# Securing cipher machines: the device, the rotors, the legal gray area

> Securing cipher machines: list rotors as separate parts, store dry, before buying check whether you may own the device.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/chiffriermaschinen-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

A cipher machine is metal, rotors, and a history that interests states. Whether you may own a particular device, you settle before the purchase. This text is not a way to obtain one. In the overview [Security for collectors](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler) it is about storing what you lawfully have.

## Storage

Dry, rotors not loose in a drawer where they disappear and rust. Each rotor one line. You do not fiddle "just for a moment" with a device whose wiring is the price, without knowing what you are changing.

## When someone comes

Heavy, but the rotors are small. They stay in the device or in the locked box, not beside it. Proof and photos of the numbers in the document safe.


## Häufige Fragen

### May I buy every machine like this?

You settle that beforehand. This text only says how you store a lawful piece.

### Rotors separately?

Yes, in the list. A missing rotor is a different device.

### Try it out?

Not on the wiring you cannot reset.