[NHCOLL-L:115] re: insuring shipments of specimens? -Reply

[Steve Tunnicliff]

Allison Anderson, Austin, Texas wondered:
>I'm wondering about other collections' policies regarding insuring
shipments of specimens. <

I rely on the people in the post room to know what is the best mode of
delivery for a particular destination. On the grounds that what is
needed if something goes astray is to be able to find it, I always ask
them to use some kind of traceable delivery service. 

No amount of insurance can replace a lost type specimen or repair a
damaged one, so I tend to forgo insurance in favour of being able to
track the package, unless the two go together.

Experience has shown that as soon as you insure a specimen, it
effectively assumes a monetary value.  If you are sending specimens
abroad, or worse still if someone is sending a specimen back to you
with a suggested value, you may find that you have to pay duty on it
to get your own material out of bond unless the sender has taken care
of this.

This has certainly happened to us when specimens were being returned
to us from US and a nominal value was indicated for insurance. We tend
to use a form of words like "Irreplaceable scientific material of no
commercial value. Please send by traceable method".

Steve Tunnicliff
Curator, Palaeontology Collections
British Geological Survey,
Keyworth,
Notts.
NG12 5GG
U.K.

Tel. 0115 936 3517
Fax 0115 936 3200
s.tunnicliff at bgs.ac.uk