“Grade 1, £10,000 cash rated” sounds like a promise from the maker. It isn’t. The grade comes from a laboratory test, the money figure comes from insurers, and the two only meet if the safe is certified, fixed down and accepted by your own policy. Here’s how the whole chain works.
Key takeaways
- EN 14450 (levels S1 and S2) covers lighter secure safe cabinets; EN 1143-1 covers safes, in resistance grades from 0 up to XIII. “Eurograde” is the trade’s nickname for those grades.
- In the UK a grade I safe typically carries a £10,000 overnight cash rating and a £100,000 jewellery rating: valuables are usually ten times cash.
- Cash ratings are set by insurers, not by makers or shops, and each insurer can apply its own figures.
- A certified safe under 1,000 kg must be anchored as its maker specifies, or the certification no longer counts.
- Antique safes carry no grade at all, so an insurer treats them as unrated unless it agrees a figure in writing.
In This Article
The quick answer: grades and cash ratings in the UK
If you only need the numbers, here they are. LPCB, the UK certification body run by BRE Global, publishes the typical overnight ratings UK insurers attach to each certified grade, with a warning that they’re a guide only, “since each insurer defines their own ratings”.12 The same figures turn up in suppliers’ guides, where grade 6 is simply written for grade VI.3
| Standard and grade | Typical overnight cash rating (UK) | Typical overnight jewellery rating (UK) |
|---|---|---|
| EN 14450 S1 | £2,000 | £20,000 |
| EN 14450 S2 | £4,000 | £40,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade 0 | £6,000 | £60,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade I | £10,000 | £100,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade II | £17,500 | £175,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade III | £35,000 | £350,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade IV | £60,000 | £600,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade V | £100,000 | £1,000,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grade VI | £150,000 | £1,500,000 |
| EN 1143-1 grades VII to XIII | No typical figure | Agreed case by case |
So a “£10,000 cash rated safe” is, in insurers’ terms, a grade I safe, and a “35k” safe is a grade III. Those are the figures a retailer is borrowing when it prints a cash rating in an advert. Whether you get that cover depends on the rest of this page.
Two standards: EN 14450 and EN 1143-1
European burglary ratings for safes come from two standards, and the first thing to work out is which one your safe was tested to. ECB•S, one of the main certifiers, puts it simply: safes are tested to EN 1143-1, secure safe cabinets to EN 14450, and cabinets rank below safes.4
EN 14450: S1 and S2 secure safe cabinets
EN 14450 is the lighter test, for situations that need less resistance than EN 1143-1. LPCB describes the burglar it has in mind as someone with no specific knowledge of how the cabinet is built who isn’t prepared to take high risks.2 The attack is mainly with hand tools.4 There are two levels, S1 and S2. One seller’s summary describes S1 as a single-walled steel body with a double-walled door, and S2 as fully double-walled.5
This is where most “home safe” and “jewellery safe” searches end up, and it’s the band of the market where the difference between a certified cabinet and an uncertified box looks smallest in the shop and matters most to the insurer.
