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Seeing Gary's post on adding his 1926 ME to his insurance has made me think - because I don't have any and haven't ever really thought about it.

what does everyone else do ?

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Seeing Gary's post on adding his 1926 ME to his insurance has made me think - because I don't have any and haven't ever really thought about it.

what does everyone else do ?

I've just changed mine to Stamp Insurance Service who us Sterling. Previously I was with Lloyds who again used Sterling. The main difference was that Lloyds and many others try and rap it all up with your house contens insurance under a specified item. I wanted the freedom of having the collection completely seperate from the house insurance although the total premium is very similar.

Gary

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Seeing Gary's post on adding his 1926 ME to his insurance has made me think - because I don't have any and haven't ever really thought about it.

what does everyone else do ?

I've just changed mine to Stamp Insurance Service who us Sterling. Previously I was with Lloyds who again used Sterling. The main difference was that Lloyds and many others try and rap it all up with your house contens insurance under a specified item. I wanted the freedom of having the collection completely seperate from the house insurance although the total premium is very similar.

Gary

Further to this point, I too have just amended my insurance. I discovered as the renewal came round that the maximum amount for a single item on a general policy was £6000, but that a collection of coins was classed as one item!!!! A quick update of the re-purchase price using a 2 year old Spink, led to a revelation in terms of overall 'value.' In short I was way under-insured and needed to make sure that the cover was adequate. Since I don't have an alarm system or a safe, the insurance company were reluctant to increase the policy without security improvements. It ended up being cheapest to store the items at the bank. So two large steel boxes were obtained, padlocks etc. fitted, and were trundled off to the bank.

My wife and I had a right laugh at the bank as we looked like a couple of gangsters in our shades, me in a leather jacket, her chewing gum, something that wasn't helped by us going on about the body being in one box and the head in the other. The upshot was that the bank now stores them in their vault and it takes a large burly man or two ladies to lug each box up for inspection. The weight of two boxes containing some 3000 or so coins is quite something - I'd guess around a hundredweight, including the boxes.

The pity of it is that I don't now get to see them unless I make arrangements to do so, but I do have peace of mind about them. I guess I also came to the point of realising that what was a simple hobby had turned into something else entirely. i.e. a major investment.

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My coins aren't insured separately at all, and their value on paper approaches about £7k. My normal household insurance covers "valuables" (as coin collections are classified), up to £2000 only.

I'm going to have to think about separate insurance. I don't want to store them in a bank vault, as I look to look at them now and again. Although I can understand Dave's motivation in doing so.

Either that or find some suitable hiding place, where thieves are unlikely to look.

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My coins aren't insured separately at all, and their value on paper approaches about £7k. My normal household insurance covers "valuables" (as coin collections are classified), up to £2000 only.

I'm going to have to think about separate insurance. I don't want to store them in a bank vault, as I look to look at them now and again. Although I can understand Dave's motivation in doing so.

Either that or find some suitable hiding place, where thieves are unlikely to look.

The people I've just gone with would charge about £42 for £7000 cover

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My coins aren't insured separately at all, and their value on paper approaches about £7k. My normal household insurance covers "valuables" (as coin collections are classified), up to £2000 only.

I'm going to have to think about separate insurance. I don't want to store them in a bank vault, as I look to look at them now and again. Although I can understand Dave's motivation in doing so.

Either that or find some suitable hiding place, where thieves are unlikely to look.

The people I've just gone with would charge about £42 for £7000 cover

That's pretty reasonable for peace of mind, and only represents 0.6% of the total value, per annum.

I shall have to look into it. Do they need an inventory/photographs, Gary ?

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My coins aren't insured separately at all, and their value on paper approaches about £7k. My normal household insurance covers "valuables" (as coin collections are classified), up to £2000 only.

I'm going to have to think about separate insurance. I don't want to store them in a bank vault, as I look to look at them now and again. Although I can understand Dave's motivation in doing so.

Either that or find some suitable hiding place, where thieves are unlikely to look.

The people I've just gone with would charge about £42 for £7000 cover

That's pretty reasonable for peace of mind, and only represents 0.6% of the total value, per annum.

I shall have to look into it. Do they need an inventory/photographs, Gary ?

1/2% of the insured sum is a fairly consistent premium across all insurers. My insurer requires a valuation every 3 years which by definition requires an inventory and so reflects changes to the collection. You would be foolish not to keep original receipts and sales info though as the loss adjuster will use any means possible to reduce the claim. Images of the coins insured will always be helpful when it comes to proving the stolen coin or coins are yours.

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It was suggested that I keep an inventory off-site and was required to list everything seperately with a value of £1000+

Gary

Edited by Gary D

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A good place to store images of coins you own 'offsite' might be on omnicoin.

http://www.omnicoin.com/

Obviously it doesn't help with reciepts, but it means that you at least have photos of your coins in a place where they can't be stolen. Just a thought.

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A good place to store images of coins you own 'offsite' might be on omnicoin.

http://www.omnicoin.com/

Obviously it doesn't help with reciepts, but it means that you at least have photos of your coins in a place where they can't be stolen. Just a thought.

Very neat idea. I had heard of them but never took the time to look at their website before.

Thanks, Sylvester.

