Insuring Coin Collections

Depends on the insurer.
A receipt would only become significant when you are making a claim.



You can get your policy written any way you want within reason.



I don't actually know but this is where receipts would come into play.

Do NOT try to insure through your homeowner insurance.
Their requirements are very stiff and the policy would be VERY expensive.

To the best of my knowledge there is really only one insurer to go with.
Hugh Wood
http://www.hughwood.com/sub_menu.php?submenuId=138
They have 3 levels of coverage:
-- home only (requires at least Class B safe: 1-hour fire resistant)
-- bank safe deposit box AND transportation between bank and home
-- all handling (mostly for dealers); covers home, bank and shows.
No appraisal required but I keep my receipts as a CYA.
They only require special notice for any coin over $10,000.
Their cost: About 1/3 of what homeowners' insurance would cost.

And a medium sized 1-hour fire safe is not cheap; about $1000 new.

Do some research on the safe rating before you purchase one. Most of the safes sold at big box type stores can only be insured up to a certain amount, I think around $25,000. My safe while not cheap is insurable to 3 million dollars and the premiums are pretty small due to the construction of the safe. I won't post a picture of mine, but it's close to this one.
http://www.lackasafe.com/products/u...ecurity-safe

I know a lot of people get sticker shock on major purchases, but if you have potentially tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of valuables why cheap out on a safe? It's a lifetime investment and it can save you hundreds to thousands of dollars on premiums every year.

Dang! If my collection is ever worth more than that safe, I'll think about it! LOL.

I've said this many times. Be careful. Remember that today's insurance companies are all on computer systems. This means that practically every one in that company has access to your stuff. And to insure a coin collection, you have to either show them it all or documents about the purchases. Where and how you keep it all. Why not just put an advertisement in the newspapers about your collection.

Where I live, it is actually impossible to insure a coin collection as such. So what I have done is made a special note in my contents insurance for the collections I have: not just coins, but also other valuable and sometimes irreplaceable stuff (like a book by Terry Pratchett signed for me exclusively). I have documented these collections well, but not at the insurance company but with my notary (updated a few times per year), so that if something happens, I should be able to replace what can be replaced in equal quality. This works well and is also an acceptable solution for the insurance company. Total coverage of the insurance is now about 1 million USD, so I still have a bit to go on with collecting stuff.

I do have an insurance which replaces things the way they are documented, as long as I can prove that I had them in that condition and as long as I can prove that they got damaged or stolen during an incident (usually a police report or expert report will do). Unfortunately, we had to test this out in one of our other houses, when we had water damage there. Fortunately, they covered as advertised, so we got the house back the way we had it.

I do also have a safe, but it's exclusively used for documents which are worth even more than individual coins, like diplomas and so. My wife has inherited a huge collection of gold and silver jewellery (also some precious stones). I live in a very safe area (the biggest incident in the last decade was that someone got caught for speeding with 6mph), so there's no real need to put jewellery and coins and so into a safe. The only reason why I put documents there is because the safe should be fire proof and paper burns much faster than gold.

Hugh Wood Insurance (affiliated with Lloyd's of London) offers coin insurance. Your premiums depends on how the collection is stored, if you transport or ship pieces regularly (i.e., shipping to PCGS) and of course, net value.

My collection is insured that way, but my rates are fairly cheap because most of my valuable coins reside in a safety deposit box, at a major bank.

The link is mentioned above in kanga's post.

True that. I'm not sure how it works in the USA, but over here a safe gets significantly more expensive by the cubic centimeter as they get bigger. So that's why I have a relatively small, fireproof one for only the most important papers.