EN 1143-1: grades 0 to XIII
EN 1143-1 is the full burglary standard for safes, ATM safes, strongroom doors and strongrooms. The current British edition, BS EN 1143-1:2019, was published on 30 April 2019 and is listed by BSI as under review.6 A safe tested to it faces hand tools, power tools and thermal tools.4 Grades run from 0 to XIII,7 although the home and small-business market stops at about grade VI (often written 0 to 6). Higher grades are bank and cash-centre territory, and UK insurers publish no typical figure for them.1
You’ll see the grade written in Roman numerals on certificates and in Arabic numerals in adverts: “Eurograde 3” and “EN 1143-1 grade III” are the same thing. The insurers’ own surveyors use the trade phrase too, listing safes as “Euro Grade 1, EN1143-1:2019, ECBS”.8 In the UK, LPCB also certifies to its own safe standard, LPS 1183, which Secured by Design describes as very similar to EN 1143-1, except that EN 1143-1 sets specific requirements for the lock: it must meet EN 1300.9
Two optional extras appear on some higher-grade certificates. “EX” means the safe has resisted an explosive charge followed by a tool attack (grades II and above), and “CD” means it has passed the standard’s diamond core drill test (grades IV and above).1
Resistance units, in plain English
A grade isn’t a measure of steel thickness or weight. It’s the result of a timed attack. Experienced laboratory engineers attack sample safes with tools chosen to get in “using the minimum time and resistance units possible”.1 The result is expressed in resistance units (RU), and each grade sets minimum RU values that the safe must reach.6
In rough terms, the clock only runs while a tool is actually working on the safe, and the minutes are weighted by the most powerful tool used, so a few minutes with heavy power tools scores more than the same minutes with hand tools. A basic value for the tools is added on top. A worked example published on a safe-testing blog shows the arithmetic: working time multiplied by a tool coefficient, plus a basic value.10 The exact tables are in the standard itself, which you buy from a national standards body rather than read free.1
Engineers aim for two kinds of opening. “Partial access” means an opening big enough to reach in by hand; “complete access” means the whole interior can be reached. A safe needs a minimum score for both.610 The standard is honest about its own limits, too: BSI’s summary says real burglaries are likely to take considerably longer than a test, depending on the criminal, the scene and the tools available.6 A grade is a way of ranking safes against each other, not a stopwatch for your house.
The lock is part of the result. LPCB lists the locks it has assessed as compatible on each certificate, and says fitting a lock that isn’t listed will invalidate the certification.1 Keep that in mind before anyone swaps a key lock for a keypad.
Who certifies safes: LPCB, ECB•S, VdS and SBSC
A grade only means something if an independent, accredited body issued it. Ireland’s police guidance says European bodies certifying safes must hold ISO/IEC 17065 accreditation for that work, and warns against grades “assigned” by a maker or seller for marketing.7 These are the names you’re most likely to see inside a door sold in Britain or Ireland.
| Certifier | Who it is |
|---|---|
| LPCB (UK) | The Loss Prevention Certification Board brand of BRE Global, owned by the not-for-profit BRE Trust. Certifies safes to EN 1143-1 and LPS 1183 and cabinets to EN 14450; listings free on RedBookLive.111 |
| ECB•S (Germany) | European Certification Body, founded in 2011 as a neutral certification body; certification was previously carried out by ESSA, the European Security Systems Association.127 |
| VdS (Germany) | VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Insurance Association (GDV), with laboratories for secure storage units.13 |
| SBSC (Sweden) | Svensk Brand- och Säkerhetscertifiering AB, founded in 1997, owned by the Swedish fire and theft prevention associations and accredited by Swedac; certifies secure storage products including safes and vaults.14 |
For safes sold in the US, the equivalent labels come from UL, and they work quite differently: see our guide to US burglary ratings such as TL-15, TL-30 and RSC. How we pick and check sources for pages like this one is set out in how we research modern safes: we read the standards bodies, certifiers and insurers; we don’t test safes ourselves.
What a certification plate looks like
Open the door and look on the inside. A certified safe has a metal plate there, naming the standard, the resistance grade and a certification body that’s accredited to certify safes.7 On ECB•S safes it’s the blue certification mark: it carries an ECB•S serial number that identifies the manufacturer, the grade and lock class, and even the safe’s net weight engraved on it.415 Sellers describe it as typically a stamped aluminium badge. A safe certified for fire as well as burglary has two, because the tests are separate.5
If a plate is there but you can’t read it, ECB•S says it can identify the certificate holder from a photo of the mark.4 Garda guidance lists the warning signs of an uncertified product:7
- no metal plate inside the door;
- a named body that isn’t accredited to certify safes;
- a certificate saying only parts of the standard were met;
- no certifier at all, just a line that the safe is “built according to” or “in accordance with” the standard.
