How Much Real Money Is Kept In A Bank Vault

Secure space where coin, valuables, records, and documents are stored

This large 24-bolt Diebold vault door at the Winona National Depository financial institution was built in the early 1900s. On the right is the dorsum side of the open door. To the right of the door's heart are two linked boxes for the combination mechanisms and to the left is a iv-move fourth dimension lock. This door has a iv-point organisation for pressing the door into its opening (annotation the two stanchions left of the door opening) capable of exerting ane 3rd of the door's weight in closing force. Since this door weighs 22.5 short tons (twenty.4 t) this system is capable of applying 7.5 curt tons-force (67 kN) inward.

A banking concern vault is a secure space where money, valuables, records, and documents are stored. It is intended to protect their contents from theft, unauthorized use, fire, natural disasters, and other threats, much like a prophylactic. Unlike safes, vaults are an integral part of the edifice inside which they are built, using armored walls and a tightly fashioned door closed with a circuitous lock.

Historically, strongrooms were built in the basements of banks where the ceilings were vaulted, hence the proper noun. Modernistic bank vaults typically comprise many safe eolith boxes, besides equally places for teller cash drawers and other valuable assets of the banking company or its customers. They are besides common in other buildings where valuables are kept such equally mail offices, chiliad hotels, rare book libraries and certain government ministries.

Vault technology developed in a type of arms race with banking concern robbers. As burglars came up with new ways to suspension into vaults, vault makers plant new means to foil them. Mod vaults may be armed with a broad array of alarms and anti-theft devices. Some 19th and early 20th century vaults were built so well that today they are difficult to destroy, even with specialized demolition equipment.^[one] These older vaults were typically made with steel-reinforced concrete. The walls were usually at least 1 ft (0.3 m) thick, and the door itself was typically 3.5 ft (i.1 thou) thick. Total weight ran into the hundreds of tons (see the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland). Today vaults are made with thinner, lighter materials that, while withal secure, are easier to dismantle than their earlier counterparts.

History [edit]

J&J Taylor Strongroom from 1901

Emergency vault door and combination locks at the Portuguese National Bank Museum in Lisbon. Vault door built by the York Condom and Lock Company, Pennsylvania, Us

Vault lock and two keys from the National German American Bank in Saint Paul, Minnesota, 1856

The need for secure storage stretches far back in time. The earliest known locks were made by the Egyptians. Ancient Romans used a more sophisticated locking system, called warded locks. Warded locks had special notches and grooves that made picking them more difficult. Lock technology avant-garde independently in ancient India, Russian federation, and China, where the combination lock is thought to take originated. In the United states of america, most banks relied on small atomic number 26 safes fitted with a fundamental lock upwards until the eye of the nineteenth century. After the Gold Rush of 1849, unsuccessful prospectors turned to robbing banks. The prospectors would oftentimes interruption into the bank using a pickaxe and hammer. The safe was ordinarily minor enough that the thief could go information technology out a window, and have it to a secluded spot to interruption it open up.

Banks demanded more than protection and safe makers responded by designing larger, heavier safes. Safes with a key lock were still vulnerable through the key pigsty, and banking company robbers before long learned to blast off the door by pouring explosives in this opening. In 1861, inventor Linus Yale Jr. introduced the modern combination lock. Bankers rapidly adopted Yale's lock for their safes, but bank robbers came up with several ways to become past the new invention. It was possible to use strength to dial the combination lock through the door. Other experienced burglars learned to drill holes into the lock case and use mirrors to view the slots in the combination wheels inside the mechanism. A more direct arroyo was to simply kidnap the bank manager and force him to reveal the combination.

After the inventions of the combination lock, James Sargent—an employee of Yale—developed the "theft-proof lock". This was a combination lock that worked on a timer. The vault or safety door could only be opened later on a set number of hours had passed, thus a kidnapped bank employee could not open up the lock in the middle of the night even nether forcefulness. Time locks became widespread at banks in the 1870s. This reduced the kidnappings, only set banking concern robbers to work again at prying or blasting open vaults. Thieves adult tools for forcing open a tiny crack between the vault door and frame. Equally the crevice widened, the thieves levered the door open or poured in gunpowder and blasted it off. Vault makers responded with a series of stair-stepped grooves in the door frame so the door could not be levered open up. Just these grooves proved ideal for a new weapon: liquid nitroglycerin. Professional bank robbers learned to boil dynamite in a kettle of water and skim the nitroglycerin off the top. They could baste this volatile liquid into the door grooves and destroy the door. Vault makers later on redesigned their doors so they closed with a thick, smooth, tapered plug. The plug fit then tightly that there was no room for the nitroglycerin.

