totally hypothetical thought experiment Let's say you're mostly squared away with your EDC, your car carry, your home supplies, etc. You have 6 months+ savings in accounts, you have retirement accounts, you keep some cash and PMs in your gun safe at home, and you've supplied extended family with a few pistols and rifles. You have access to a 3" tall, 5" wide, 24" deep safe deposit box at your bank. What kind of things would you consider keeping in there? More for a house burned down situation rather than a bug out cache. But you lost everything in your home while you were at work, what would you want to be able to grab without much effort or shopping?

My thoughts so far:
Copies of DL/passport, will, deed, titles, standard safe deposit box shit
Cash. maybe $500-$1000 or so
more PMs. Silver is my favorite at the moment
Pistol with ammo and holster. Maybe a police trade in Glock or a shield, under $300, a few mags, a few boxes of ammo
tiny liquor bottle. If I have to get to it, it's been a shitty day, and that might crack up future me.

suggestions?

I keep a dvd with pictures of my valuables in case of fire in ours.

DD-214 and honorable discharge and home insurance a bible and last will

I would add a credit card or two..

A flash drive with a backup of all your account and password info, insurance info, etc..

Copy of CCW permit..

ETA: One problem with a SDB is that you will need the key or it will take time and the cost of drilling it..
Where do you keep it.. Don't want the key at the bottom the smoldering pile that was once your house...

My 15 or so passports with different names and about $100,000 in various currencies.... oh and my sig.

All the original NFA tax stamps.

Scanned copies of all tax related paperwork for last 10 years on CD.

Don't banks usually have an escort to ensure you're not putting drugs or explosives in a SDB?

I recall there being a restriction on explosives,  and I could see a bank lumping ammunition in that classification.

I wouldn't be surprised if the bank manager didn't have the local PD come in after hours with their drug dog periodically. An explosives sniffing dog from an airport wouldn't be too far of a stretch.

I get full privacy when I access mine.

And they do not have any ammunition sniffing dogs at the bank I use.  Well, if they do it’s not been an issue thus far for me.

I keep most of the things OP mentioned as well as a thumb drive with all kinds of stuff on it.

I might add a back up credit card

This, although my accountant does that with my tax stuff.

Then 5K in small bills, my birth certificate and passport, and a Colt .45 and 5 magazines, plus ammo.

That said, this 'bank cache' would almost certainly be unreachable in some types of catastrophic/SHTF scenarios, like a nation-wide Grid-Down event. We have another thread running here on the recent government study on this very scenario.

The loss of electrical power would likely cause the bank's internal security systems to automatically lock everything down until power is restored.  So no way to access your S.D. box inside the bank, and in a Grid-Down situation, no one would be coming to help you do it anyway.

If the box is inaccessible during SHTF then what is the value of keeping cash in the box?

FAMILY
DVD of Complete Home Inventory
DVDs of family pictures (Scanned) - I keep a set on cloud, but always good to have a hard copy in case of network issues - hijinks...
DVD of family Movies (converted over from film & Video Tape - a lot of great memories & family history

ID & Legal
Certified Copies of Birth Certificates for myself & children
Copies of Social Security Cards
Copy of Drivers Licenses
Copy of C.H.L.
Previous Passports (easier to get a reissue if you have your old passport as proof of identity)
Copy of Divorce Decree
Will
Medical Directives
Funeral Preferences (Who I want (and don't want) and I want a Flaming Viking Longboat send off to Vallaha please! )

(I keep Encrypted Scans of these on thumbdrive in my gun safe)

FINANCIAL
Information on Accounts (Bank, Branch, Account # & Access)
Insurance Policy Papers for house, autos, & especially life insurance policies
Mortgage Documents for House
Titles for Autos
$10,000 cash in mixed bills
Reserve Credit Card w/ $20,000 limit.  I use its mate to make a very occasional purchase twice each year (Daylight Savings Shifts) and pay off balance to keep the account active (no annual fee)

Account Information including log ons & PW for internet accounts - I update - change every Daylight Savings Shift to updated twice a year.

SECURITY

Glock 22 with 5 magazines, Light & Holster. (in case all my other guns gobbled up or burned up from safe at home or lost in a tragic boating accident)  Lubed & Plastic Vacuum Wrapped.