A sticker on the front saying “£10,000 cash” is a sales line, not a certificate. The Garda sheet is blunt about it: a maker’s or seller’s “recommended cash cover” has no relation to certified grades.7
How UK insurers turn a grade into a cash rating
A cash rating is the amount of cash an insurer will cover overnight in that safe. In the UK the valuables or jewellery figure is usually ten times the cash figure.13 That’s the whole trick behind “insurance approved jewellery safe”: the jewellery figure is the cash figure with an extra nought.
The figures come from the insurance side. The Association of Insurance Surveyors keeps the AiS Safe Rating List, which it calls “authoritative and widely followed”, but it offers the list as a membership benefit rather than publishing it openly.8 The public version is the LPCB table above, and LPCB tells buyers to discuss cash and jewellery ratings with their insurer before choosing a safe.1
“The cash rating of the safe multiplied by 10 is sufficient to secure the value of the jewellery and watches.”
Pen Underwriting home insurance endorsement AP004
What policies actually say
That line is a real condition. In Pen Underwriting’s endorsement library, jewellery and watches aren’t covered for theft unless they’re worn, carried under your supervision, or locked in a safe installed to the maker’s recommendation, with all the keys taken out of the home when it’s left empty, and with a cash rating that, multiplied by ten, covers their value.16 Two Financial Ombudsman decisions show how this plays out:
- AXA XL (DRN-5537959). The policy said jewellery “must be kept in a locked safe when not being worn”. A watch that was neither worn nor in a safe was stolen, and the ombudsman upheld the insurer’s refusal to pay.17
- Fairmead (DRN-4592782). The “J03 Safe Clause” required jewellery to be in a locked safe “permanently attached or secured to the home”, with the keys removed. The owner of a stolen watch won only because the policy listed watches separately from jewellery.18
Neither case turned on the grade, but both show where claims go wrong: the safe has to exist, be used, be fixed down and keep its keys away from the house. Our guide to choosing a jewellery safe your insurer will accept works through the same conditions step by step.
Ireland and the rest of Europe do it differently
The tenfold rule is British. In Ireland, recommended ratings are set by the Irish Safes Ratings Group, a voluntary body set up in 2016 at ESSA’s request. Its table, reproduced by the Garda, puts contents and jewellery at five times cash and makes a monitored alarm count: grade I is €6,250 without one and €12,500 with, and from grade II upwards the figure without an alarm stays at €12,500 while the alarmed figure climbs to €200,000 at grade VI. It doesn’t recommend cash cover for S1 or S2 cabinets at all.7 ECB•S points German and other European buyers to tables of “usual” insurance amounts that it calls a rough, non-binding guideline.4 Same grade, different money, depending on the country and the insurer.
Fixing: why a safe under 1,000 kg must be anchored
Here’s the rule that catches people out. A certified safe weighing less than 1,000 kg must be anchored where it’s installed, in line with EN 1143-1, and the Garda sheet states plainly that certification is invalid if it isn’t anchored correctly.7 Certified EN 14450 and EN 1143-1 safes have anchor holes that were attacked during testing. A Dutch maker compares a properly set 16 mm mechanical anchor in concrete, good for up to about 1,400 kg of pull, with the 80 to 100 kg of a screw and wall plug.19 German guidance adds that anchoring should be done by specialists, without drilling extra holes in the safe.20
Insurers ask for the same thing in their own words: “installed in accordance with the manufacturers recommendation”,16 or “permanently attached or secured to the home”.18 LPCB adds that the fixings, the floor or wall they’re in, and the lock should be checked regularly for damage or tampering.1
How heavy are certified safes?