Pennsylvania Treasury Cylindrical Vault Door with Combination Viewers

Another attempt to deter robberies was the advent of the combination viewer, designed by Frederick S. Holmes. Vault door combination viewers are steel boxes mounted on door jambs that operate combination locks, locking bolts, pressure systems, and door rotation remotely. Early 1900s trade publications and patents refer to these circuitous devices every bit 'illuminated dial cases', 'periscope attachments', 'periscopic sights', 'telescopic boxes', and 'time lock adjusters' and are found with all vault door types - circular, rectangular and cylindrical. The combination locks and bolt-throwing machinery are located inside the vault creating a solid vault door with no spindle holes. Entry requires two points of attack (door and jamb) which doubles the time required for burglars to alienation the vault. Frederick S. Holmes was a prominent bank vault engineer who designed banking company vaults throughout the world in the early 1900s. He specialized in jamb-controlled vaults, many with combination viewers. The largest circular, hinged vault door in the earth is at the Federal Reserve Depository financial institution of Cleveland which has combination viewers on the main and emergency vault doors. 1 of the largest cylindrical vault doors in the earth is at the Pennsylvania Treasury which has dual combination viewers.

Past the 1920s, almost banks avoided using safes and instead turned to gigantic, heavy vaults with walls and doors several anxiety thick. These were meant to withstand non only robbers only also aroused mobs and natural disasters. Despite the new security measures, these vaults were still vulnerable to even so another new invention, the cutting torch. Burning oxygen and acetylene gas at nigh 6,000 °F (3,300 °C), the torch could easily cutting through steel. It was in utilise as early as 1907, but became widespread with World State of war I. Robbers used cutting torches in over 200 bank robberies in 1924 alone. Manufacturers learned to sandwich a copper alloy into vault doors. If heated, the high thermal conductivity of copper dissipates the heat to prevent melting or burning. After this blueprint improvement, bank burglaries vicious off and were far less common at the terminate of the 1920s than at the kickoff of the decade.

Technology continues in the race with bank robbers, coming up with new devices such as heat sensors, movement detectors, and alarms. Bank robbers have in plow developed even more technological tools to discover ways around these systems. Although the number of banking company robberies has been cutting dramatically, they are still attempted.

Materials used in vaults and vault doors have inverse as well. The earlier vaults had steel doors, simply because these could easily exist cutting past torches, different materials were tried. Massive bandage iron doors had more resistance to acetylene torches than steel. The modern preferred vault door material is the aforementioned concrete as used in the vault wall panels. Information technology is usually clad in steel for cosmetic reasons.

Blueprint [edit]

Vault of a retail banking concern nether demolition

Bank vaults are built as custom orders. The vault is usually the start aspect of a new bank building to be designed and built. The manufacturing procedure begins with the design of the vault, and the rest of the bank is built around it. The vault manufacturer consults with the customer to make up one's mind factors such as the full vault size, desired shape, and location of the door. After the customer signs off on the blueprint, the manufacturer configures the equipment to make the vault panels and door. The customer unremarkably orders the vault to be delivered and installed. That is, the vault manufacturer non but makes the vault parts, just brings the parts to the structure site and puts them together.

Bank vaults are typically made with steel-reinforced concrete. This fabric was non substantially different from that used in construction work. It relied on its immense thickness for force. An ordinary vault from the middle of the 20th century might take been 18 in (45.72 cm) thick and was quite heavy and difficult to remove or remodel around. Modern bank vaults are now typically made of modular physical panels using a special proprietary blend of physical and additives for farthermost force. The physical has been engineered for maximum crush resistance. A panel of this material, though merely three in (seven.62 cm) thick, may exist up to 10 times as strong as an 18 in-thick (45.72-cm) panel of regular formula concreted.

