Old US army field safe

[Sleutelboertje]

A friend of my got this safe from his dad. His dad worked as a warhouse manager on a NATO base in Europe. (Netherlands or Germany)
He thinks the safe is from 1973. Yale lock.
Are there a lot of these safes?
More info is welcome!

[Squelchtone]

Hello,

That's a cool old field safe, I have always liked those...They are not very rare, but who knows how many were made and still exist. Hundreds probably, perhaps more. It would be difficult to figure out how many are in private hands and how many sit in a military warehouse on a shelf gathering dust.

A question for you.. When I see someone ask about an old safe and they ask for "info" my question is usually, What do you actually want to know? What is it made of? Where was it made? What model lock does it user? How much does it weigh? What year was it made?

In my experience, people just want to know is my safe rare and how much is it worth... for some reason people see a vintage or antique safe and start seeing dollar signs in their eyes. It usually is not rare and not worth thousands of dollars like they hope their safe is.

If you can provide specific info you are looking for, perhaps we can give you some answers.

Thank you for sharing,
Squelchtone

[Safecrackin Sammy]

There were a number of companies that made these under contract over the years. Some insulated, some not. I have seen this one a few times. Not much to them as a sentry was always standing next to them.,

[sign216]

Decades ago, in the last century, I was in the US Army Reserve, as an military policeman in a Division HQ company. You used to see these safes here and there. For our two week summer drill we were paid in cash (those were the days!), and I imagine the money was kept in one of these field safes.

I can still remember the lieutenant peeling off bills to pay each man.

[Sleutelboertje]

Thanks for the input. And Squelchtone, I understand what you say. In this case I want to help the man who has this safe. I don”t know if he wants to sell. For me The question for more info is indeed Manufactur, type lock, etc. I know that there is no way to put a price on a safe. It is the price they (buyer) want to pay.
My “friend” has maybe emotional value to this safe. In that case his price will be to high is my guess….

Well, thanks for the info so far.

[MartinHewitt]

The field safe was made by Schwab. The lock is a Yale B30, B31, B40 or B41 (3 or 4 wheels, metal or plastic wheels).

[Sleutelboertje]

Thanks Martin!