Lighter than most people expect, which is why the anchoring rule matters. One UK maker’s LPCB-listed range shows how weight climbs with grade at roughly the same size:
| Model (LPCB listing) | Standard and grade | Outside size, W × H × D (mm) | Approx. weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMP Concept 3, size 1 | EN 14450 S2 | 434 × 382 × 394 | 50 kg |
| SMP Community Grade 0 MK4, 1412 | EN 1143-1 grade 0 | 405 × 456 × 435 | 70 kg |
| SMP Community Grade 1, 1412 | EN 1143-1 grade I | 405 × 456 × 435 | 147 kg |
| SMP Community Grade 2, 1412 | EN 1143-1 grade II | 445 × 496 × 506 | 237 kg |
| SMP Community Grade 3, 1412 | EN 1143-1 grade III | 445 × 496 × 506 | 251 kg |
Even the grade III is about a quarter of the 1,000 kg line. Only the biggest grade V models on the same certificate pass it, at 1,100 and 1,350 kg.21 A 70 kg grade 0 sitting loose in a wardrobe is two people and a sack truck away from leaving with everything in it, rating or no rating.
Why antique safes have no rating
Look inside the door of a Victorian Milner, Chubb or Tann and you’ll find a maker’s plate, perhaps a patent number, but no certification plate, because there was no such test to pass. A rating today belongs to a maker’s certified product, made under a quality management system and carrying a certification mark whose serial number identifies the manufacturer.15 No plate means no certification.7 A lone antique can’t earn a grade after the fact, however solid it looks.
Solid is often an illusion, too. The safe historian behind safeman.org.uk points out that most early safe bodies and doors were about four inches thick, but only about half an inch of that was protective metal; the rest was loose fire-resisting filling.22 They were built to keep papers from burning, and many did that job well.
For insurance, an antique is simply an unrated safe. Under a condition like Pen’s, which ties jewellery cover to ten times the cash rating, a safe with no cash rating can’t cover anything.16 Some insurers may agree a figure for a particular safe, but only in writing and only on their terms. Post-war British office safes sit in between: UK dealers still advertise reconditioned Chatwood-Milner Duplex safes with cash ratings and file them alongside modern grade 0 and grade I safes, yet those are dealers’ figures, and the insurer still decides.23
None of this makes an old safe worthless; it changes what it’s for. See what old safes are worth as collectables, our advice on buying a second-hand safe if you want a graded one, and I have an old safe: what now? for everything else. If you’d like to know who made yours and when, send us photos of the maker’s plate and any numbers.
How we got here: from public trials to laboratory grades
Safe ratings started as public contests and catalogue names. At the 1867 Paris Exhibition, Samuel Chatwood’s men and Silas Herring’s took turns attacking each other’s safes. Success was judged by a hole large enough to admit a test block, the “parallelepiped”, and the result was given in minutes: 29 minutes to open Herring’s safe as challenged, 232 for Herring’s team to break into Chatwood’s.24 It’s the same idea as today’s access test, without the laboratory or the tool weightings. The full story is in our entry on Chatwood safes and the Battle of the Safes.
- 1867 Chatwood and Herring’s safe-breaking contest in Paris, timed in minutes.24
- 1915 Chubb’s catalogue offers four grades of safe, from Book quality through Standard and Jewel to Bankers.25
- 1962 Chubb’s torch and drill resisting (TDR) safes are sold in first, second and third strengths.26
- 2016 The Irish Safes Ratings Group is set up at ESSA’s request to publish recommended ratings for certified safes.7
- 2019 BS EN 1143-1:2019 is published, the current British edition of the safe standard.6
In between, grades were makers’ words. Chubb’s “Jewel” or “Bankers” told a customer roughly where a safe sat in Chubb’s own range, and nothing about how it compared with a rival’s.25 Today’s numbered grades fixed that: a grade III from one maker has passed the same test as a grade III from another. There’s more on the named ranges in our history of Chubb safes.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand once had a shared standard, AS/NZS 3809:1998 Safes and strongrooms. It tested commercial safes, built-in safes, strongroom doors and strongrooms against intrusion and forced removal with prescribed tools, and didn’t cover fire. It was withdrawn on 19 December 2019 with no replacement edition.27 Older safes may still carry plates citing it.