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keeping recipts is one thing, what if you got something rare on the cheap? my 1858 small date farthing came with a card with the price of £5... no way would i be able to replace it at that.

but yea use omnicoin, its a great place, i really do need to add up the total value of my collection, i know 3 or 4 of these coins are worth a fair chunk of the total value of my colelction

(the 1858 farthing, 1939 rhodesia 6D, 1840 EF farthing = £120-150 alone)

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keeping recipts is one thing, what if you got something rare on the cheap? my 1858 small date farthing came with a card with the price of £5... no way would i be able to replace it at that.

but yea use omnicoin, its a great place, i really do need to add up the total value of my collection, i know 3 or 4 of these coins are worth a fair chunk of the total value of my colelction

(the 1858 farthing, 1939 rhodesia 6D, 1840 EF farthing = £120-150 alone)

You insure for their current value not what they cost. Just think of all the Hs KNs MEs etc picked from change, 1d each. The receipt just proves you own the coin.

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My coins aren't insured separately at all, and their value on paper approaches about £7k. My normal household insurance covers "valuables" (as coin collections are classified), up to £2000 only.

I'm going to have to think about separate insurance. I don't want to store them in a bank vault, as I look to look at them now and again. Although I can understand Dave's motivation in doing so.

Either that or find some suitable hiding place, where thieves are unlikely to look.

I don't particularly like storing them at the bank, although they are readily accessible. The upside though is that I only pay 0.2% insurance rather than 0.6% and that saves me £200 per year.

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I changed to Norwich Union to get the cheapest "valuables cover" I could, and the single item limit is £1500, and none of my individual coins is worth that, so I'm ok with it.

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I changed to Norwich Union to get the cheapest "valuables cover" I could, and the single item limit is £1500, and none of my individual coins is worth that, so I'm ok with it.

I tried several insurers and the results were quite interesting. The cheapest general household contents insured had the most expensive valuables cover and conversely the most expensive contents had the cheapest valuables premium. All the various combined totals were not dissimilar. What cartel? I ended up taking the most expensive contents as it had the added benefit of blanket coverage up to a fixed amount which was well in excess of the actual, so it wasn't necessary to worry about underinsuring when advising of the sum you wanted to insure.

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I changed to Norwich Union to get the cheapest "valuables cover" I could, and the single item limit is £1500, and none of my individual coins is worth that, so I'm ok with it.

Be careful and check that each coin is regarded as a separate item and that the limit doesn't apply to your whole collection. My company (SAGA - there's a giveaway) insure a single item up to £6000, but regard a collection of coins as a single item. It was realising this which led me to go for the bank option.

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Be careful and check that each coin is regarded as a separate item and that the limit doesn't apply to your whole collection.

All the insurance companies I've dealt with in the past insist on whole of property insurance, so you can't for example just cover the living room and a bedroom contents. Therefore, if you insured the general household contents but didn't declare the 'valuables' then they would consider it as underinsured if it came to a claim and you provided a list of missing items to the police. I think this would cause a problem when the claim was entered. For anyone in this position it is probably worth checking with your insurer. To only insure a few specific high value items is also a bit of a grey area as the same would probably apply. You can rest assured that a burglar is unlikely to spend hours sifting through the trays in order to weed out the most desirable items and leave the crap, so a total loss is more likely.

The whole collection being treated as a single item has its advantages, as you then don't need to flood the postal system with revised insurance details every time you make a major purchase assuming the overall level of cover is adequate.

Edited by Rob

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Be careful and check that each coin is regarded as a separate item and that the limit doesn't apply to your whole collection.

All the insurance companies I've dealt with in the past insist on whole of property insurance, so you can't for example just cover the living room and a bedroom contents. Therefore, if you insured the general household contents but didn't declare the 'valuables' then they would consider it as underinsured if it came to a claim and you provided a list of missing items to the police. I think this would cause a problem when the claim was entered. For anyone in this position it is probably worth checking with your insurer. To only insure a few specific high value items is also a bit of a grey area as the same would probably apply. You can rest assured that a burglar is unlikely to spend hours sifting through the trays in order to weed out the most desirable items and leave the crap, so a total loss is more likely.

The whole collection being treated as a single item has its advantages, as you then don't need to flood the postal system with revised insurance details every time you make a major purchase assuming the overall level of cover is adequate.

I spoke to my contents insurer about having my collection seperatly covered and informed them that its value far exceeded their valuables limit. The fact that it was covered elsewhere was not considered a problem.

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My company (SAGA - there's a giveaway) insure a single item up to £6000, but regard a collection of coins as a single item. It was realising this which led me to go for the bank option.

I'm not sure this would stand up legally? It would be the equivalent of saying that all X's jewellery is "a single item" and therefore the lost engagement ring isn't covered as the combined jewellery value exceeds the single item limit?

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My company (SAGA - there's a giveaway) insure a single item up to £6000, but regard a collection of coins as a single item. It was realising this which led me to go for the bank option.

I'm not sure this would stand up legally? It would be the equivalent of saying that all X's jewellery is "a single item" and therefore the lost engagement ring isn't covered as the combined jewellery value exceeds the single item limit?

I'm afraid it works just like that. If you are under insured although the item being claimed for is within the limit you will only get a proportion of the value

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My company (SAGA - there's a giveaway) insure a single item up to £6000, but regard a collection of coins as a single item. It was realising this which led me to go for the bank option.

I'm not sure this would stand up legally? It would be the equivalent of saying that all X's jewellery is "a single item" and therefore the lost engagement ring isn't covered as the combined jewellery value exceeds the single item limit?

I'm afraid it works just like that. If you are under insured although the item being claimed for is within the limit you will only get a proportion of the value

No, that's not what I meant. I'm not talking about under-insuring, I'm talking about treating a collection of items as a single item - I'm not sure it would hold up in court.

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