CRYING FOR ARGENTINA – PHILATELICALY


Author - Richard Lehmann | Sunday, 08 September 2019

In history, few things repeat themselves as frequently as financial crises in Argentina.  They’ve had a dozen since Juan Peron took power in the 1930’s and established a political movement that has dominated that country for most years since.  At present, the country faces another return to power by the Peronist party which is having a significant impact on the remittance of funds into and out of the country.  The country has also, again, defaulted on a debt payment.  This time it involves debt issued to refund a previous default.  The Argentine people face having their savings frozen into devaluations and massive inflation.  In short, the need for an underground currency is once again on the rise.  So, what does this mean for collectors of that country’s stamps and for investors looking for stamps with investment potential?

As we have pointed out in the analysis of similar situations where the political and financial outlook of a country deteriorates, stamps take on a heightened importance since they are one of few safe-harbor assets which are locally available, portable and not subject to government actions by fiat.  Let’s examine how well Argentine stamps have done historically.  StampFinder® has been tracking and evaluating stamps from an investment perspective since 1995.  For Argentina, we track some 568 stamps of higher value.  For the last 25 years the mint issues appreciated 137% and the used 119%.  Also, 86% showed increases versus 14% with zero or small decreases.  These results are attractive in a variety of ways.  For investors seeking a safe-haven asset, these results of 5.48% and 4.76% appreciation per year are very attractive.  For collectors who are generally missing the higher value items, now is the time to acquire such stamps because dealers rely on the Scott Catalogue for guidance on pricing and that catalogue appears to not have done a general review of these stamps in a decade.  Such a review will boost prices to reflect increasing demand.  The increased demand will come from Argentinians who will be buying up these stamps and using them to preserve their wealth.

The soft spot in demand will be in the modern lower priced Argentine material since residents tend to buy at the post office thinking they will be able to preserve the value of their savings in this way.  It never works, it only creates a glut of material that can never appreciate; witness the stamps of Germany from the early 1920s and Brazil from the 1950s.  Even United States stamps issued since the 1940’s sell for less than their face value.    

Below is a selection of Argentine stamps priced below $1000 which have been top performers:

Scott #

Type (M)int (U)sed

  25Yr  % Appreciation

7c

M

1300%

O6a

M

1233%

53a

M

566%

54b

M

566%

49b

M

515%

62a

M

445%

66a

M

400%

59c

M

372%

49c

M

354%

67

M

338%

51c

U

550%

96b

U

400%

O9a

U

270%

O23a

U

253%

7a

U

233%

O2a

U

220%

41c

U

214%

9

U

206%

O16a

U

196%

57a

U

170%


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