Safe deposit vault

“ Every morning John carried up all these piles to the loan cage—except the securities on deposit. At the end of the day he carried all back himself and tossed them into the boxes. When the interest coupons on the deposited bonds had to be cut he carried these, also, upstairs. At night the vault was secured by two doors, one with a combination lock and the other with a time lock. It was as safe as human ingenuity could make it. By day it had only a steel-wire gate which could be opened with a key. No attendant was stationed at the door. ”

“ Hundreds of safes in every deposit vault are filled with the jewels of wealthy women. Now and then the owners come and look at them, and sometimes before a ball or a reception they take them away for a night or two. Hundreds also contain the treasures of women who do not seem wealthy. What they contain no one knows. Once when a safe that had not been claimed for twenty years was broken open—it belonged to an elderly spinster—inside were found bundles of faded letters tied up with faded ribbon, all that was left of an old romance. ”

“ ROHMAN, CHARLES. How safe are safe deposit vaults? An analysis by Haynes Hamilton, pseud. Rev. ed. © 26Feb36; AA197178. Charles Rohman (A) ; 25Feb64; R332445.
A message to safe deposit box renters: The agony of litigation and loss, how to avoid it; Risks to which contents of safe deposit boxes are subject, a few important questions. By Haynes Hamilton, pseud. © 23Jul36; AA211466. Charles Rohman (A) ”

“ Foreign and domestic exchange is the issue and cashing of "drafts" for money payments between distant places. Most banks are well fitted to perform this function, but some banks do not undertake it, and it is performed also by some business houses that are not banks. Safe deposit is the keeping of things to be returned in identical form, as silverware, notes, and papers. By banks in small towns this is sometimes done freely, sometimes for a slight charge; but in large cities safe-deposit vaults are generally quite unconnected with banks. Even bank-note issue is not essential to banking ”

“ As a rule they provide safe-deposit vaults in which customers, on payment of a small sum, are permitted to keep their valuables. These vaults are fire-proof and burglar-proof. Banks also collect money which may be due to a customer from someone elsewhere. They help the national and state governments to sell their bonds. Frequently they act as trustees, holding property for children until they grow up or for other persons who are unable to look after the property for themselves. Without banks it would be difficult, if not impossible, to carry on the operations of modern business. ”

“ And such banks would meet an incipient panic freely and generously; they would advance out of their reserve boldly and largely, for each individual bank would fear suspicion, and know that at such periods it must "show strength," if at such times it wishes to be thought to have strength. Such a system reduces to a minimum the risk that is caused by the deposit. If the national money can safely be deposited in banks in any way, this is the way to make it safe. ”

“ In the court below and on the argument here, the validity of the section under review was said to depend upon the relation between the company and the renter,-it being argued for the state that the contract was one of bailment where, on the death of the bailor, the Deposit Company, as bailee, was bound to surrender the securities to the owner or person having a right thereto, one of whom, in each case, was the state to the extent of its tax. On the other hand, the complainant insisted that if there was no possession in fact, there could be no possession in law ”

“ Every cent of the money is locked up in the small steel safe. I'll have to come back up and get my tools."
It is the custom in big bank vaults to have a small and separate steel safe to put the actual cash into. Leases, documents, account books, and sometimes bonds and stock certificates are kept in the big vault, but money and things of special value are usually locked up in the inside steel compartment. ”

“ Timid depositors have withdrawn their savings for the time being from national banks, trust companies, and savings banks; individuals have hoarded their cash and the workingmen their earnings; all of which money has been withheld and kept in hiding or in safe deposit box to the detriment of prosperity. ”

“ If the court or jury is convinced that the goods have been lost from the box, the burden of explanation as to how it happened would be upon the safe deposit company. The safe deposit company is liable for the acts of its servants and agents. ”

“ That is nothing.”
“No,” agreed Larry. His gaze went farther about the cage and rested on the open door of a sort of closet, or vault. It was practically a vault, for there was a heavy iron portal to it.
“Is that where you keep the bank’s money, Mr. Bentfield?” Larry asked, with a smile. “It does not seem to be a very safe place.”
“No, that’s a vault where we keep old ledgers that are out of use. We file them away merely for reference. They are seldom looked at, and sometimes we burn them up. The vault is fire-proof, [142] and that’s the most that can be said of it. ”

“ The modern deposit grew out of the older form of deposit in which the fund was held separate and intact, and the sole purpose of the deposit was safe-keeping. Safe-keeping is still a very important function of deposit banking; and from the point of view of most depositors the chief one. [15] Borrowing by a bank (as distinguished from a rediscount) is commonly regarded as evidence ofweakness. [16] Often the loan is made in the hope of averting insolvency. Loans made by one bank to another commonly involve a pledge of assets, since only upon such a condition is the transaction possible. ”

“ There are none of the provisions that we have for the responsible safe-guarding of investments or valuable objects,—no fire-proof safes, no banks, no deposit-vaults. Security is best attained by concealment in unattractive and improbable receptacles, and by dividing and distributing the treasured objects. ”

“ Had the combination numbers been changed at his leave-taking, he couldn’t have opened the safe, and perhaps,491 having failed the first time, he wouldn’t have been tempted again. It doesn’t pay to be lax in business methods.
I was introduced to a “right” watchman in Boston once upon a time, and having in view the looting of the bank in his charge, wanted the vault examined. The outer door of the vault was of wood and was next to the steel one. The watchman reported to me the next day what I wanted and more. The president had asked him if he’d opened the wooden door. ”