In that location are at least two public examples of vaults withstanding a nuclear blast. The most famous is the Teikoku Bank in Hiroshima whose ii Mosler Safe Company vaults survived the diminutive boom with all contents intact. The bank manager wrote a congratulatory note to Mosler.^[ii] ^[3] A second is a vault at the Nevada National Security Site (formerly the Nevada Exam Site) in which an above ground Mosler vault was 1 of many structures specifically constructed to exist exposed to an atomic nail in Performance Plumb Bob - Project 30.four:Response of Protective Vaults to Smash Loading.^[iv] ^[5]

Manufacturing process [edit]

Panels [edit]

The wall panels are molded first using a special reinforced concrete mix. In addition to the usual cement pulverisation, stone, etc., additional materials such equally metal shavings or annoying materials may be added to resist drilling penetration of the slab. Unlike regular concrete used in construction, the concrete for banking concern vaults is so thick that it cannot exist poured. The consistency of physical is measured past its "slump". Vault physical has nil slump. It besides sets very speedily, curing in simply six to 12 hours, instead of the iii to four days needed for about concrete.^[half-dozen] ^[vii]

A network of reinforcing steel rods are manually placed into the damp mix.
The molds are vibrated for several hours. The vibration settles the textile and eliminates air pockets.
The edges are smoothed with a trowel, and the physical is immune to harden.
The panels are removed from the mold and placed on a truck for transport to the client's structure site.

Door [edit]

The vault door is also molded of special concrete used to make the panels, but it can be fabricated in several ways. The door mold differs from the panel molds because in that location is a hole for the lock and the door volition exist clad in stainless steel. Some manufacturers use the steel cladding as the mold and pour the concrete directly into it. Other manufacturers employ a regular mold and screw the steel on after the panel is dry.

Round vault doors were popular in the early on 20th century and are iconic images for a depository financial institution's high security. They savage out of favor due to manufacturing complexities, maintenance problems (door sag due to weight) and cost, but a few examples are however available.^[8] ^[9]

A 24-hour interval gate is a second door within the principal vault door frame used for limited vault protection while the principal door is open. Information technology is often fabricated of open metal mesh or glass and is intended to keep a coincidental visitor out rather than to provide true security.^[10]

Lock [edit]

A vault door, much similar the smaller burglary safe door, is secured with numerous massive metal bolts (cylinders) extending from the door into the surrounding frame. Property those bolts in identify is some sort of lock. The lock is invariably mounted on the within (backside) of the difficult-to-penetrate door and is usually very modest in size and strength, but very hard to gain access to from the exterior. There are many types of lock mechanisms in utilize:

A combination lock similar in principle to that of a padlock or safety door is very common. This is usually a mechanical device merely products incorporating both mechanical and electronic mechanisms are bachelor, making certain safe cracking techniques very difficult.^[11]
Some high-end vaults utilize a two piece key to be used in conjunction with a combination lock. This key consists of a long stem too as a brusque postage which should exist prophylactic guarded separately and joined together to open the vault door.^[12]
A dual control (dual custody) combination lock has two dials controlling two locking mechanisms for the door. They are unremarkably configured so that both locks must be dialed open at the same time for the door to be unlocked. No unmarried person is given both combinations, requiring 2 people to cooperate to open the door. Some doors may exist configured so that either dial will unlock the door, trading off increased convenience for lessened security.
A time lock is a clock that prevents the vault's door from opening until a specified number of hours have passed. This is yet the "theft proof" lock organization that Sargent invented in the late nineteenth century. Such locks are manufactured by only a few companies worldwide. The locking system is supplied to the vault manufacturer preassembled.
Many rubber-cracking techniques also utilise to the locking machinery of the vault door. They may be complicated by the sheer thickness and strength of the door and panel.

Installation [edit]

The finished vault panels, door, and lock assembly are transported to the bank construction site. The vault manufacturer's workers and so place the panels enclosed in steel at the designated spots and weld them together. The vault manufacturer may as well supply an alarm organisation, which is installed at the same time. While older vaults employed diverse weapons against burglars, such as blasts of steam or tear gas, modern vaults instead use technological countermeasures. They can be wired with a listening device that picks up unusual sounds, or observed with a camera. An alert is oft present to alert local police if the door or lock is tampered with.

Us resistance standards [edit]

Quality control for much of the world's vault industry is overseen past Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL), in Northbrook, Illinois. Until 1991, the Us authorities also regulated the vault industry. The government ready minimum standards for the thickness of vault walls, but advances in concrete applied science made thickness an arbitrary mensurate of strength. Thin panels of new materials were far stronger than the thicker, poured concrete walls. Now the effectiveness of the vault is measured by how well it performs against a mock break-in. Manufacturers likewise practice their own testing designing a new product to brand sure information technology is probable to succeed in UL trials.^[thirteen] Cardinal points include:

Information technology is based on using "common hand tools, picking tools, mechanical or portable electric tools, grinding points carbide drills, pressure applying devices or mechanisms, abrasive cutting wheels, ability saws, coring tools, impact tools, fluxing rods, and oxy-fuel gas cutting torches".
A alienation is a hole in the door or wall of at least 96 square inches (6 × 16 in (15.24 × 40.64 cm)) or breaking locking bolts to permit the door to open.
Considers only the time actually spent working (excludes setup, rests, etc.)
Does not cover attacks with a thermal lance or explosives.
UL-608 makes no claims as to the burn resistance of the vault.
Applies to the door and all sides.
The lock, ventilation, alarms, etc. are covered by other UL standards.

