Lots of British Safe Plaques - leave a comment

[Huntlocks]

Hope you like the pictures of my collection of safe plaques. Leave me a comment, ask a question, any swaps, what-ever...

I have collected them over a period of 20 years as a safe 'refurbisher'. We would strip the safe down, repair the hinges, if possible, sort out the lock and keys and repaint them. No place for that old piece of brass so I put them on my shelves. Now they are on my office wall.

I could make a better profit selling second hand safes than new ones.

The market seems to have dried up now. Insurers want graded safes and even look down their noses and really good quality second hand safes. Big companies want new safes and they don't hold much more than a few hundred pounds for petty cash so the market has changed dramatically over the past 20 years.

[Huntlocks]

More Plaques from my collection.

The Thomas Perry safe was sold to a small jeweller. To save money he delivered it himself by borrowing our pallet truck and trundling it through the town centre to his shop. On arrival he and his assistant attempted to lift it up one step and it fell over - can't imagine how - or where - the shop was only 8 feet by 12. Anyway, they survived and brought the truck back.

[Huntlocks]

My Milners plaques. The 212 on the Milners plaques refers to the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit. Ah...you may say...

[Huntlocks]

I hope others will be able to download pictures of their plaques onto this post. Resize them to about 700 pixels wide for all to view. If you are not familiar with resizing your pictures you can email them to me and I will be pleased to group them or post them on your behalf.

[Huntlocks]

some more of my plaques

[JRSLOCK]

Nice plates!!

[Huntlocks]

Hey, thanks Joe. 548 veiwings and you are the first person to leave a comment. Thanks again.

Would be nice to know what people think even if it's just 'pity you didn't get them square on the page'

I intended improving the photos in the future but it is very time consuming.

Cheers from sunny Cambridgeshire.

[Tom Gordon]

it is difficult to make comments sometimes. They are nice pictures and nice plates and you even have three that I don't have myself.
The good thing about safe plate collecting is that you can easily find more that you do not have (however many you already have in your collection).
How many UK plates does everyone think would constitute a fairly complete collection?
cheers
Old Tom

[Huntlocks]

Hi Tom

Hope it's been nice down you way too today.

How many different plaques do you think were made? Each maker had many versions. Lots of makers went out of business but I don't know how many different ones there are - must be a couple of hundred? How many do you have? I admit I've not counted mine, probably 30 max.

Anyway, I read you were the worlds largest collector. That can't be right I'm 6'3". Post a few pics.

Cheers,

Richard

[sparkyskey]

Richard - it has taken me all this time to overcome my jealousy and post a reply :-) Of course - your collection is impressive and I love the photos, one or two of them in particular.

I'm on the search for a couple of Milner safe plates (like your Milner Varn one). However - the two I am replacing had different wording on them: one says "improved for the government registry 1849", and the other "improved for the government registry & courts 1857".

Can anyone tell me why two plates from the same safe would differ - or most likely was one a later replacement? Any other info also appreciated.

Keep posting any extra's you have Richard - they are great reference points and very much appreciated. Thanks for sharing :-)


Cheers Sarah