Insurance, and what your policy excludes

Unusual for this estate: the main exposure is the value of what you own rather than harm your product might cause.

Two different exposures

The collection, which is a concentrated, portable, high-value asset that a household policy almost certainly does not cover properly.

Liability, which here is mostly about people at your table and about ground you take people onto, rather than about the specimens.

Insuring the collection

Household contents policies typically cap collectibles at a low single-item and total limit, well below what a serious collection is worth.

A scheduled or specialist policy is the usual answer, and it requires exactly the thing this property keeps recommending: a catalog with values, and photographs.

Without that, a claim is a conversation about what you say you had.

Value it honestly and update it. A collection built over ten years is worth a multiple of what the original schedule said.

What the exclusions usually are

Away from the premises, which is every show you attend and every trip in the car. This is the one that catches dealers.

Breakage, which some policies exclude for fragile items, in a collection of brittle minerals that is a substantial carve-out.

Gradual deterioration, which excludes pyrite decay, efflorescence and fading. Insurance covers events, not chemistry, so the conservation pages are the only defense there.

Unspecified items above a per-item limit.

Business use, which a household policy may exclude entirely once you start selling.

Public liability

Needed for shows, and usually required by the organizer.

Needed if you take people collecting, which is a real exposure: loose ground, old workings and a heavy tool in somebody's hand.

And worth checking against what you actually do, because a policy written for a market stall may not cover a field trip.

References