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Let's just hope they don't lose it in Tahiti, because some metal detectorist in the future would have a hell of a job explaining how a Northumbrian styca found its way to the middle of the Pacific.

The postal service. I sent a package to somewhere south of Paris before Christmas which has gone awol. It turned up today............... in Tahiti.

In my opinion, Freeman number will always be the prime definition of variety detail but, because it will become increasingly out of date, it will have more and more omissions. Gouby tends to fill these gaps and his identification system is flexible enough to allow endless introductions and his Victorian penny book is the most exhaustive in terms of listing the different varieties which collectors would pursue and label their coins to. Other publications tend to take the difference in varieties to ever more esoteric and trivial (?) levels of detail but which do provide the collector with something to look out for during periods of coin drought. So, what do people collect ? My theory is that the more money one has to spend on one's collection, the more one concentrates on the "major" varieties, i.e. Freeman and Gouby's original Bronze Penny list (i.e. without the numerous minor date differences etc). The less affluent collector will tend to pursue the esoteric/trivial "varieties" because many of them go unnoticed and can be obtained at less expense. This is my opinion and I may be quite wrong. If I am right, them there won't be much money for the dealer in seeking out these varieties as they won't realise huge prices. I'm basically a Freeman man myself.

Not back to square one, but it leaves you open to accusations of under or over insurance. Probably not something to worry about too much given a coin can sell for quite a spread above and below a nominal 'book' price. Prices generally aren't going to change by more than a few percent year on year except for the current favourites. Basically an insurance company is only trying to ensure that you aren't claiming for multiples of an item's true worth. If the actual value of your collection is something you obsess about, you will buy the latest price reference just to satisfy your curiosity. At this point, you would, or should, know whether the value is out of line with cover. It all becomes irrelevant if people manage their affairs in a tidy manner and keep proper records, as you can then counter claims of over insurance by pointing out the description which matches a figure in a book, and similarly a cost price for a given item if unadjusted for changes.

Whilst insurance is a good idea, I'd also say that however good your policy is, it's not going to be able to replace the actual items you have lost, which, dependent on your collection, may have taken decades to build up, and would take decades to replace. The trick is to find a safe and environmentally sound hiding place, so that in the event of a house break, other things get nicked, but your collection remains unfound by the thieving scrotes who have broken in. Easier said than done, but I suppose the mantra would be to use your nous and imagination.

Most dealers will carry out valuations, but it depends on what you want to insure it for. If to cover replacement at cost, then it would obviously be necessary to provide evidence of that cost. If insured to current market values based on reference tomes, then a regular review of the insured sum will be required and bear in mind that could go both up and down from year to year. In terms of cost, that will depend pro-rata on the number of items to be valued as the time required for each coin would not be wildly different. In terms of cost, time is money, so an hourly rate based on the average wage plus expenses is a reasonable ballpark figure. Insurance companies will allow you to change valuations during the year, usually accompanied by an adjustment in premium. Keeping images of the collection would be good for proof of ownership if recovering property, but a chocolate teapot in terms of proving that you paid £xxx for it. I offer receipts for sales at fairs, but less than 10% of buyers want one, You are not alone. In terms of insurance premiums, the specialist insurers will generally want 0.5% of the sum insured as a premium. There's an element of swings and roundabouts in how the premiums are apportioned, but the total rarely diverges by much.

Well I just went to your link, Matt, and watched the video about the new £1 coin. It was actually very well produced and informative I thought. I am intrigued as to precisely what the hidden top secret security feature is though. The big date is 28th March, and I think he said we have until the end of October to spend all the old ones, before they are demonetised. The total weight of the ones produced for circulation since 1983, is equivalent to the weight of 6000 elephants.