 at recent UK sales, and a genuine Ayer-made Wells Fargo box $18,000, which is why reproductions are everywhere.
- Lost the key? Don’t force or drill it, and don’t repaint the box: a locksmith can help with the first, and original paint is worth keeping.
In This Article
Which box do you have? At a glance
Find the description that matches your box, then jump to its section below. The prices are the range of real sales and asking prices we found, all set out with sources in the value table further down.
| Type | Made | What to look for | Prices we found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armada chest | Southern Germany, late 16th to late 18th century | Wrought iron with interlaced straps; lock filling the lid; often a dummy keyhole on the front | About £1,000–£1,500 at UK auctions; $5,265 in San Francisco |
| Cash box | Britain, 19th to mid-20th century | Small japanned tin or steel box, often with gold lines, a lift-out tray or compartments, a brass escutcheon | £10 at auction to about £400 from a dealer |
| Deed box | Britain, 19th to mid-20th century | Larger japanned box for papers, side handles, often lettered with the owner’s name | £28–£695 from dealers |
| Wells Fargo treasure box | San Francisco, from 1862 | Green-painted pine and oak with iron straps, 20 × 12 × 10 in., maker’s mark of J. Y. Ayer inside | Genuine: $18,000 (2017). Reproductions: about $550–$1,200 |
| Money box or mechanical bank | 19th and 20th centuries | Coin slot; on a mechanical bank a figure moves when a coin goes in | A separate field, see below |
Money box, cash box or strongbox?
The most searched phrase in this whole subject is “antique money box”, and in Britain that usually means something else: a child’s savings box with a coin slot, not a box a merchant locked his takings in. Even Chubb made them. In 1926 its brochure offered small money boxes “suitable as Christmas or Birthday gifts for use as a Children’s Savings Bank”.1
The famous ones are American cast-iron mechanical banks, where a figure moves as the coin goes in. On J. & E. Stevens’s “Kicking Cow” bank of 1888–1900, made in Cromwell, Connecticut, the cow kicks and the milker tumbles over backwards.2 Reproductions are a known problem. The mechanical bank historian Sy Schreckinger’s tests are a good start: originals have glass-smooth castings with tight seams, recasts have a coarse, pebbly surface and gaping seams, and a recast comes out smaller because cast iron shrinks by about a quarter of an inch per foot as it cools.3
The rest of this guide is about the other kind of box: the one built to keep cash, deeds and gold away from thieves, and sometimes from fire.
Armada chests: the iron strongboxes of the 1600s
The oldest strongbox you’re likely to meet outside a museum is the iron “Armada chest”. By the 16th century blacksmiths in southern Germany, Austria and France were forging money chests entirely from sheet iron, with Augsburg and Nuremberg as the great centres.4 The Victoria and Albert Museum says large numbers were made in southern Germany, particularly Nuremberg, from the end of the 16th century until the last quarter of the 18th, and exported all over Europe.5
The name is a Victorian mistake. It grew out of the belief that these chests carried bullion to pay for the Spanish Armada and washed ashore from the wrecks. The V&A points out that most of them are much later than 1588, and that the term doesn’t seem to have been used before the middle of the 19th century.5 In a catalogue, “Armada chest” describes a type, not a history.
For a longer view of how strongboxes became safes, see our history of safes. If you think you’ve found one, these are the features to check.
- Iron and straps. Wrought iron strengthened with interlaced iron bands. Many were painted, but the paint rarely survives.5
- A lock that fills the lid. In most examples the lock, often finely engraved, covers the whole inside of the lid and throws several bolts, generally eight, under the turned-in edges of the sides. One key turns them all.54
- A keyhole that isn’t one. There’s often an imitation keyhole on the front, with the real one hidden on the lid, and sometimes staples for padlocks as well.5 A 17th-century Nuremberg chest described by the Historical Locks collection has “a magnificent but false keyhole on the front”.4
- Any size. They were made from a few inches long, for jewellery, to five or six feet, big enough for a banker’s reserve.5
- Cover plate and key. Auction catalogues always note whether the decorative plate over the lock and the key survive. A Bonhams chest sold in 2013 had lost its cover plate; a small one sold by Brettells in 2022 still had its original key.67
It’s a lovely piece of misdirection: anyone attacking the chest goes for the ornate keyhole on the front, which leads nowhere. We won’t go further into the mechanism than that. If yours is locked without a key, see lost the key below.
