The SMS Bismarck was a German cruiser that served as flagship of the Imperial German East Asia Squadron and was stationed at Apia, Samoa, before the outbreak of World War I. When war was declared in August 1914, the German colonial administration in Samoa surrendered to a New Zealand expeditionary force after just four days — one of the earliest Allied occupations of the war. The irony of a Samoan coin commemorating a German warship tied to that colonial loss is not lost on serious collectors of Pacific numismatics.
The SMS Bismarck was a German cruiser that served as flagship of the Imperial German East Asia Squadron and was stationed at Apia, Samoa, before the outbreak of World War I. When war was declared in August 1914, the German colonial administration in Samoa surrendered to a New Zealand expeditionary force after just four days — one of the earliest Allied occupations of the war. The irony of a Samoan coin commemorating a German warship tied to that colonial loss is not lost on serious collectors of Pacific numismatics.