Your Home Insurance May Not Cover Your Gold’s Value
Your Home Insurance May Not Cover Your Gold’s Value
Rebecca Payne Moneywise Sun, January 11, 2026
The soaring price of gold means your home insurance may not cover its value. How to know if your pieces are safe in 2026 The price of gold has shot up this year, even hitting a record high in October. While that may be good news for investors, those who own gold jewelry might want to consider what climbing prices mean for the pieces sitting in their jewelry box at home.
Gold — and other precious metals such as platinum and silver — have been trading higher, with the price of the yellow metal jumping from around $2,658 at the start of January 2025, to a staggering $4,467 per troy ounce by the first full week of January 2026 (1).
The price of gold, referred to as the “spot price (2),” is the current sale price of a troy ounce (31.1 grams) of 24 karat gold.
Record highs
CNBC reported that the price of gold has climbed by about 1,400% since the year 2000, as compared to a 382% gain in the S&P 500 over the same time frame (3).
The climbing price of gold means that jewelry made of gold, gold coins or bars (or even other precious metals) has also increased in value. CNBC reports that the retail value of gold jewelry is generally higher than the metal used in the jewelry itself, depending on the quality of the piece and gold content (karats).
Because pure gold is quite malleable, it is often combined with other metals to make it more durable for use in jewelry (4).
But when it comes to insurance, the value of the metal will differ from the replacement value, which will typically be closer to the retail value, CNBC says. Their report warns that standard home or rental insurance typically has low coverage for jewelry.
According to insurance provider Policygenius, home insurance coverage for jewelry and for other high-value items is more limited than for other personal belongings.
In the personal property coverage section of your policy, you will find what perils your insurance covers, such as fire, weather-related damage or even theft (5).
However, insurers have a limit to what they will pay in the case of jewelry theft, called a special limit of liability, or sublimit. Standard policies have sublimits for jewelry theft of about $1,500 typically.
Also, check your policy to see whether your coverage has a sublimit per item, with a maximum that you would be paid per piece of jewelry, or a blanket jewelry sublimit, with a limit to how much you’ll receive in the event you lose all pieces of your jewelry collection.
TO READ MORE: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/soaring-price-gold-means-home-220000187.html