Are there any reliable companies out there that insure coins and banknotes? Do you need an appraisal or can you estimate the value and have them cover you for that amount? I would hate to have to get appraisals for all my coins. I might try to get insurance from the same company that insures my home but may be it would be wise to get another insurer to back that one up in case they don't pay. Anyone have some experience or stories? Thanks for the advice.
i have my collection insured through a company called Collectibles Insurance Service, LLC. You can find them under www.collectinsure.com
If you are a member of the ANA you can get Hugh Wood Insurance and there is no appraisal necessary. There have been many threads about this topic over the years. Here is a link to one from 5 years ago. Insurance for my Coins
If you are a member of the ANA you can use Hugh Wood, Inc., a member of the AXA Insurance Group. The rates are tremendously lower than a homeowner's rider and the policies quite flexible in terms of coverage, shipping and transit. Even if your collection is not that extensive, a membership in the ANA will pay for itself with this insurance program.
I use Hugh Wood. I checked with my homeowner's insurance and they were about 3x-4x more. That alone makes the expense of joining the ANA worth it. Plus by being an ANA member you don't have to join NGC; you automatically get member status thus you can submit coins to them for grading (still have to pay the grading fees).
that everyone for the great information, I probably won't go through my hous insurer after all. I guess Hugh Wood need receipts to insure something? How about coins that go up in value, can you increase the coverage without getting an appraisal? Getting all my receipts together is going to be tough enough, easiest way might be printing out paypal recipt info. Thanks Joe for you suggestion as well, will check that site out also.
yeah, what he said. But let me expand on that thought from another thread on the same topic, this is an edited version of my reply in that thread: Question: Are you aware of any restrictions and/or qualifications with Hugh Wood (other than ANA membership)? My reply: The policy is very straightforward. They just determine if you are more a collector or a dealer by answering a simple question, I'm paraphrasing here "Do you take coins to booths/tables at shows, have a personal website selling coins, or derive you income for selling coins then..." If so, they direct you towards a different type of policy. You need to keep an accurate inventory of your collection, but you don't need to send it to them every time you add/subtract a coin. They ask you very basic and minimal questions about your residence. The only other thing is, they DONT want you collection to be heavy in Bullion. I think you need to have less than 10% in bullion. (They really want coin collectors and not metal speculators I think). I use the "Bronze" level, which covers me at home. There are 5 basic levels: Vault, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. At Gold and above, you get covered for loss during shipping items or driving them around in your car. I would send them a short email and tell them about how much your collection would cost to replace, and maybe include a simple inventory report (I did, but it was not necessary). I include my ANA member number in all my correspondence to Hugh Wood. valuables@hughwood.com This is not your normal insurance policy rider with a ton of legal mumbo-jumbo. It is meant to be easy and straightforward, and very affordable. For ordinary to advanced collectors it truly is a no-brainer. I hope this helps the OP.
Seems like a high risk business to insure something blindly (nearly). Does anyone have any stories about how the claims process worked for them through Hugh Woods?
That question comes up a lot, but I have never seen an answer to it. I would also think that Hugh Woods would insure your collection even if you aren't an ANA member. (rates might be slightly higher though, or they might not.) After all that's the business they are in.
Their special relationship with the ANA might preclude them from any side deals with non ANA members. My annual renewal came this week, and it clearly stated that active ANA membership is required for access to the coin insurance program. To me, this type of insurance is similar to specialty car insurance for collectible cars. They get good rates because they know how anal collectible car guys are, and they are not just insuring the weekly commuter. This is specialty insurance, and requiring active ANA membership weeds out some of the riffraff. A small barrier to entry, but a barrier nonetheless.
Thanks for the all the advice. A couple more questions regarding Hugh Wood now that I've had a chance to read all the posts in all the links. I read some different amount in some of the link posts. So what percentage of the coverage does it cost? .35%? 1%? Does anyone know if they'll cover other collectables at the same rate? There website suggests that they cover other collectables but will the ANA membership cover the rest of my stuff?
