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USPS insuring COINS???

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So, I have been buying/selling for a while now, and maybe spent 500 bucks in the last year/2 years on insurance for when I am shipping a coin, be it a shipment to NGC for grading, or a high dollar coin I sold via Ebay, and shipped to the buyer. Ive always read about folks talking about insuring coins and what not. I have even read stories/articles about a coin being lost in the mail, and covered by insurance. So, this brings us to yesterday, I take my batch of coins to USPS to ship to 3rd party grader. It is not the usual teller, and she asks about insurance, I request $5K insurance. She starts asking ?'s, and I eventually tell her they are "coins" worth every bit of $5K, and then some... She proceeds to tell me how the USPS does not insure coins, and that she is in the loss division, etc... etc.. etc... Eventually I look at the fine print, and yep. there is says... USPS DOES NOT INSURE COINS. Can anyone give me any insight on this??? I have spent hundreds insuring coins, but I cant even imagine large dealers and what they are spending on insurance to ship coins... is this true? Can they deny coverage after insurance is paid for because the item is a coin?

 

Thanks in advance...

 

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Rare coins are covered.

See section 4.1 G here where "coins of numismatic value" are mentioned.

 

Your experience is one of many, in which a postal clerk apparently didn't understand the difference between currency and rare/collectible coins.

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Yeah, I guess if the USPS covered currency coins, businesses that need cash and banks wouldn't send their money via armored truck. USPS shipping has got to be cheaper than armored truck. And if it's completely covered by insurance, it wouldn't matter if the money shipped was stolen.

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The USPS %s are much higher than private companies on insurance. It would be OK once in a while to use their insurance, but not as a dealer. As an example, Hugh Wood runs under $1000 a year for substantial shipping not requiring every parcel and the tracking # to be entered and they cover flat parcels, every valuable does not have to be shipped a box in a box.

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Too often, enthusiastic Postal Clerks confuse "money" (which you aren't supposed to send much less insure) vs "collectible numismatic coins.

 

I expect that the reason for not insuring "money", be it currency or coin, is directly related to the greed of certain unscrupulous individuals that would ship items and then claim that it carried 1,000 100 Dollar bills in an attempt to defraud the Postal Insurance Company.

 

Of course, this does not even address the fact that the postal clerk is not supposed to grill their customers over what might be contained in a parcel other than if it is "liquid, fragile, perishable, or Hazardous".

 

The customer has a "right" to use the public post office to ship and insure anything they like that is not "hazardous" since determination of value is left up to the appropriate insurance agent and not the lowly counter clerks which must really rag on their self conscious view of what their authority actually might be.

 

When pressed, I'll simply respond that it is not liquid, fragile, perishable nor hazardous but it most assuredly is my "private business".

 

Could you imagine a postal clerk wanting an explanation on exactly what you wrote in the Birthday Card to Aunt Alice and whether or not there might be a $100 gift certificate?

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Here are the rates for Ship and Insure:

 

Shipping Insurance Rates (U.S. Only)*

 

Carrier Cost/$100 Maximum

FedEx First Overnight $0.18 $75,000.00

FedEx Ground $0.23 $20,000.00

FedEx Priority Overnight $0.18 $75,000.00

FedEx Same Day $0.22 $15,000.00

FedEx Saver $0.24 $10,000.00

FedEx Standard Overnight $0.20 $75,000.00

FedEx Two Day $0.26 $15,000.00

FedEx Freight $1.35 $75,000.00

UPS Ground $0.26 $15,000.00

UPS Next Day Air $0.24 $75,000.00

USPS Priority Express $0.22 $75,000.00

USPS Registered $0.11 $75,000.00

USPS Priority $0.24 $10,000.00

https://www.shipandinsure.com/

 

Good system and there are competitors that do not have a yearly membership requirement as they do in NACA for $125 or so. All you have to do is enter salient details on the shipment my the midnight of the day the coins were shipped.

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You will note that Ship and Insure's lowest rates by far are if you ship by Registered Mail. They recognize the safety and security of that method over all the others.

 

I would also assume that those are their rates per $100 in value up to the stated amount.

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I really dislike the registered mail option except in the case of collectibles that have a much higher chance of theft; gold and platinum bullion, and $20 gold coin in quantity. As a result I have not used registered in years for coins as doing so is a royal pain in the neck compared to excellent alternatives, even the major auction companies rarely do registered with the brown tape, the slow shipping times, etc..

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