How To Insure Stamp Collections

Stamp collecting is one of the most popular types of collectible hobbies, and something that most people start when they are young.

As a result, if you started collecting stamps when you were younger, then there is a good chance that you now have quite a large stamp collection, and maybe, even a valuable stamp collection!

In such a case, you may be thinking about safeguarding your collection with insurance. The good news is that your standard homeowners insurance policy will provide you with basic coverage.

The bad news however, is that this coverage tends to be quite limited in the protection that it offers you. Something that is especially true for large or valuable stamp collections.

If you are thinking of safeguarding your collection, then you should find this article very useful as we will tell you all the important things you need to know about how to insure stamp collections.

Insuring Stamps With Homeowners Insurance

A basic homeowners insurance policy provides a dollar limit coverage of up to $1000 per claim. This includes all the stamps that you own, so if you have a large or valuable collection, then you may want to consider taking out extended coverage to reduce the potential of future uninsured losses.

Generally, there are two main options available for those who are looking to insure their stamp collection with greater coverage: increasing the dollar limit and scheduling your collection, both of which can be taken out under your home insurance policy.

Lets look at each of these coverage options now and discuss the pros and cons of each. Then at the end of this article, we will list some of the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world that should be insured if you have them in your collection.

1) Dollar Limit Coverage

If the standard $1000 coverage limit provided under your homeowners insurance policy is not enough to cover your entire stamp collection, you can increase this limit to a higher amount to provide you with greater protection.

This will cost you extra in added premium costs, but your whole stamp collection will be insured and you will be protected against a much wider range of risks than that offered under your standard home insurance policy.

However, there are some disadvantages in using such an insurance strategy to insure your stamps with. The first is that you may have difficulties in receiving compensation from your insurance company in the event that you need to make a claim.

This usually occurs because the insurance company disputes the value of your collection, and is only willing to pay you a lesser amount than what you think your collection is actually worth. If you have rare stamps, getting an insurance claim can prove to be even more difficult as you will have to prove the value of your stamps which the insurance company may not agree with.

In addition to these drawbacks, you will not receive coverage against all forms of loss. As a result, if your stamps are damaged, lost or stolen and the cause was not listed on your insurance policy, or excluded from it, your insurance claim is likely to be denied.

So whilst increasing the dollar limit coverage on your stamp collection does increase the level of  protection you receive, it still leaves you vulnerable to many uninsured losses.

2) Scheduled Item Coverage

An alternative option to increasing the dollar limit coverage on your stamp collection is to schedule your stamps as a specific item listing under your home insurance policy.

The main advantage in doing so is that in order to receive such coverage, you must first get an appraisal done on your collection to determine the current market value of your stamps.

You can either do this yourself by looking at reference catalogues which list the value for all stamps produced to date, or you can hire an expert to do this for you.

The advantage of hiring an expert is that if you have quite a large collection, then valuing each item in your collection can be quite time-consuming. So hiring someone else to do it will help to save you a lot of time. Also, some insurance companies may not accept your valuation for large or expensive collections, and may require you to get a professional valuation in order for your stamps to be insured at a particular value.

Once you have determined the entire value of your collection, or the items you want to insure, this value is then given to your insurance company who will then add your stamp collection to your homeowners insurance policy providing they agree with the valuation given to them.

If you ever need to make a claim on your insurance, you will receive the full value of your stamps because you provided the value of them beforehand and insured them based on that amount. This can help to save problems with insurance claims later on, and is strongly recommended if you have rare stamps which may be difficult to value.

There is a disadvantage in using this insurance method however, and that is the lack of inflation coverage you receive from it. But before we discuss how to get around this lack of inflation coverage, it is worth mentioning another important point.

It is good practice when taking out insurance for any kind of valuable item to photograph the items you are insuring along with a record of their value.

This will help you to keep track of what you do have, and can also be used to prove to your insurance company what stamps were originally in your collection if you ever need to make a claim.

So as a general rule, just remember that the more evidence you can collect about what you do have and how much it is worth, the less problems you are likely to have with your insurance coverage later on.

Stamp Insurance Inflation Coverage

If your stamps increase in value every year, or every two years, you will only be insured for the old historic market value when you first insured your stamps.

So even though you may get full compensation if you make a claim, you won’t actually be getting compensated for the full present day value of your collection.

Fortunately, there is a way to get around this lack of inflation coverage. Providing you appraise the value of your collection each year and give the updated value to your insurer, you will be insured for the present day market value of your stamp collection.

Another advantage in using scheduled insurance for your collection is the extra coverage it provides you with against loss. Scheduled insurance will protect your collection against virtually all types of loss you can imagine, no matter how strange they are.

There will be a few exclusions listed on your policy, although in the large majority of cases, the coverage you receive should be more than adequate to safeguard your stamp collection.

Valuable Stamps Worth Insuring

Taking out an insurance policy costs money, so this is only something that you want to do if you have valuable stamps in your collection.

If you are a novice or beginner collector, you therefore probably don’t need to take out insurance for your collection because it will not be valuable enough to spend money on insuring.

There are some very valuable stamps however that are definitely worth insuring, such as those listed below which are considered to be some of the rarest and most valuable stamps in the world.

• One Penny Black Stamp (1840)
• The Two Penny Blue Stamps (1840)
• The ‘Mauritius Post Office Error’ Stamps (1847)
• Hawaii Missionary Stamps (1851)
• British Guiana 1-cent Magenta Stamp (1856)
• The New Brunswick stamp “Connell’s Folly” stamps (1859)
• The Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragu & El Salvador “Seebeck Reprints” stamps  (1889-1899)
• The China “Special Delivery” Issue stamp (1913-1914)
• The U.S. “Inverted Airmail” postage stamp (1918)
• The U.S. “Dag Hammarskjold Error” stamps (1962)
• The U.S. “Farley’s Follies” stamps (1935)
• Treskilling Yellow stamp (1855)
• Perot Provisional stamps (1848)
• Red Mercury Stamp (1856)
• Benjamin Franklin Z-Grill stamp (1868)
• Woodblock stamps (1861)
• Inverted Swan stamp (1855)
• Basel Dove stamp (1845)
• Cottonreel stamps (1850)
• Scinde Dawk stamp (1852)
• Inverted Head Four Annas stamp (1854)
• Uganda Cowries stamps (1895)
• Bluenose stamp (1929)
• Gronchi Rosa stamps (1961)

If you have any of the above mentioned items in your collection then get them insured immediately, and make sure that you keep them safe as their value is likely to increase over time!