With a collection you are not insuring individual items but a series: the policy has to set out what happens to the whole if one piece disappears from it.
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In brief
You insure a collection on the basis of an inventory list with values, or for larger collections on a valued total amount with a separate specification of the key pieces. That is a different system from a single valuable item: the insurer accepts a collection as a whole and imposes requirements on the records you keep.
Two provisions make the difference here. The additions clause provides that new purchases are automatically included up to a limit, with notification afterwards within a set period. The partial loss arrangement sets out what happens if one piece disappears from a series: without that provision the insurer pays only for the stolen piece, while the rest of the series has fallen in value.
Outside the cover are a falling market for your collecting field and any form of gradual deterioration through damp, light or vermin. If you buy in order to sell on, you are no longer a collector but a dealer. That is a commercial risk and a different policy. You can read more about the underlying type of policy under valuables insurance.
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
The essentials
Comprehensive
The collection as a whole or described per key piece.
Theft and fire
Damage
Worldwide
The clause
Additions
New acquisitions automatically included up to an amount.
Notification afterwards
A limit per year
Keep an inventory list
The difference
Partial loss
The loss in value of the series if one piece disappears.
The series is no longer complete
Not every policy covers this
Decisive with coins and series
What is covered
Situation
With partial damage
Without
Theft of the whole collection
Yes
Yes
Theft of one piece from a series
Yes
Yes
The resulting loss in value of the series
Yes
No
A new acquisition not yet declared
Sometimes
No
Deterioration through damp or light
No
No
A fall in market value
No
No
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
Without an additions clause every acquisition is uninsured
A collection grows between two policy years, and the sum insured does not grow with it by itself. The additions clause absorbs that: new purchases are covered up to an agreed limit, provided you declare them within the period stated. If you buy above that limit, for example a whole lot at auction, you have to report it in advance. Note purchases on the day itself; reconstructing afterwards what came in when rarely works convincingly.
Partial loss: what the series loses, not the piece
If one coin disappears from a complete run of years or one volume from a signed series, the loss is greater than that one item. The rest is no longer complete and therefore fetches less. Only with an arrangement for partial loss or pair value does the insurer pay that difference. Ask about it expressly for anything collected in series. With individual, mutually independent pieces the provision has little meaning.
The inventory list is your evidence
After a burglary or fire you have to show what was there. With one painting you can do that from memory, with thousands of items you cannot. Keep a list with a description, date of purchase, provenance, condition and value, with photographs per piece or per drawer. Keep that list digitally and away from the home. Insurers often make this a condition of acceptance, and without a list a claim on the collection as a whole becomes almost impossible to handle.
Collecting becomes trading without your noticing
If you buy duplicates to swap or sell on, you are moving towards trading stock. For the insurer that is a different risk: a higher turnover rate, transport to fairs and a commercial interest. A personal valuables policy does not cover that, and staying silent affects the duty of disclosure in Article 7:928 of the Dutch Civil Code. If your collection becomes partly a trade, report it and have the stock part placed separately.
A valuation is only a valuation with the right basis of value
For protection against underinsurance, the report must be drawn up as referred to in Article 7:960 of the Dutch Civil Code, with the additional provision on value. A dealer's value statement does not always meet that requirement. The amount is then fixed for the term of the valuation. If the valuation has expired at the time of the loss, you fall back on market value.
In the event of loss or theft, the first question is whether the item existed and what it was worth. Keep the purchase invoice with the serial number, the valuation report, the box and the papers, and photograph everything from several angles. Store that digitally and not only at home; after a fire or burglary that is often the only evidence left.
What does your premium depend on?
Total valued amount. The sum of the inventory list or the valued total amount.
Type of collection. Coins and stamps call for different conditions from models or memorabilia.
Where it is kept and security. A display cabinet, a safe or a separate room, and its alarm grade.
Room for additions per year. The limit within which new purchases are automatically included.
Partial loss included. Cover for the loss in value of a series that is no longer complete.
Fairs and exhibitions. Taking pieces to swap meets or exhibitions increases the risk.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
How we arrange it
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With a large collection, usually not. You then work with a valued total amount and specify only the key pieces above an agreed value. You support the rest with your inventory list. Do keep that list up to date: with partial damage it is the only document with which the loss adjuster can establish what was missing and what it was worth.
What exactly is an additions clause?
It is the provision that automatically includes new purchases up to a set amount, on condition that you report them within a stated period. That way you are covered from the moment of purchase and not only after an amendment to the policy. If a purchase exceeds the limit, you have to report it in advance. Without that notification the excess falls outside the cover.
One piece from my series has been stolen. What is paid?
As standard, only the value of that one piece. The fall in value of the rest of the series, because it is no longer complete, is only added if partial loss is included. In collecting fields where completeness determines the price, that difference is considerable. Have it recorded on the application which series are treated as a unit.
Am I insured if I take pieces to a swap meet?
Only if you have declared it. The collection was accepted for the place of storage you named. On the way and at a fair a different risk applies, with the chance of pickpocketing and of items being switched. Insurers include a separate section for that with an amount of its own and sometimes with requirements about leaving a display case unattended.
Read more
Within Art on home contents or valuables insurance
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