I forgot to add the original Chubb Sovereign- not to be confused with the later model of much lower grade that chubb made with the same name. The one I'm referring to was immense, ridiculously heavy, very expensive and had the QZ prefix to the serial numbers- extremely rare safes.

I can remember the original back in the mid 1980s and our Chubb safe rep joking he'd take us all to an expensive restaurant if we sold one- I think they only made them in 2 or possibly 3 sizes, the larger one costing £15,200 in 1985 or 86.

What separated the Chubb was it's choice of barrier material- whereas most manufacturers went with aluminium for the defensive matrix on their top models, Chubb spared no expense and used solid copper dispersed with their barrier nuggets. Hence the price and the weight of them- not quite in the same league as the giant Chatwood CB Quality perhaps, but even so the Sovereigns weighed far more than the Bankers, Treasury and the Financier model which eventually replaced it.

Not sure if they started out as a one-off commission as the Tann Diamond did, but it's definitely a possibility and worth being mentioned as I'm sure one of you guys will know.


Also worth a mention is the original Chubb Planet- cream or brown plastic- anyone remember them before they went euro and become encapsulated in the steel shells? That's another that might have been the result of a unique commission on the basis and grounds of floor loading capacities on upper floors in buildings. Again I'm not sure though, so would be great if one of you guys know. Probably the best safe that never was!

Chubb's DuPont developed (I think) barrier material- Ellox as they named it, really was a major breakthrough and perhaps even one of the most significant of recent times. Here we had a material and a safe which almost seemed to defy physics- A plastic polymer impregnated with near diamond-hard chips that could put up a fight against serious drill attacks, disc cutters, explosives and thermal cutting! And it was a third of the weight of anything else being used- and plastic!

The original uncovered plastic version- what-you-see-is-what-you-get, wasn't around for long before the euro gradings changed everything and it evolved to a VdS tested euro grader- £35,000 cash rating with just 25 mm thick walls if I remember right- and still a fraction of the weight of most equivalent safes on the market- amazing stuff.

Last I heard it was never a big seller because of it's cost, and that it was still being made I think in Holland, under the Lips wing of Gunnebo (sorry Adrian ;~), but I think even that's all become history now.

I remember a lengthy chat with some serious plastics experts about 20 years ago, asking them about the thermoplastic Chubb had used for the Planet. They all thought it was a wind-up- firstly they'd never heard of it, secondly they seemed to doubt everything I was telling them, and thirdly they all scratched their heads and said that there wasn't a polymer or thermoplastic in the universe that could perform as the so-called Ellox material. I just picked up my Delrin and nylon bars I'd paid for and came away bewildered but smiling- for me that just made the Chubb Planet that extra bit special