ACCESS
I have a sealed "In Case of Death or Incapacitation" letter with my Mother, Brother, & Daughter with a Notarized Power of Attorney & key in each package)

For a serious, nationwide SHTF, a SDB is going to be pretty useless. It would be unlikely for any bank personnel to show up to work to A) open the vault and B) have their guard key to give you access to your SDB. There are some SDBs that only require 1 key but they are pretty rare. I've only run across one bank where those were available and I've been in a lot of banks, literally hundreds of branches.

On the other hand, they are a good option for more localized SHTF scenarios like a house fire, flood, hurricane, or tornado for keeping important records and backups safe.

Some banks may have rules against storing firearms but, it's not against the law and you're almost always given a booth or room to privately access the box's contents. The only thing the bank will see is you, your ID, and your bond tin (the box that goes in the SDB). If you carried a firearm inside a bag to place in the SDB, no one would know.

Also, in a loss of power situation, any banks with electronic access control will not lock down. They can't per fire code. If fire broke out and took out the power, it wouldn't do well to be locking customers inside to cook so the doors are designed to fail safe, not secure. Vaults don't really have any electronic access control except possibly a digital time lock but I've never come across one of those, most all are mechanical time locks.

Just make sure you do two things with it. First, keep up on your annual bill for it and, if you don't, don't ignore the notices that your contents will be forfeit to the bank if you don't pay your bill or clean out the box. Second, make sure you have survivors that know about it and have access to it in the event you pass away unexpectedly. If you don't, someone like me has to come along and help the bank get into it to clean out (it's easier than you think!).

90% of the boxes I open have fallen into those two categories. The other 10% are folks that lose their key. I've seen a lot of interesting stuff opening boxes! It always blows my mind that there are folks out there that let some of the expensive jewelry and numismatics I've seen just get forfeit to the bank. Oh and, FYI, your gold plated Michael Jordan basketball card from QVC isn't worth what you think it is!

During a period working abroad it was worth it to me to put a few hundred dollars in a savings account with a bank that had the largest safe deposit boxes available. I stored several handguns, assembled lower receivers without stocks, optics, and a Win 1897 takedown riot shotgun with an 18” barrel.

I wheeled a rollaboard/carry on luggage into the bank. Transfer of items always occurred in a small private room. The box was obviously heavy. Nobody ever asked me any questions.

Might not be a bad way to cache out of state, if you are anticipating conditions where you still have access, are en route somewhere with only the clothes on your back, iD and key...

Most banks have rules against putting guns and ammo in the SD box.  I checked with several.  Found one that said it was not a problem; as long as it wasn't a hazard it was my property and not their business..  I don't leave ammo or leather in it.

Important papers go in it as well.  Property ownership papers, birth cert., passports, college transcripts, etc.

If the bank becomes aware of your death (through obituaries or inadvertent comment), your safe deposit box may be sealed until released by a judge during estate probation.  Keep only copies of your will, medical directives, funeral preferences, life insurance policies and other papers, or emergency funds your spouse or executor will need immediately upon your death.

Back-up of family pics/videos on a memory card, and video/pictures of house and contents for insurance purposes.

In general, I would only keep stuff at the bank that you need if your house burns down, not stuff for an end of the world type situation.  In such a case, good chance you won't be able to get into your box.

+1 to this.  Don't let the bank know the person has passed because they will seal it until they get an order from the judge.  Mine is more for in case of fire.  Copies of important papers, pictures, etc & a little emergency cash.

If it's real SHTF, can't get to the box easily anyway.

But I can see value in keeping a small cache of things to get you back on your feet if your homestead burned down or something.

I don’t tell them what I put in it.

If power is out can the safe be opened up...it is electronically controlled.

I've never run across any vault that has electronic access save for electronic combination locks and those are battery powered. Most are mechanical combo locks. The boltwork for the doors are all mechanical. The time locks are typically all mechanical as well but there are electronic time locks. Never seen one on a full size vault though.

I suppose you could have electronic access control on the daygate to the vault but I've never seen one. They've all been keyed access. On top of that most all electronic access control is designed to fail safe with no power to prevent people getting trapped.

