What I'm Going To Keep Silver In

"...I know which ones I can trust. I "screen" my friends... The ones I have now wouldn't try that stuff."

Some may call me "paranoid," but it's more the caution and common sense arising from long years of hard knocks than it is paranoia.
That being said, when I look at your paraphrased statement above I think to myself "Hoo boy--talk about setting yourself up for a big
surprise and a hard fall..." Life has a way of knocking the rose-colored spectacles off of those who don't take them off first. However--
chart your own course, travel your own path, and best of luck with it.

On another thought -- I totally agree with the ammo box suggestion above. The good ones are really close to air-tight/water-proof and
they minimize the odds of tarnishing and other atmospheric nastinesses.

@HaroldS---Check out websites for Bass Pro Shops, Cabelas, Gander Mountain, Cheaper Than Dirt. Search in Amazon for "ammo can"
or "ammo box." Google up "military surplus" or "army-navy store." Physically---check out Army-Navy Stores in the area where you live.
In addition, sometimes you can find them in local gun shops or at gun shows. I think the metal military surplus kind are best. There are
currently-made plastic wannabes, but I don't think they're as good. Happy hunting and good luck.

Edit: Everything that I mentioned above is w/out ammo included. MUCH cheaper that way! There are also "hard/watertight" pro quality
camera gear cases (HPRC, Pelican, Storm, other brands) that are good, but expensive. See websites of B&H Photo Video or Adorama.

Many thanks! There is a Cabelas less than a mile from me. Go by it all the time but have never stopped in. I haven't seen an Army-Navy store for years. Apparently they are still around? Lots of gun shows around here. Kinda costly entrance fee tho.
Another question: Do theives look for these ammo boxes? Should I put them inside a regular grocery store box mixed in with other storage boxes? Do they take time going through half a garage full of boxes? Thanks so much.

BB21 hit it on the head. Ammo boxes are great for inexpensive, damage-resisting and comparatively air-tight, waterproof and moisture-resistant storage
and I've been using them for decades. They're great for taking a costly camera on a wilderness canoe trip, etc. However, in a home setting they do visually
stand out like a sore thumb and scream "STEAL ME!" real loud. Because of this, they do need to be kept out of sight or in a home workshop or garage
where they'd hopefully blend in.

All that having been said, I still think the closest thing to the proverbial "sure thing" is a bank safety deposit box -- though there are horror stories (mostly
CA tales) about those being taken over by the govt because the boxholder didn't visit the box frequently enough. I guess there is no totally "sure thing."

Theres weird rules about them, I believe sometimes they can get confiscated if you die as well

I sure will talk to our bank, but I thought as long as you made the yearly payment on your box, that was it. I sure don't understand this "visitation" rule. Why would anyone care if you ever went into your box as long as you kept the payment current?

I have to disagree. Often it is the people closest to you that end up committing such crimes including family members and friends that you trust most. There is little that a person desperate for fast cash to fuel a drug habit for example would not steal. As a YN you are entering a period of your life where you will likely see friends give into the temptation of drugs and alchol and during their impaired state of mind it is possible that they will become entirely different people and have moments of weakness where they do things that they will later regret. I had a cousin that robbed both his parents and grandparents houses in order to feed a meth habit, taking anything of value that could be traded for more drugs.