[NHCOLL-L:2467] Re: Herbarium insurance estimation

[Panza, Robin]

Just remember--when an insurance company pays a claim on something that's destroyed but still physically present (i.e., fire or flood damage, not theft), the insurance company generally keeps the item they paid for.  From their point of view, you keeping the item and getting the replacement money on it is having your cake and eating it, too.  That's part of the "Catch 22" of insuring natural history specimens.  The other two parts are the irreplaceability of a specimen (even another collected from the same place is not the same) and the fact that most specimens have no *commercial* value (what insurance companies use to determine value).

Robin

Robin K Panza
Section of Birds, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh  PA  15213-4080
ph:  412-622-3255;     fax:  412-622-8837
PanzaR at CarnegieMNH.org