Victorian cash boxes and deed boxes
In the 19th century the strongbox shrank and moved into the office. The Tann family firm, the oldest name in the British safe trade, listed plain boxes, plate iron boxes, cast boxes and panelled boxes in its account book for 1828–1840, alongside iron bookcases and doors. Thomas Milner’s fire-proofing patent of 1840 was at first applied to tin plate chests and sheet iron boxes; he doesn’t seem to have made plate iron safes until 1846.8
A printed label inside one early Milner box offers it “for the protection of Ledgers, Books, Deeds, Plates, Cash, Office Papers” from fire.9 The big makers kept at it for another century. Milners’ entry at the 1929 British Industries Fair lists “Japanned and Steel Boxes”, and Chubb’s in 1947 lists “Cash and Deed Boxes” next to its safes and strong room doors.1011
“Japanned” is the word you’ll see in every listing. Japanning imitated East Asian lacquer with glossy resin-based varnishes, and it was a big trade in the West Midlands, with Wolverhampton and Bilston at its centre.12
A cash box and a deed box are close relatives. The cash box is small enough for a desk drawer: the one in the photo is 23 cm long.13 Inside there are often fitted compartments or a tray for coins and notes, as in the painted Victorian box in the value table below.14 A deed box is bigger and plainer, made for folded papers, with handles at the sides and very often the owner’s name painted on the front.15
Those painted names are the best part. One steel deed box sold in London carries the name of Sir H. Ross Skinner, a mining specialist knighted in 1917, and that’s a better story than any plain box can tell.15 If your box has a name on it, look the person up before you sell: a local museum or a family historian may care more than a dealer does.
How to identify the maker: marks, locks and construction
Start with what the box is made of, because that alone narrows the family and the century.
16th to 18th century
Wrought iron and straps
Heavy riveted plates and interlaced bands, side handles, a lock covering the lid and often a dummy keyhole. That’s an Armada chest or a later copy of one.
19th and 20th century
Japanned tin or steel
Thin folded metal with a glossy black or coloured finish, gold lines, a brass escutcheon and a keyhole in the front. A British cash or deed box.
1862 to 1918
Wood bound with iron
Pine and oak, iron straps and corners, a hasp for a padlock, green paint and white lettering. The pattern of a Wells Fargo express treasure box.
Then look for names. On cash and deed boxes they turn up in three places: the brass lock plate or keyhole escutcheon, a printed label inside the lid, and the painted front. A good dealer description will tell you which, as with a pair of Chubb deed boxes sold “with original Chubb brass lock” and all their keys, or a Milner box whose label still survives inside.159 Remember that a name painted in large letters on the front is usually the owner, not the maker.
Finally, the lock. A Chubb lock carries a number, and the Chubb Archive will look numbers up in its registers for owners, which can date the lock to the year.16 On a Wells Fargo box, look at how the lid is closed: the original design used an iron hasp that took a separate iron padlock.17
Dating clues: names and addresses
A strongbox is dated the same way as a safe: from the exact wording of the maker’s name and the address beside it. Firms changed their names when they took in partners or became companies, and those dates are well recorded. Our guide on how to date an old safe has the full method; these are the clues you’re most likely to see on a box.
| On the box | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| “Ltd” or “Limited” after any British maker’s name | 1855 at the earliest, and usually much later: check the maker’s own date below18 |
| “Milner & Son” or “Thos. Milner & Son” | Before 1874 |
| “Milners’ Safe Co. Ltd” | 31 July 1874 or later10 |
| Chubb at 57 St Paul’s Churchyard, London | Before 1877 |
| Chubb at 128 Queen Victoria Street, London | 1877 or later19 |
| “Chubb & Son’s Lock & Safe Co. Ltd” | 14 December 1882 or later11 |
| “Hobbs & Co.” / “Hobbs, Ashley & Co.” | From 1852 / by 1855 |
| “Hobbs, Hart & Co.” | From 1860; 76 Cheapside by 186420 |
| “Hobbs, Hart & Co. Ltd” | 1887 or later21 |
| Wells Fargo & Co with J. Y. Ayer’s mark | Between 1862, when Ayer began making the boxes, and 1918, when Wells Fargo’s express business ended17 |
With Armada chests there’s rarely a name to read, so dating rests on style and construction, and even museums hedge. The V&A’s own gallery labels for the same chest have called it 16th century on one and 17th century on another.5 If an auction house says “probably German, 17th century”, that’s honest, not vague.
