Stamp Investment Tip: Samoa 1920 Victory Overprint (Scott #136-41)

   Samoa, an archipelago in the South Pacific, is interesting from a philatelic perspective, because it has issued stamps as an independent kingdom, a partially German colony, under New Zealand's administration, and as an independent state.

   Early in World War I, the islands under German domination were occupied by New Zealand troops, and stamps of New Zealand were overprinted for use in Samoa. In 1920, a Victory set was issued (Scott #136-41), by overprinting 30,000 of the New Zealand Victory sets (Scott #165-70). Scott '13 prices the unused set at $38.50.  Though I sometimes recommend expertization of scarce overprints, it's unnecessary in this case because the stamps are inexpensive and the basic New Zealand set is actually worth more than the overprinted one.

   While Samoa's population of just under 200,000 is probably too low to sustain a significant community of stamp collectors, the stamps issued during the kingdom period and as part of the British Commonwealth appeal to British Commonwealth collectors and collectors in New Zealand.

Those interested in viewing a list of scarce stamps with printing quantities of 100,000 or fewer may wish to view the StampSelector Scarce Stamp Quantities Issued List, which currently contains over 9,700 entries. Researching quantities issued data is vital to determining in which stamps to invest.