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Bullion Insurance Homeowners vs Scheduled: What's Covered
Bullion insurance homeowners vs scheduled coverage: why standard policies cap or exclude coins, and how endorsements, appraisals and floater limits really work.
Bullion insurance homeowners vs scheduled coverage is the decision most holders eventually face: keep leaning on the policy you already own, or list the metal on its own schedule. Here is how the two contracts differ, what each pays after a loss, and what neither one does.
What to take away
- A standard U.S. homeowners policy (ISO HO-3 form) treats bullion as money or bullion, and most carriers exclude it or cap it near $200 to $500.
- A scheduled personal property endorsement, sometimes called a personal articles floater, insures listed items at agreed value with no deductible.
- A blanket rider covers a category up to a stated limit without itemizing each coin, but it usually requires an appraisal.
- None of these forms removes the paperworkyou still need receipts, dated photographs, and a safe place to store the metal.
What is being compared
Two insurance products get confused constantly. One is the homeowners policy you already own. The other is a scheduled endorsement bolted onto that policy or written as a stand-alone floater.
Homeowners vs Scheduled Coverage
Homeowners policy (base)
- Bullion treatment
- Excluded or $200–$500 sub-limit
- Valuation basis
- Actual cash or replacement cost
- Deductible
- Applies
- Appraisal required
- No
- Perils covered
- Named perils, theft limited
- Premium basis
- Bundled into base policy
Scheduled personal property
- Bullion treatment
- Named items at agreed value
- Valuation basis
- Agreed value at appraisal
- Deductible
- Usually $0
- Appraisal required
- Yes, every 2–3 years
- Perils covered
- Broader, mysterious disappearance
- Premium basis
- Per $1,000 scheduled value
They differ in how they value the metal, what they pay after a loss, and what paperwork they demand up front. The table below sets out the criteria that decide which one fits your holdings.
Homeowners policy (base)
- Typical bullion treatment
- Excluded as money, or sub-limit near $200 to $500
- Valuation basis
- Actual cash value or replacement cost, subject to limit
- Deductible
- Applies
- Appraisal required
- No
- Perils covered
- Named perils, theft included with limits
- Premium basis
- Bundled into the base policy
Scheduled personal property
- Typical bullion treatment
- Named items covered at agreed value
- Valuation basis
- Agreed value set at appraisal
- Deductible
- Usually $0
- Appraisal required
- Yes, often every 2 to 3 years
- Perils covered
- Broader, including mysterious disappearance
- Premium basis
- Per $1,000 of scheduled value
Ranges above are illustrative of common U.S. carrier practice, not quotes. Your declarations page and the actual endorsement language control.
Reading the exclusion that matters
The base policy is the problem. Standard forms list money and bullion alongside securities and deeds, and cap the whole category at a few hundred dollars. A tube of American Gold Eagles can blow past that cap in one purchase.
Some carriers add an optional endorsement that raises the sub-limit to $1,000 or $2,500, but that still leaves a serious stack uninsured.
Ask for the declarations page and endorsement form number, then read the loss settlement clause; agreed value pays the schedule number. Replacement cost pays what it takes to buy the same coin today, higher or lower.
A homeowners policy is not bullion coverage. It is a small courtesy limit attached to a policy built for furniture and drywall.
Who regulates the carrier
Insurance in the United States is regulated by the states. Every state insurance department is listed in the directory kept by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), which is where you confirm that a carrier is licensed to write the coverage where you live and check its record of complaints before you pay a premium.
Option by option
Scheduled personal property. You list each item, submit an appraisal, and the carrier insures the schedule at agreed value. This is the cleanest fit for graded coins, key dates, and large bars. It costs more per dollar of coverage and creates paperwork every time you buy or sell. Add a coin and you must endorse the policy.
Three Bullion Insurance Options
Scheduled personal property
- Listing
- Item-by-item
- Payout
- Agreed value per item
- Appraisal
- Required
- Best for
- Graded coins, key dates
- Paperwork
- Endorse each buy/sell
Blanket rider
- Listing
- Category only
- Payout
- Up to stated ceiling
- Appraisal
- Standard
- Best for
- Changing working stack
- Paperwork
- Minimal
Stand-alone floater
- Listing
- Item or category
- Payout
- Per policy terms
- Appraisal
- Required
- Best for
- Split storage, specialty carrier
- Paperwork
- Separate deductible and renewal
Blanket rider. The carrier covers a category, say all gold coins, up to a stated ceiling. No item-by-item listing, but the ceiling is the whole payout. If your holdings grow past it, you are underinsured and may not notice. Appraisals are still standard.
Stand-alone floater. Written outside the homeowners policy, often through a specialty carrier. Useful when the base insurer will not write bullion at all, or when you store metal away from home. Expect a separate deductible and a separate renewal date.
Where each one wins
Schedule when you own a small number of high-value pieces and want agreed value with no deductible. A collector with five graded $20 Saint-Gaudens doubles fits here.
Which Coverage Fits Your Holdings
Do you own a few high-value graded pieces?
Schedule with agreed value and no deductible
Is your stack size changing month to month?
A blanket rider wins for a working stack that changes size month to month. You trade precision for simplicity, and you accept a hard ceiling.
A stand-alone floater wins when storage is split between a home safe and a depository. Metal held in a commercial vault sits under different controls and different access than metal in a bedroom safe, and insurers price that difference into the quote.
Before you bind anything, know your all-in cost basis. The break-even method is arithmetic, not theory: add premium, storage, and shipping to what you paid for the metal, then compare that total against what a sale would net. A premium that looks small next to a large stack can still turn a gain into a loss.
What none of them solve
No policy pays on a loss you cannot document. Carriers want purchase receipts, serial numbers where they exist, and dated photographs. A safe deposit box helps, but the box itself is not insured by the bank, as the background on safe deposit boxes makes clear.
No policy covers confiscation, government seizure, or a dealer who never delivers. Those are counterparty risks, not insurable perils. Checking a dealer before you wire money matters more than the endorsement form, which is why dealer due diligence belongs in the same conversation.
Finally, none of these products resolve tax treatment. A theft loss and a sale are different events, and the IRS instructions for Form 8949 govern how dispositions get reported.
A practical checklist before you call a carrier
- Photograph every coin, bar, and sealed tube with a dated card in frame.
- Keep purchase invoices in a location separate from the metal.
- Get a written appraisal, following the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), from a personal property appraiser such as one accredited by the American Society of Appraisers, for anything you schedule.
- Read the declarations page for the money and bullion sub-limit.
- Check the carrier's license and complaint record with your state insurance department.
- Re-check scheduled values every 2 to 3 years as spot moves.
