Stamp collection insurance

Have any of you ever had a claim on stamp collection insurance? What
proof do they require if the albums were destroyed or stolen? Inventory
records of all stamps? I doubt if .01% of collectors do that. Guess of
how many common issues and inventory of stamps costing $5 or $10 or $100
or whatever? What about a general collection with no valuable stamps (a
very few cataloging $25 or so supposedly), the majority common -
essentially valueless. Not worth insuring? Albums worth more than stamps?

Just wondering if insurance would be too difficult to collect from.

Ken


--
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil." - Max Lerner

Worth a read, from Wim Smits, the dealer who brought the Western Australian
Lithographic stone of the "inverted frame" to the world's attention.

HTH

Security Problems

In his stamp column in the ''"Sunday Times" (Western Australia), the Perth
stamp dealer Wim Smits recently had this to say on the problem of security
for stamp collections:

I have written a lot about security lately, but up till now I have omitted
to tell you what to do when your collection is actually stolen.

When you discover that your collection has been stolen, you should
immediately do the following: Ring your local police station then as far as
possible complete a list of some of the items that are in your collection,
such as special covers of postmarks, describe the albums, in other words
anything that might be of help to identify your collection.

This list should be given to the police, who then either circulate it to the
dealers and in the case of very large collections will forward lists to the
eastern states.

The point of identification is the most important. It is difficult to prove
that for instance a complete mint collection of stamps which has been
removed from a stockbook could belong to you.

In the old days, dealers sometimes used to mark the back of the stamps with
a tiny rubber stamp about 3mm across and that was quite acceptable to the
collector, but today this type of defacing is frowned upon.

But here is the good part there is now on the market a pen which invisibly
marks any item.

These pens are called security marking pens, and they come together with
four warning emblems which state that all the articles in your home are
invisibly marked and can be identified by police.

Before you start writing to me saying that it would be terrible to mark your
stamps in such a fashion, let me explain a little further.

These pens can be used to mark your album, you can place your mark on
covers, underneath the stamp on your album page, but it would do no harm to
mark some of the cheaper stamps in your collection.

In case you lose your collection, you have a list of which stamps have been
marked, and if the collection was found it would therefore be easy to prove
ownership.

The Crime Detection Branch in the Police Department is impressed and tested
the pen. I have tried the pen and highly recommend it. It retails for S5.95
which is a small price to pay if it helps you in the future to recover your
collection.

"Stamp News" November 1978 Volume 25 number 11








"KenK" wrote in message
...
Have any of you ever had a claim on stamp collection insurance? What
proof do they require if the albums were destroyed or stolen? Inventory
records of all stamps? I doubt if .01% of collectors do that. Guess of
how many common issues and inventory of stamps costing $5 or $10 or $100
or whatever? What about a general collection with no valuable stamps (a
very few cataloging $25 or so supposedly), the majority common -
essentially valueless. Not worth insuring? Albums worth more than stamps?

Just wondering if insurance would be too difficult to collect from.

Ken


--
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil." - Max Lerner

In a recent message KenK wrote:

Have any of you ever had a claim on stamp collection insurance? What
proof do they require if the albums were destroyed or stolen? Inventory
records of all stamps? I doubt if .01% of collectors do that. Guess of
how many common issues and inventory of stamps costing $5 or $10 or $100
or whatever? What about a general collection with no valuable stamps (a
very few cataloging $25 or so supposedly), the majority common -
essentially valueless. Not worth insuring? Albums worth more than stamps?

Just wondering if insurance would be too difficult to collect from.

I have claimed for items lost in the post on two occasions.

Payment was by return of post. No trouble at all.

But then I know the Agent quite well, having spoken to him on the phone many times,
and my house and contents are also insured through him.

I keep an inventory of the vast majority of my stamps, but not where
I have many duplicates. They are also noted by underlining in my specialist
catalogues, which I use when I attend a Stamp Fair, for example.

The better items (over 50 euro or GBP) are scanned and the images stored on
CDROMs. Even mint stamps can be identified in most cases by the perforation tear pattern
(thus you need a high-resolution scan).

A general collection without valuable stamps is probably covered by a general
household policy.

--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... Television is so dull that children are doing their homework.

Hi Ken,

Look at this insurance agency. They used to be the Insurance agency
for the American Philaatelic Society. Since they have years of
experience insuraning stamp collections one should have no problems
making claims. Contact themto find out what you have to show to prove
ownership of stamps.

http://www.collectinsure.com/

Jerry B

Tony Clayton wrote in
:

A general collection without valuable stamps is probably covered by a
general household policy.



I finally heard back from my home insurance agency. I'm only insured up
to $250 - not enough. A rider is $0.70 a $100 value, thus $70 for
$10,000. Worst, they want an inventory and the collection to be stored in
a safe. With 18 International albums plus a few specialized that's pretty
much impossible. My Collectables insurance policy (Lloyds now) - doesn't
have such restrictions and covers $27,900 (evidently minimum default) for
$108. I'll stay with them. I'll have to email them and find out what sort
of inventory/listing they require for a claim - just in case.

Ken


--
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil." - Max Lerner

wrote in news:9e1b2beb-e42d-43ac-8a0a-
:

Hi Ken,

Look at this insurance agency. They used to be the Insurance agency
for the American Philaatelic Society. Since they have years of
experience insuraning stamp collections one should have no problems
making claims. Contact themto find out what you have to show to prove
ownership of stamps.

http://www.collectinsure.com/

Jerry B


I'm currently with them and intend now to renew. See my message in response
to Tony Clayton. The web site says an inventory is required for a claim (as
I understand it). I have to email them and find out the minimum value of
items required to be inventoried - I rashly assume not the common cheap
issues. I'll have to read the policy again first - perhaps it says. I'm
going to have to find some pricelists on the web with Google. My Scott
catalogs are hopelessly out of date and I don't intend to replace them.
$$$$$. They only go to 1990 and my collection stops at that point.

Ken


--
"When you choose the lesser of two evils, always
remember that it is still an evil." - Max Lerner

In a recent message KenK wrote:

Tony Clayton wrote in
:

A general collection without valuable stamps is probably covered by a
general household policy.



I finally heard back from my home insurance agency. I'm only insured up
to $250 - not enough. A rider is $0.70 a $100 value, thus $70 for
$10,000. Worst, they want an inventory and the collection to be stored in
a safe.

That seems to be common with home insurance policies, which is why,
like you, I use a specialist Collectables policy.

I do keep them in a lockable filing cabinet - anything that delays
a thief is no bad thing.

With 18 International albums plus a few specialized that's pretty
much impossible. My Collectables insurance policy (Lloyds now) - doesn't
have such restrictions and covers $27,900 (evidently minimum default) for
$108. I'll stay with them. I'll have to email them and find out what sort
of inventory/listing they require for a claim - just in case.

Ken



--
Tony Clayton
Coins of the UK : http://www.coins-of-the-uk.co.uk
Sent using RISCOS on an Acorn Strong Arm RiscPC
.... The worst thing about censorship is ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ.