A Quick Guide to Medal Insurance
One of the questions asked by collectors and others is “should I insure my collection of medals (coins, stamps” etc)? Well, all we can do is put the information in front of you and let you draw your own conclusions.
To begin with, some household policies will have a section about collections, which you inform them of when taking out the house insurance. Usually, they cover a collection up to a specific value, say for example, £1500.00 and any item with a value above £500.00 for example must be listed separately within this policy. So if you are a not a collector of medals per se, but have inherited the family collection and will not be adding to them it’s worth getting a valuation from a dealer and then talking to an insurance company if need be, as most will be covered under that heading. (Unless your person was for example, a Victoria Cross holder etc) With regards to a collector, or for that matter just the family custodian, if you acquire a group of medals do not split them up, with one medal going to Aunt Florence, and another to Uncle Jim, as it not only loses history, but the monetary value also goes down. Any information on a medal is worth keeping with the medal, photos, papers and the like, all build up a picture of whom, how and when.
As a collector, good record keeping is a must, for example knowing how much you paid, when purchased. The name, rank and number on any medal you have will help not only keep a value on your collection but also help if your items are ever stolen. This record keeping will also help you to decide if the value has or is approaching a point where you need to insure the collection under its own policy. Pictures of items are also a good idea giving you a visual record of your items, as well as should the worst happen, proof of ownership, and identification of items if they are recovered by the police.
Keeping your receipt of purchase is also a must, and keeping any catalogue listings of the items you purchased is also a good idea, as this all adds to the picture or history of the items as mentioned earlier.
Also, remember that most items will go up in value over the years and you may wish to increase the value of your collection with inflation, (as your policy will certainly go up).
Other factors to consider are:-
Will my policy cover me for moving, showing my collection to people, accidental loss/damage, as well as theft? These are just a few of the points worth considering when thinking about insurance.
Author-Bio:
The writer of this article is a self-publish and qualified freelancer possessing extensive knowledge on writing articles on British Army Medals and German War Medals on behalf of Jamie Cross Collectibles.
