To me a true "safe queen" is a rare super high quality firearm worth a significant amount of money.
Not necessarily a firearm that the owner just rarely or never fired.
An heirloom isn't necessarily a "safe queen" as much as a firearm with a tremendous amount of personal sentimental value.
IMHO the term "safe queen" is way over used. I think people use the term to try to get more money for the firearm when they want to sell it.
Well put, Wildfan99:
I don't think I'd ever heard or read the term "safe queen" until the internet came along, and although I
have a few guns I seldom, if ever fire, I'm just not sure they'd be classified as "queens" in
anyone's safe.
Take for example my first "real" gun - a .22 RF rifle Mom and Dad gave me for my 10th birthday (66 years ago last Thursday). I took it out and let one of our grandsons shoot it a couple of years ago, but other than that, I don't think it had been shot in 30 years.
Another example is the .308 semiauto Mom and Dad bought for me as my first big game rifle when I was about 15. There's nothing wrong with it (other than a few "memory" dings and scratches, but I just don't use it anymore because I have other big game rifles that I prefer - for the last 13 years, that's been my custom .308 Norma Mag (my "retirement" rifle).
Also, I have a nice little Model 63 Smith (a stainless 22/32 "kit" gun) in a kitchen cabinet. It seldom gets used, but over the years it's dispatched many a garden pest and put a half-dozen or so ran-over cats out of their misery.
While
all of the above examples have sentimental value to me, and that .22 RF rifle Mom and Dad gave me for my 10th birthday
might be considered "collectable" by some people (it's a Model 55 Winchester single shot/semiauto), I wouldn't call any of them a "safe queen."