Old Safes

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…

“Antique floor safe” means two different things: a steel safe cast into a concrete floor, or a heavy old safe standing on one. Here’s…

Type an old safe’s serial number into a search box and, for most makers, nothing comes back. For a few, the records do survive:…

Lost the key to an old safe? It’s rarely the end of the story. A qualified safe engineer can usually make a new key…

If you want an old safe of your own, they turn up at specialist dealers, safe companies, auctions, classified ads and salvage yards, at…

Before anyone takes a scraper to your old safe, know this: most of its value sits in a few square inches of original paint,…

An old safe is easy to inherit and hard to shift. Here’s what moving one really costs in the UK, the US and Australia,…

Some are, most aren’t, and the gap is wider than you’d expect. We went through real asking prices, auction results and scrap rates in…

Some do, many do not, and you cannot tell by looking. Asbestos appears in American safe patents from the 1830s and, according to the…

An old safe with no key or combination is one of the most common problems owners bring us, and it’s rarely as bad as…

More than it looks. Makers’ own figures put a small Victorian safe at about 150 kg, a safe about a metre tall at 400–600…

Most old safes carry their own birth certificate. It’s just spread across the maker’s plate, the lock, the body and a few stamped numbers.…

Maybe you’ve inherited an old safe, found one in a new house, or been offered one for nothing. Either way, it’s heavier than it…

A used safe can be excellent value: a good graded safe lasts for decades and sells for a fraction of its new price. The…

People rarely buy a safe on a whim. Victorian households bought them after a run of famous burglaries and a doubling of London’s fires;…