“ The tesselated pave of your safe deposit companies and banks will look like the floor of an ocean steamship pier on the arrival of a big liner, only instead of being snowed under by a mass of shirts, trousers, Paris-made revelations in chiffons, silks, and brocades, necklaces, tiaras, pearl ropes, snipped aigrettes, and snowy drifts of indescribable, but in these free days no longer unmentionable, lingerie, it will be piled high with steel bonds, New Haven deferred dividends, sinking fund debenture certificates, government five eighths per cent. ”

“ It is eminently right and proper that the State, through its bank commissioners or otherwise, should so far supervise the operations of savings banks as to see that they perform their part of their contract with depositors.
Safety, at best, is relative only; there is no absolute safety for the twenty-dollar piece a man has in his pocket, whether he is on the street, at his office, or by his own fireside. We are reminded that 'riches take to themselves wings' and that 'thieves break through and steal.' No savings bank can keep money on hand or deposit it or loan it with absolute safety. ”

“ The colonel smiled, and nodded assent.
"The most of the jewels in dispute are, I believe, in the vaults of a safe deposit company," Nick continued. "Very well; my test is this: Name some article of the collection which you are sure is there, and see whether your aunt will transfer it to Miss Stevens' possession.
"It should be as easy for a ghost to take anything from the vaults of a safe deposit company as from that dressing-table upstairs. ”

“ In vain—I could not.
“I’m losing my cunning,” went on Shinburn as I was working; “here I’ve made three keys, and only one will do the trick for which I shaped it.”
I looked at my watch, for a new thought had come to me. I said, “Lock the money safe, Mark, and let’s get out of this, for the night clerk who sleeps in the bank will be here in ten minutes.”
“I’ll do it, but what about the d—d vault door? We can’t lock that, and to leave it open means the certain discovery that some one’s been tampering with the vault. We’ve come a long way from New York to make a failure.” ”

“ There are no safety deposit vaults for God’s gifts to man. When times of financial panic come, frightened and panic-smitten men withdraw their currency from circulation, store it away in a vault, thus hastening the national disaster. ”

“ The bank also receives jewelry, plate, diamonds, and other not bulky valuables on deposit for safe keeping, the owner being required to make only a nominal loan of one dollar upon them, in order to bring it into the books of the institution. It also takes on deposit, in trust, from the courts, all moneys in dispute, and the proceeds of unsettled estates, and receives one or two per cent, per annum for ensuring its safety. It is contemplated also to found a savings-bank feature of the institution, and by putting the money at interest, aid the depositors to increase their funds without risk. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the state of the law is still most anomalous, and that the great majority of the people of this country are under the impression that there is Government security for each deposit in every savings' bank. Year by year, changes have been proposed in the Legislature for giving more security to depositors, but the body of managers have hitherto been successful in their opposition. ”

“ By the motion to dismiss the bill filed in this suit it is admitted: that the defendant Lincoln Safe Deposit Company is a corporation, organized under the laws of the state of New York, and authorized to engage in the warehousing business ”

“ A deposit in one of these banks is hardly less safe than an investment in Government bonds. The savings banks are the primary schools467 of economy and thrift, and I believe that an extension of the mutual savings bank system throughout the country, under proper legal safeguards, would be of the greatest benefit to the people of the United States.
The deposits in banks of this kind are usually limited by law to amounts not exceeding $3000 to one depositor, as they are not intended to be used by the wealthier class of people. The following statistics will be found interesting. ”

“ After the ingenuity of a master cracksman has been taxed to its utmost in an effort to get the combination numbers of a presumably impenetrable vault, and success seems assured, is it not most provoking, and disheartening too, when the unexpected pops up and thunders down failure upon his head? It was thus in my attempt to possess the millions kept in the vault of the Corn Exchange National Bank of Philadelphia in the winter of 1872 and the spring of the following year. ”

“ The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures all depositors for deposits up to twenty thousand dollars now. A bank is hedged in by so many legal fences that it is almost impossible for one to fail in the same way that they failed all over the country in the early Thirties. Even if one does fail, through the gross mismanagement or illegal activities of its governing board, the depositors don't get excited; they know they're covered. There hasn't been a really disastrous run on a bank for more than thirty years.
"But banks don't just keep their money in vaults; they invest it. ”

“ We produce a panic and depression of prices by locking up the circulating medium, and prices can only be advanced by unlocking the money and restoring it, or other money in its place, to the channels of commerce. The money which we lock up in special deposits must remain in the bank vaults until we release it. No bank officer would for any reason or under any pressure dare to touch a special deposit. ”

“ The effect of pledging quick assets for particular deposits is to reduce the fund available for meeting current demands of an unexpected nature. The funds received from the deposit are not necessarily an equivalent for the securities withdrawn from available resources. In the first place the deposit, in the process of clearing and collection, may serve merely to cancel liabilities against the bank. ”

“ The only addition of safety that almost could be conceived would be that adopted at the bullion vaults of the Bank of France in Paris, where these, situated in casemates two stories under ground, are only approachable by one narrow, winding staircase, which can be itself, in case of emergency, rapidly rendered useless, and the cylindrical well in which it is placed filled up with about 30 feet in depth of water, which cannot be pumped out until a continuous supply be shut off by distant means only known to one or two trusted employés. ”

“ Evidently the officers of the Webster Bank had relied upon the solidity of their vault doors for protection, and upon the fact that with plate glass windows upon two sides, facing Rector street and Broadway, the policeman on the beat could see the entire front of the vault as plainly as though it had been standing in the street itself, by the light of the gas-burner, kept burning the entire night directly in front of the combination lock. ”