Give Your Valuables The Super Bowl Treatment

The New York Giants unveiled their Super Bowl XLII championship rings April 1 and they are no joke.

In January, just after the Giants upset the previously undefeated New England Patriots, seven-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan announced he wanted a “10-table ring,” – a ring that would catch your eye even ten restaurant tables away. His ring's 1.5 carats of encrusted diamonds should meet that standard. “There was some discussion about maybe one of the rings was too big,” said center Shaun O'Hara, who designed the ring with Strahan, quarterback Eli Manning and wide receiver Amani Toomer. (The players also had some help from Tiffany & Co. (TIF)“I threw out the fact that it was a big win, it was a huge win, so the ring should be designed accordingly.”

The Giants will be presented with the rings later this spring. In the meantime, they might want to consider how to protect them. A traditional homeowner’s policy only covers up to $1,000 and increasing the limit is the cheapest way to get more coverage. However, there is often a ceiling around $5,000 on the loss of an individual item, not nearly enough to protect a prized Super Bowl ring, which costs about ten times that to produce. Purchasing an individual policy has higher premiums, but protects the true value of the piece of jewelry against loss.

When insuring your own jewels, make sure to specify if you want world wide coverage. Some policies don’t automatically include international loss, so it is important to check. The Chubb Group’s (CB) valuable articles policy not only covers “mysterious disappearance” and breakage, but has a “pairs and sets” clause that will replace the value of both items in a pair, like diamond earrings, even if only one is lost. Their valuable article coverage also contains a clause for newly acquired items, so if you purchase or receive a piece of jewelry and lose it before contacting your insurance agent, you automatically have up to 90 days of coverage.