Thanks. I am glad though that you pointed out an address is not a public key. I think it is a common confusion and I should have mentioned it.

The main thing I can see wrong with my analogy is that the "vault" does not actually contain money since nobody actually "has" Bitcoins. They just have the secret code needed to send from an entry in the public ledger. The analogy falsely implies that your "vault", or wallet as it might be interpreted, contains coins, when in reality it just contains the private key necessary to update the ledger.

I know you know that because I read a lot of your posts and have learned much from you! I only write this for the benefit of others who might know these things.