Without a current national standard, the plate inside the door is still the thing to check. If it cites a European EN grade, everything above about plates and anchoring applies; if it carries a UL label, our US guide explains it. We couldn’t find a published Australian or New Zealand table linking grades to cash ratings like the UK’s, so ask your insurer what it accepts and how the safe must be fixed before you buy. To find someone to install or service one, the Master Locksmiths Association of Australasia lists members.28
Myths about cash ratings
The maker sets a safe’s cash rating.
Insurers set cash ratings from the certified grade. A maker’s “recommended cash cover” has no relation to certification.
Eurograde is the name of a standard.
It’s a trade nickname for the resistance grades of EN 1143-1.
A heavy safe doesn’t need bolting down.
Under 1,000 kg a certified safe must be anchored, or its certification is invalid.
Valuables are always ten times the cash rating.
That’s typical in the UK. Irish recommendations use five times, and every insurer can set its own.
An old Chubb or Milner safe is insurance approved because it’s so heavy.
A Victorian safe has no certified grade, so it has no cash rating unless your insurer agrees one.
When to call a professional
- Your insurer or broker, before you buy: give them the make, model and the grade on the plate, and get the cash and valuables figures they’ll allow in writing.1
- A safe engineer to deliver and anchor the safe to the maker’s instructions, and to change locks only with ones listed on the certificate. Find one through the Master Locksmiths Association (UK), the Safe & Vault Technicians Association or the Master Locksmiths Association of Australasia.28
- The certifier, if a plate is worn or doubtful: LPCB listings are free on RedBookLive, and ECB•S can identify a mark from a photograph.114
One more thing to check on a used safe: a certificate stops counting once the safe has been altered. ECB•S rules for certified strongrooms say modifications outside the documentation void the certificate and the mark must come off.29
Frequently asked questions
What grade is a £10,000 cash rated safe?
In typical UK insurer figures, £10,000 overnight cash goes with EN 1143-1 grade I, which also gives about £100,000 for jewellery. Your insurer has the final word.
What cash rating is a grade 2 safe?
Typically £17,500 cash and £175,000 jewellery in the UK. A grade 3 safe is typically £35,000 cash, so a “35k” safe is a grade III.
What is an S1 or S2 safe?
A secure safe cabinet certified to EN 14450, the lighter of the two European burglary standards. Typical UK ratings are £2,000 cash for S1 and £4,000 for S2, with jewellery at ten times those.
Is Eurograde 6 the highest grade?
No. EN 1143-1 runs to grade XIII, but UK insurers’ typical tables stop at grade VI (£150,000 cash). Grades VII and above, such as the grade 7 safes on the AiS list, are rated case by case.
Do I have to bolt my safe down?
If it’s certified and weighs under 1,000 kg, yes: anchoring to the maker’s instructions is part of the certification, and policies often require it in their own words.
Does an antique safe have an insurance rating?
No. Antique safes were never certified to EN 14450 or EN 1143-1, so they carry no grade and no cash rating. An insurer may agree cover for one, but only in writing.