Rating	Time to Breach Vault
Class M	15 minutes
Grade I	30 minutes
Class 2	lx minutes
Class III	120 minutes

European resistance standards [edit]

Equally with the US, Europe has agreed a series of exam standards to assure a common view of penetrative resistance to forcible attack.^[14] The testing regime is covered under the auspices of Euronorm 1143-1:2012 (also known equally BS EN 1143-one: 2012),^[xv] which can exist purchased from canonical European standards agencies.^[xvi] ^[17]

Primal points include:

A modern highly portable core drill

An explosive door breaching test

Standard covers burglary resistance tests against free-continuing safes and ATMs, likewise as strongrooms and doors
Tests are undertaken to arrive at a form (0 to XIII) with two actress resistance qualifiers (one for the employ of explosives the other for core drills)
Test assail tools fall into five categories with increasing penetrative adequacy, i.due east. Categories A–D and South
Penetration success is measured as partial (125mm diameter hole) or total (350mm diameter pigsty)
Considers only the time actually spent working (excludes setup, rests, etc.)
EN 1143-1 makes no claims every bit to the fire resistance of the vault
EN 1300 covers high security locks, i.e. four lock classes (A, B, C and D)^[18]
Applies to the door and all vault sides.

Resistance Grade	Resistance Value to Alienation Vault	Lock Quantity	Explosive Rating Possible	Cadre Drill Rating Possible
0	thirty	Ane	No	No
I	fifty	Ane	No	No
Two	80	One	Yes	No
3	120	One	Aye	No
Four	180	Two	Yes	No
Five	270	Two	Yes	No
VI	400	Two	Yep	No
7	600	Two	Yes	No
VIII	825	Two	Yep	Yep
IX	1050	Two	Yes	Yeah
X	1350	Two	Aye	Yes
Xi	2000	Two or Three	Yes	Yes
XII	3000	Two or Three	Yes	Yes
Thirteen	4500	Two or Three	Yes	Yes

Repurposing [edit]

The manufacturing procedure itself has no unusual waste or byproducts, simply getting rid of old bank vaults tin exist a problem. Newer, modular bank vaults tin can be moved if a bank closes or relocates. They can as well exist enlarged if a banking company needs to change. Older banking concern vaults are quite difficult to demolish. If an former banking company edifice is to be renovated for another use, in about cases a specialty contractor has to exist called in to demolish the vault. A vault's demolition requires massive wrecking equipment and may have months of work at a big expense. At to the lowest degree one company in the Us refurbishes old vault doors that are then resold.

In some cases, the new owner of a quondam bank building will opt to use the vault for some alternative purpose.

There are restaurants or bars in New York City,^[19] Cambridge, Massachusetts,^[20] Cleveland, Ohio,^[21] Laurel, Mississippi,^[22] Houston, Texas,^[22] Greatcoat Charles, Virginia,^[23] and London, England, ^[24] that use a former depository financial institution vault either as a seating expanse or storage room for vino or liquor.
A Herrell'southward Ice Foam shop in Harvard Foursquare, Cambridge, Massachusetts, used a former banking company vault equally a seating area for customers for 27 years earlier endmost in 2009 and reopening equally a eating house and pub.^[xx]
The Baltimore Marriott hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, and the 1 Male monarch Due west Hotel & Residence in Toronto, Canada, each have a lath room for meetings in a erstwhile bank vault.^[22]
A community art center in Crown Point, Indiana, uses a erstwhile bank vault as a souvenir shop and art gallery.^[22]
An art gallery and java shop in Quincy, Illinois, uses a depository financial institution vault as a storage room.^[22]
A Starbucks java shop in Bridgehampton, New York, has a former banking concern vault featured in its decor.^[22]
A article of clothing shop in Ventura, California, uses a bank vault for a dressing room.^[22]
A former bank building in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, has a old bank vault used for parties and a flea marketplace.^[22]

Future [edit]

Bank vault technology inverse rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s with the development of improved concrete material. Bank burglaries are besides no longer the substantial problem they were in the late 19th century up through the 1930s, only vault makers keep to modify their products to counter new break-in methods.