Wells Fargo and stagecoach strongboxes
In the American West the strongbox was made of wood. Wells Fargo’s own history pages credit a Maine-born master carpenter, Joseph Y. Ayer, who began making the company’s treasure boxes in his San Francisco shop in 1862. They were heavy pine and oak with iron on the lid, sides and corners, leather handles and an iron hasp for a padlock, painted forest green with “Wells Fargo & Co” in white on the front. Each measured 20 × 12 × 10 inches and weighed about 24 lb empty, and Ayer put his own mark inside.17
The boxes rode under the driver’s feet. Full of gold dust, bars, coin or share certificates they weighed 100 to 150 lb, about the most a driver could lift onto his shoulder. They were worth stealing: from 1870 to 1884 the company suffered at least 317 robberies, only four of them on trains, at a loss of $415,000.22
Ayer’s shop also built big packing trunks for the railway express cars and repaired worn boxes. It narrowly escaped the 1906 fire, and Ayer died the following year.17
What about iron “Wells Fargo” strongboxes? On the railways the company’s messengers guarded a wooden treasure box and an iron safe side by side in the express car,17 so an iron safe with a Wells Fargo history isn’t impossible. But the stagecoach treasure box that everyone searches for was wood, and an all-iron “stagecoach strongbox” doesn’t match it.
Reproductions and fakes: how to tell
Wells Fargo boxes are copied for an obvious reason. A strongbox made by Ayer, chipped and dented, with a 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition label inside, sold at Morphy Auctions in 2017 for $18,000 with premium.23 Reproductions sell openly for a few hundred dollars, and the obvious checks don’t settle it.
- The Ayer stencil proves nothing on its own. A box sold by Holabird in 2022 as a reproduction is stencilled “Manufactured by J.Y. Ayer” inside the lid.24 Even the address is quoted three ways: Wells Fargo gives 3740 Seventeenth Street, one auction description 1140, and that reproduction 37410.1725
- Nor does the size. The same reproduction measured 20.25 × 12 × 10.25 inches, within a quarter of an inch of the original specification.24
- Paper inside can be copied too. A “facsimile” box sold in 2018 came with facsimile Wells Fargo paper glued inside the lid and a pair of facsimile locks.26
- Be wary of a heavily stamped padlock. Railroadiana Online shows a modern “Wells Fargo” lock edge-stamped with the name of a maker it calls a fabrication. One Wells Fargo collector quoted there goes further and says the company “never marked items except wax sealers”.27
- Wear and history count most. Genuine boxes did hard work and were repaired in Ayer’s shop.17 Honest, even wear and a documented history, like the label in the Morphy box, are more persuasive than crisp paint. For anything priced in the thousands, ask a specialist Western Americana auction house before you buy.
With Armada chests and Victorian boxes the question is more often date and condition than outright fakery, but the same rule applies: a name or a label is a clue, not a guarantee.
Armada chests came from the Spanish Armada.
The name is a 19th-century invention, and most of the chests are later than 1588.
The keyhole on the front of an Armada chest opens it.
Often it’s a dummy. The real keyhole is usually hidden on the lid.
An Ayer stencil proves a Wells Fargo box is genuine.
Reproductions copy the stencil, the size and even the paper inside the lid.
Wells Fargo stagecoach strongboxes were made of iron.
The treasure box was pine and oak, bound with iron and painted green.
An antique money box is a small strongbox.
In Britain it usually means a child’s coin bank, a different thing altogether.
What are antique strongboxes and cash boxes worth?