Sources:
- LPCB (BRE Global), Red Book Part 4: Security protection products, last updated 26 October 2026, section “Safes” (pp. 50–57), Table 1 “Typical cash and jewellery ratings for safes”, optional EX and CD designations, compatible locks, installation and maintenance. ↩︎
- LPCB (BRE Global), Red Book Part 4: Security protection products, 26 October 2026, section “Secure safe cabinets” (pp. 77–78), Table 1 “Typical cash and jewellery ratings for secure safe cabinets”. ↩︎
- Safe Security Services, “Glossary” (UK cash ratings by grade; insurers typically give up to ten times the cash rating for valuables). A supplier’s summary of insurance practice. ↩︎
- European Certification Body (ECB•S), “FAQ” (safes and secure safe cabinets, the blue certification mark inside the door, insurance amounts as a non-binding guide). ↩︎
- Safes.co.uk, “Security levels” (a seller’s summary: EN 14450 S1 and S2 construction, the stamped badge inside the door, separate fire and burglary badges). ↩︎
- BSI, BS EN 1143-1:2019, Secure storage units: requirements, classification and methods of test for resistance to burglary. Safes, ATM safes, strongroom doors and strongrooms, published 30 April 2019, scope and summary. ↩︎
- An Garda Síochána, Secure safes and standards, crime prevention information sheet, January 2018, including the Irish Safes Ratings Group table of recommended insurance amounts. ↩︎
- The Association of Insurance Surveyors, “About” (the AiS Safe Rating List, for members) and “Free-standing safes” (product entries such as “Euro Grade 1, EN1143-1:2019, ECBS”). ↩︎
- Secured by Design, “Standards explained: general security” (LPS 1183 Part 1 Issue 4.3 and BS EN 1143-1:2019). ↩︎
- Agus Wijaya, “Physical security testing: EN 1143-1”, Safes Testing blog, 2 July 2008 (worked example of a resistance value: working time multiplied by a tool coefficient, plus a basic value). ↩︎
- LPCB (BRE Global), Red Book Part 4, introduction (BRE Global Ltd, owned by the not-for-profit BRE Trust; LPCB listings free at RedBookLive). ↩︎
- European Certification Body (ECB•S), home page (founded 2011 as a neutral certification body; certification previously carried out by ESSA). ↩︎
- VdS, “About VdS” (VdS Schadenverhütung GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the German Insurance Association, GDV). ↩︎
- SBSC, “About SBSC” and “Certifying products” (Svensk Brand- och Säkerhetscertifiering AB, founded 1997, accredited by Swedac; secure storage devices including safes and vaults). ↩︎
- European Certification Body (ECB•S), “ECB•S certification mark”. ↩︎
- Pen Underwriting, APP Endorsement Library v14.0 (web version, 29 March 2023), endorsements AP004 “Protection of jewellery and watches” and AP005 “Jewellery & watch protection”. ↩︎
- Financial Ombudsman Service, decision DRN-5537959 (AXA XL Insurance), quoting the policy’s jewellery conditions. ↩︎
- Financial Ombudsman Service, decision DRN-4592782 (Fairmead Insurance), quoting the policy’s “J03 Safe Clause”. ↩︎
- Nauta, “Anchoring and transport” (a Dutch safe maker’s guidance on the 1,000 kg anchoring rule and tested anchor holes). ↩︎
- Baunetz Wissen, “Wertbehältnisse und Tresore” (in German: anchoring of safes under 1,000 kg by specialists, no extra holes drilled in the safe). ↩︎
- LPCB (BRE Global), Red Book Part 4, 26 October 2026: SMP Security Solutions, certificate 1636e to BS EN 1143-1:2019 (Community Grade 0 MK4 to Grade V, approximate weights) and certificate 1636c to BS EN 14450:2005 (Concept 3, S2). ↩︎
- safeman.org.uk, “About safes”. ↩︎
- Chatwood-Milner Duplex safes in UK dealer listings (checked 26 October 2026): BDB Safe and Vault, “Chatwood Milner Minor” and “Chatwood Milner Duplex Anti Blowpipe”; A to Z Safes, “Chatwood Milner Duplex Anti Blowpipe E”. ↩︎
- safeman.org.uk, “Battle of the Safes: safe-breaking contest, Paris Exhibition 1867”. ↩︎
- safeman.org.uk, “Coming of age”. ↩︎
- The Chubb Archive, “Chatwood-Milner”. ↩︎
- Standards Store (NSAI), AS/NZS 3809:1998 Safes and strongrooms, scope; status: withdrawn 19 December 2019, no replacement edition. ↩︎
- Trade bodies: Master Locksmiths Association (UK), Safe & Vault Technicians Association (US and international), Master Locksmiths Association of Australasia. ↩︎
- ECB•S, Guideline R03, Strongrooms (September 2002), Annex A.1.2 “Modifications”. ↩︎