An issue in the 21st century is the thermal lance. Burning atomic number 26 rods in pure oxygen ignited by an oxyacetylene torch, it can produce temperatures of 6,600–8,000 °F (3,650–4,430 °C). The thermal lance user bores a series of small holes that tin can eventually be linked to form a gap. Vault manufacturers piece of work closely with the banking industry and law enforcement in guild to keep upwards with such advances in burglary.

References [edit]

^ "Demolition crew cracks the old U.S. Bank vault".
^ "Messages of Note: Your Products are Stronger than the Atomic Bomb". 16 September 2010. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved xvi September 2010.
^ "Unbreakable: Hiroshima and the Mosler Prophylactic Company". CONELRAD Adjacent. 26 August 2010. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
^ "A Nuclear Family Holiday". Slate. Slate Magazine. eleven July 2005. Archived from the original on 13 July 2005. Retrieved eleven July 2005.
^ "Slate's Well-Traveled: A Nuclear Family Holiday". NPR.org. NPR. Retrieved 15 July 2005.
^ "Discovery Channel (UK) How Do They Practice It? (Season iii / Episode 7 / Part 2) Diebold Vault Construction (YouTube)". YouTube . Retrieved 28 Dec 2010. ^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
^ "Hercvlite Vault Panels". Archived from the original on 17 December 2010. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
^ "Vault Structure Inc. Round Vault Doors". Archived from the original on eleven April 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
^ "VSI 360 Round Vault Door" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on xi July 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
^ "Installation Instructions for Overly GSA Grade v Vault Door" (PDF). Overly Door Company. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2010.
^ "Kaba-MAS X-09 and CDX-09 High Security Locks" (PDF). December 2010. p. 8.
^ Scott Selby & Greg Campbell (2010). Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History. Sterling. pp. 148–149.
^ "UL 608 Break-in Resistant Vault Doors and Modular Panels". Underwriter's Laboratories. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
^ "Requirements on strongrooms in cast in-situ and/or pre-fabricated construction ECB-South R03" (PDF). ECB-South. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
^ "Red Volume Live, Part 4, Section 2" (PDF). LPCB. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
^ "BS EN 1143-1:2012 - Secure storage units. Requirements, nomenclature and methods of test for resistance to burglary. Safes, ATM safes,strongroom doors and strongrooms". shop.bsigroup.com . Retrieved 4 September 2017.
^ Standards, European. "EN 1143-1". Retrieved 4 September 2017.
^ "EN 1300 Locks". www.ecb-s.com . Retrieved five September 2017.
^ "Trinity Place Bank Vault Bar".
^ ^a ^b Abelson, Jenn (18 September 2009). "A sour ending for sweets shop: Herrell'southward Harvard Foursquare site closing after 27 years". The Boston Globe.
^ "Welcome to Vault".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^eastward ^f ^g ^h "10 Incredible Repurposed Banking company Vaults – RecycleNation".
^ "Dine Inside of an Former Bank Vault when You Visit This Fantastic Virginia Restaurant". 4 April 2019.
^ "The Vault Bar & Lounge".

Farther reading [edit]

Books [edit]

Steele, Sean P., Heists: Swindles, Stickups, and Robberies that Shocked the Globe. New York: Metrobooks, 1995. ISBN 1-56799-170-X.
Tchudi, Stephen, Lock & Key: The Secrets of Locking Things Up, In, and Out. New York: Charles Scribner'south Sons, 1993. ISBN 0-684-19363-ix.

Periodicals [edit]

Chiles, James R., "Age-Old Battle to Go along Safes Safe from 'Creepers, Soup Men and Yeggs". Smithsonian (July 1984): 35–44.
Merrick, Amy, "Immovable Objects, If They're Bank Vaults, Brand Nice Restaurants". The Wall Street Journal (5 February 2001): Al.

External links [edit]

Bank Vault Anatomy at the Wayback Motorcar (archived 3 March 2016) - A semi-technical guide to banking company vaults congenital in the early 1900s; includes Remote Combination Viewer Vault information
"15 Most Impenetrable Bank Vaults", accessed 28 Dec 2010.
"Bank Vault (madehow.com)", accessed 28 December 2010.
"AR 380-5 Chapter V Safekeeping and Storage", U.S. DOD standard for underground material storage displayed by Federation of American Scientists, accessed 28 December 2010.
"Operating Educational activity for the X-09 Type 1F High Security Electronic Lock", U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, accessed 28 December 2010.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_vault

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