These are real prices, checked on 27 October 2026. A hammer price is what the buyer bid, before the auction house’s premium; “with premium” includes it. A dealer’s sold price is the last price the shop listed. An asking price is only a hope until someone pays it.
| Box | Price | Kind of price and source |
|---|---|---|
| Vintage cash box with key | £10 | Hammer, North Coast Auction Rooms, April 202428 |
| 1940s metal deeds box, lettered, no key | £28 | Dealer, sold15 |
| Victorian japanned cash box painted with birds, much paint loss | $260 | Dealer, asking, US14 |
| Milners steel safe box, c.1900, 51 cm wide, original green paint, new keys | £395 | Dealer, sold29 |
| English steel deed boxes, c.1920, with keys | £495 and £695 | Dealer, sold15 |
| German iron strong box, a Chubb & Son strong box and a miniature safe | £892.50 for the three | With premium, Bonhams Edinburgh, 202130 |
| 17th-century Armada chest, 72 cm, lock cover plate missing | £1,000 | With premium, Bonhams Chester, 20136 |
| 17th-century Armada chest, 73 cm, with key | £1,100 | Hammer, Thomson Roddick, Dumfries, 202331 |
| Later 17th-century Armada chest, 69 cm, with key | SEK 12,200 (about €1,100) | Hammer, Bukowskis, Stockholm, 202532 |
| Small 17th-century Armada chest, 26 cm, original key | £1,500 | Hammer, Brettells, 20227 |
| 17th-century Armada chest, 20 in., eight-bolt lock with engraved cover | $5,265 | With premium, Bonhams San Francisco, 201433 |
| Reproduction Wells Fargo treasure box | $550 | Hammer, Holabird, 202224 |
| Facsimile Wells Fargo treasure box with facsimile locks | $1,187.50 | With premium, Holabird, 201826 |
| Wells Fargo box with Ayer stencil and traces of original paint | Estimate $5,000–$10,000 | Witherell’s, January 2026; result not published25 |
| Early Wells Fargo strongbox made by J. Y. Ayer | $18,000 | With premium, Morphy Auctions, 201723 |
The pattern is the same as with safes. Everyday japanned cash and deed boxes are common and cheap; keys, original paint and lettering, a named maker and a story push them up. Genuine Armada chests sit around £1,000 to £1,500 at UK auctions, more for small or finely engraved ones. And a Wells Fargo box is worth either a few hundred dollars or many thousands, depending entirely on whether it’s genuine. For safes, see what old safes are really worth.
Not a valuation
Everything on this page is informal guidance drawn from public prices, not a valuation of your box. We do not give formal valuations. For insurance, probate or a sale, ask an auction house or antiques dealer who can examine it in person.
Lost the key?
Don’t force the lid and don’t drill the lock. A damaged box or lock costs you far more than a key would. Our guide to replacement keys for old safes explains who can make a new key for an old lever lock and roughly what it costs, and the same people handle cash and deed boxes. If the box is locked shut, read locked out of an old safe for who to call. We don’t publish opening methods, and a reputable locksmith or safe engineer will want to know the box is yours.
Once you have a key again, keep it somewhere other than the box itself. That advice is older than you might think.
Did you know?
On 15 May 1855 gold worth £12,000 vanished from a South-Eastern Railway train between London and Folkestone. It travelled in iron safes with Chubb locks, and nobody picked them. The gang spent months getting wax impressions of the keys, filed copies by hand, and swapped the gold for bags of shot.34
Care and restoration
Keep it dry and leave the finish alone. Indoor iron usually needs relative humidity above about 65% before it rusts, so attics, basements and garages are the worst places to keep a strongbox. A light coat of microcrystalline wax protects iron that’s handled often, and anything with heavy, flaking rust is a job for a metals conservator.35
Japanning is a varnish, so a harsh cleaner can take the finish off with the dirt: try anything new somewhere hidden first. And please don’t repaint. Every price table we’ve built for this site says the same thing, that original paint and lettering, even worn, are worth more than a fresh coat. Our guide to restoring an antique safe covers when restoration makes sense and who does it well.
Ask us
Not sure what you’ve got? Send us photos of your box, its lock and any name or label inside the lid and we’ll tell you what we can about the maker and date. It’s free, and it’s informal guidance, not a valuation.
