Should I get insurance for my coin collection?

At what point does it become necessary for someone to insure their collection against theft/natural disaster/etc,. ?

Is it only worth doing above a certain collection value?

 

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Whenever they decide its worth it. It's a personal decision

 

Insurance is important. It's one of the many layers of security/protection a collector needs to look at. We each have to decide if our collection is of enough value to insure.

 

I'm about to insure my collection soon. My wife works for an insurance company so she can help me in the process. I don't think we should ever feel like theft, fire or some natural disaster could never happen.

 

I tell folks to get a quote from Hugh Wood for coin insurance. You need to be an ANA member but the rates are pretty low. You can get 100K in coverage for a little over $300 per year. That's like .3 percent. My home owners wanted almost 3 percent per year and they needed a list of every coin. For an active collector, that's tough to keep up to date. Hugh Wood only needs a list of any single coin that is worth 10K or more.

 

I agree. From everything I have ever seen or read the ANA Wood policy is superior.

OP, its your decision. However, you also need to look at the risk. Are they in a SDB? That makes it much less likely something will happen, versus under your bed.

 

Agree with Larry @ldhair , Hugh Wood worth a look. Specially coverage for a subject of insurance that most underwriters won’t entertain. Homeowners policy is designed to be a cookie cutter for basic house, furnishings and personal liability.

 

I will add that I was a NY State Property/Casualty Agent/Broker and managed 2 Independent Agencies
So listen to @GDJMSP

 

That is a personal question that only you can answer.

 

I have Hugh Wood and have had them for years. Their cost is very reasonable if you keep most of your collection in a safe deposit box. As others have mentioned, you can get $100k or so of insurance for probably $300 or so. If you keep a significant amount of value at your house, its much more expensive- for example, to keep $30k worth of stuff at home, its probably the same $300 of insurance cost per year. As your collection grows, it probably makes the most sense to keep the majority of the collection in the SDB to protect it and also lower the cost of insurance.

Additionally, I have had a claim with Hugh Wood about 10 years+ ago and they covered the claim with no issues and were extremely easy to work with.

 

I have insurance on coins stored in my safety deposit box. Annual premium is about 2% of collection replacement value.

 

You should check out Hugh Wood, its probably about 1/3 of a percent. Or .0033 of your collection value.

 

So do you need to join at a certain level for the ANA in order to qualify to purchase insurance? Is a Gold membership sufficient? Does one need a sponsor? Are there any promotional codes that anyone is aware of? What are the benefits that members use, besides buying insurance, if any?

 

Nope, any level works. You become a member and then when you call Hugh Wood they ask if you are an ANA member and your member number and thats it. You have to be an ANA member for the entire time you have the insurance.

Being a member gives you lots of benefits, but access to their magazine monthly alone is worth it. Lots of good information and articles in there.

 

Has any of you read you're home owner insurance policy or spoken to you're agent about it? I have, I was advised to have an inventory and location of the items within our home. The value exceeded our loss limit so we raised our loss recovery limit, it raised the price of our policy but it is well worth it. We also have a supplement policy that covers our valuables and personal items. This cost is also very reasonable. Be safe, not sorry. Good luck.

 

Yes, several times and when I've had different P&C companies insuring us and none were even remotely close to Hugh Wood. I still keep an inventory excel sheet even though it's not necessary according to Hugh Wood.

 

Homeowners is excellent for other things though. It covers the value of my library. Its weird they will cover expensive books on coins, but not the coins themselves. I pointedly asked both the agent and the insurance company directly, yes to any books on coins no matter the value, no on any coins unless special rider taken.

 

that is only half of it. You also need to maintain records.