I have seen one large vault door that was hydraulic assist opening but it wasn't a typical bank branch door at a typical bank.

In fact, many new construction bank branches don't even have conventional vaults anymore so that if they close the branch the building has better resale value. On top of that, bank branches keep less money on hand and fewer people are using SD boxes so no need for the massive costs of building a fixed vault. What they get are large, typically 3x6x3, heavy duty safes. Those are not electronic access either.

Assuming no widescale SHTF, most banks close the location if there's no power (for multiple reasons including security) so that would be the only reason you couldn't access your SD box if the power was out.

You're right, but not all SHTF events will necessarily bar access to your bank, although any panic by the public could precipitate a 'run' on the bank, in which case accessing your SDB could be delayed or rendered impossible because the bank manager shuts the place down.  That said, I keep similar 'cash caches' in several locations just for that reason. Each has a weapon and other things.

There's value in redundancy, if you can afford it, at least to a point.

I have a detached garage...sufficiently far from the house that it is unlikely for a fire to spread easily... in my situation a tall 50cal ammo can. secured to the bench, with an added lock would be a better alternative, small enough to be inconspicuous, but large enough to hold ...digital copies of my important papers, legal and financial ... a safe queen pistol and ammo which would never be missed, as well as a weeks worth of cash

I've spent some time in third world countries and a gold baht bracelet might be a good idea there, but in the US I think that it would take a catastrophic event for someone to give you precious metal value for coins...I would bet on small denomination of US bills   YMMV

Some banks will not permit:

guns/ammo
precious metals
cash

Just be forewarned.  Also, in a declared banking holiday, you will not have access to your box. If it's anything like 1933, if you go to your box, a Revenue Agent must be present (so you made an appointment) before you can get access to it.  Uncle Sugar wanted your gold.

So hypothetical question, what could you put inside your safe deposit box that would hide a few ounces of precious metals?    Something that wouldn’t look out of place and wouldn’t be a tempting target for a thief by itself.   My primary reason for the question would be to deter thiefs but I suspect that it could also be used to fool the Revenue Agent if you were so inclined.

I would bake it into a shitty clay decoration and write "love you Daddy" or some shit like that. It would look like a terrible piece of kid's artwork ;)

Also I'm close enough to it that if there's grumbling of seizing gold again I would go get it out.

Thanks to our current laws, DHS has warrantless access to your safety deposit box on demand and the bank is not allowed to even tell you they accessed it. They conduct regular inspections, comrade.

Welcome to Obama's America. The deep state hasn't been dismantled yet,

Good list.

I THOUGHT that most safe deposit boxes require the customer's key to open.    I also THOUGHT that if the customer lost their key a lock smith would be required to open the box.   Am I mistaken?

Check with your bank on the restrictions- cash, gold, guns, ammo
Read the fine print regarding search and seizure and your rights to privacy when you sign up- The fine print may be you acknowledging your lack of privacy and granting the bank unlimited access as they see fit.  You may just be a temporary box renter in THEIR building, in THEIR vault.  
Different banks view your privacy differently and what flies at one, may not fly at the other.  Some aim to please, and to some you are just a number.

Doing a quick search on DHS and safe deposit boxes, the first result is an article debunking it as an email scam that's several years old.  The second or third result is an infowars article.  That tells me everything I need to know about it's validity.

You are correct. The bank only has the "Guard" key. The customer key is still needed to open it without force.

Without the customer key, it has to be opened by force by someone like me. Customers lose their key(s) all the time and then end up footing the bill to get the box open. With my kit I can be inside most SD boxes in under 10-15 minutes, some under 5.

And a timely bump for the thread. Remember the hydraulic vault doors I mentioned earlier? Thought you all might like to see one.

Here is one version made by LeFebure. Uses a hydraulic system filled with ATF to operate the bolt work and pop the door open. It wasn't working well due to being low on fluid. Thankfully, not my service call.

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But yeah, you're not going to get into that if it doesn't have power.

Fortunately, they aren't very common at all.

Will, Power of Attorney, social security cards, Money, Living will, Passports, User names and passwords, Combinations and spare keys for safes, CD inventory of house contents and serial numbers of all firearms.