Frequently asked questions
How much is an antique cash box worth?
Usually not much. Everyday Victorian and Edwardian japanned cash and deed boxes went for £10 at auction to about £700 from dealers in the sales we found. A named maker, the original key and paint, and a name or story on the box push the price up.
What is an Armada chest?
A wrought-iron strongbox made mostly in southern Germany between the late 16th and late 18th centuries, with the lock in the lid and often a dummy keyhole on the front. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with the Spanish Armada.
Who made Wells Fargo strongboxes?
Joseph Y. Ayer, a master carpenter in San Francisco, from 1862, according to Wells Fargo’s own history pages. He put his maker’s mark inside each box.
How can I tell if a Wells Fargo box is real?
Compare it with the original pattern (green-painted pine and oak, iron straps, 20 × 12 × 10 inches), but remember that reproductions copy the Ayer stencil and the size. Honest wear and a documented history matter most. For an expensive box, ask a Western Americana specialist.
What’s the difference between a money box and a cash box?
In British English a money box is usually a child’s coin bank with a slot. A cash box is a lockable box for takings or petty cash, usually with a tray inside.
I’ve lost the key to my old cash box. What can I do?
Ask a locksmith or safe engineer: a new key can be made for most old lever locks. Don’t force or drill the box, which damages it and its value.
Sources:
- The Chubb Archive, “Chubb money boxes”, quoting Chubb’s 1926 sales brochure. ↩︎
- The Henry Ford, “Kicking Cow” mechanical bank, 1888–1900, made by J. & E. Stevens Company, Cromwell, Connecticut. ↩︎
- Sy Schreckinger, “The detection of mechanical bank reproductions (part I)”, Antique Toy World, November 1993, via the Mechanical Bank Collectors of America. ↩︎
- Historical Locks (ASSA ABLOY), “Sixteenth and seventeenth century money chests and cash boxes”. ↩︎
- Victoria and Albert Museum, “Armada” chest, wrought iron, painted, with engraved steel lock, Nuremberg, 17th century, museum no. 4211-1856, catalogue entry and gallery labels (checked 27 October 2026). ↩︎
- Bonhams, The Oak Interior, Chester, 17 January 2013, lot 55, “A 17th century iron and iron bound strong box or ‘Armada Chest’, German”, 72 cm wide, false escutcheon, seven-bolt lid lock with covering plate missing, sold £1,000 including premium. ↩︎
- Brettells, 26 April 2022, lot 14, “A 17th Century Continental ‘Armada’ Steel Chest of Small Proportions”, 26 × 14 × 14 cm, hidden keyhole, original key, hammer £1,500. ↩︎
- safeman.org.uk, “Edward Tann & Sons: the story of Britain’s first safemaker”: Tann’s account book of 1828–1840 (plain, plate iron, cast and panelled boxes) and Milner’s 1840 fire-proofing patent applied to tin plate chests and sheet iron boxes. ↩︎
- campaignfurniture.com, “Milner’s double plated iron portable safety box” (sold), quoting the maker’s printed label inside the lid; dated by the dealer to 1830–1849. ↩︎
- Grace’s Guide, “Milners Safe Co” (incorporated 31 July 1874; 1929 British Industries Fair entry: “Japanned and Steel Boxes”). ↩︎
- Grace’s Guide, “Chubb and Son” (company registered 14 December 1882; 1947 British Industries Fair entry: “Cash and Deed Boxes, Wall Safes, Safes, Coffers and Strong Room Doors”). ↩︎
- Explore the Past, “Excavating Wolverhampton’s Old Hall” (on japanning, its resin-based varnishes and the Wolverhampton and Bilston trade). ↩︎
- Auckland War Memorial Museum, cash box, accession 1992.135, black japanned steel, 95 × 142 × 232 mm, record and photograph via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). ↩︎
- Chairish, “Antique Victorian japanned metal cash box”, painted with birds and flowers, “extensive surface wear, paint loss”, asking $260 (checked 27 October 2026). ↩︎
- Antiques Atlas dealer listings marked sold (checked 27 October 2026; the price shown is the dealer’s last listed price): English steel deed box, c.1920, £495; English steel fall-front deed box, c.1920, lettered for Sir H. Ross Skinner, £695; 1940s metal deeds box, no key, £28; pair of Chubb deed boxes with original brass lock and keys, lettered J H Hubbard and Milners Safe Co deed or strong box with original key (no price shown). ↩︎
- The Chubb Archive, “Registers” and the online lock registers 1819–1936. ↩︎
- Wells Fargo History, “Treasure boxes: Keeping valuables secure” (checked 27 October 2026). ↩︎
- Limited Liability Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 133), s. I: “The Word ‘Limited’ shall be the last Word of the Name of the Company”, text via vLex; for its scope (the first general limited liability for companies in England, Wales and Ireland) see Wikipedia, “Limited Liability Act 1855”. ↩︎
- The Chubb Archive, “Early sales, offices, Chubb Group, 1980s and on”. ↩︎
- The Chubb Archive, “The Aubin Trophy” (history of Hobbs & Co., Hobbs, Ashley & Co. and Hobbs, Hart & Co.). ↩︎
- Grace’s Guide, “Hobbs, Hart and Co” (76 Cheapside; registered as a limited company on 8 July 1887). ↩︎
- HistoryNet, “Wells Fargo’s treasure box full of California gold”. ↩︎
- Morphy Auctions, Premier Gold Rush auction, 19 January 2017, lot 23, “Early Wells Fargo strong box”, made by J. Y. Ayer, 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition label inside, estimate $15,000–20,000, sold $18,000 including premium. ↩︎
- Holabird Western Americana Collections, The Wild West Auction, 21 July 2022, “Reproduced Wells Fargo treasure box” [153644], 20.25 × 12 × 10.25 in., stencilled “Manufactured by J.Y. Ayer” inside the lid, hammer $550 plus premium. ↩︎
- Witherell’s, Luxury Asset Auction, 29 January 2026, lot 33, “Wells Fargo & Co. painted strong box with padlock”, interior stencil of J. Y. Ayer, 20 × 12 × 10 in., estimate $5,000–10,000 (result not shown publicly). ↩︎
- Holabird Western Americana Collections, Gold Rush Auction, 15 March 2018, lot 1673, “Facsimile Wells Fargo treasure box”, with facsimile locks and facsimile Wells Fargo paper inside the lid, hammer $950 ($1,187.50 with premium). ↩︎
- Railroadiana Online, “Modern ‘Wells Fargo’ lock”, with notes from collectors including Jim Bartz. ↩︎
- North Coast Auction Rooms, 10 April 2024, lot 45, “A vintage cash box with key”, hammer £10. ↩︎
- Antiques Atlas, “Milners Steel Safe Box”, c.1900, 34 × 51 × 35 cm, most original green paint, two new keys cut, sold at £395 (checked 27 October 2026). ↩︎
- Bonhams, The Andrew Crawforth Collection of Early Metalware, Edinburgh, 13 September 2021, lot 179, a German iron strong box, a strong box by Chubb & Son and a miniature safe, sold £892.50 including premium for the three. ↩︎
- Thomson Roddick Callan, Dumfries, Antiques & Works of Art, 7 March 2023, lot 385, “17th century iron Armada chest of German origin, probably Nuremberg”, 73 cm wide, with key, hammer £1,100. ↩︎
- Bukowskis, Stockholm, Important Spring Sale, 11 June 2025, lot 112, German iron “Armada” chest, later 17th century, 69 cm long, with key, estimate SEK 8,000–10,000, hammer SEK 12,200. ↩︎
- Bonhams, Fine Antique Arms from the Estate of Joseph A. Murphy, San Francisco, 10 November 2014, lot 1368, “A 17th century iron strong box or ‘Armada’ chest”, 20 × 15 × 15 in., eight-bolt lid lock, keyhole in the lid, false escutcheon on the front, sold US$5,265 including premium. ↩︎
- George Hayter Chubb, Protection from Fire and Thieves (London, 1875), account of the South-Eastern Railway gold robbery of 15 May 1855, via Project Gutenberg. ↩︎
- Canadian Conservation Institute, “Basic care: iron objects” (2017). ↩︎
