Korea Stamp Society

It should not come as a surprise that a specialized stamp society such as the KSS has among its membership quite a few highly specialized members. However, it does sometimes feel as if the KSS has more of those specialized members than quite a few other stamp societies. It is of course purely anecdotal, but […]

Originated in Denmark, Christmas seals have become a universal symbol of the fight against tuberculosis. A story that includes an important chapter by Dr. Sherwood Hall, ‘19, and his wife, Dr. Marian Hall, the former Marian Bottomley, ’22. Going to Korea as medical missionaries in 1926, they established that country’s first tuberculosis sanatorium, for which […]

The Stamp Museum of Pyongyang is housed in a specially built three-floor building next to the well-known Koryo Hotel in downtown Pyongyang. The front of the building is designed in the shape of a stamp. In front of the building stands a bronze statue of a dove holding a postcard while flying around the earth […]

Shown here are 5 covers sent between June and September 1950 to North Korea. Covers no. 1-4 were sent by Soviet citizens of Korean ethnicity to their relatives or friends, who were living in the territory of North Korea. The sender of the fifth cover is presumably the wife of a Soviet officer, who at […]

The look of Korean Philately (KP) has changed quite a bit in the last 70 years. There were many stages in the development of the covers of KP. The first KP was published by Harold D. Bearce, who was the first editor for the Korea Stamp Society (KSS), on October 1, 1951 with Albert L. […]

As I looking through my old Korean Philately magazines in preparation for the KP 70th anniversary issue of the Korea Stamp Society I came across something that I had not noticed before. On the back of a facsimile of the first KP issued on October 1, 1951, I found a summary of the KSS from […]

I spotted this on an archived Delcampe sold file of a highly-questionable Dealer located in France. In my fifty-five-plus years collecting, researching and specializing in Empire Korea material I have never seen, or heard, of this item. This sold for 300 Euros. Apparently, it is the same item that was discussed in this article on […]

In Spink’s auction of 12 January 2020 a rather strange item showed up. No, the type of item is not strange, stamp essays are quite commonly available. Actually, one might even say some essays are too common, just have a look at Willem van der Bijl’s article on the subject of North Korean “artworks” in […]

The South Korean government has been promoting the digitization of archives for several decades now. This is great for stamp collectors, as highly detailed information on South Korean postal and revenue stamps has come to light thanks to the efforts of South Korean archives. If you can read/write (type) Korean, a lot of information can […]

In the last few issues of KP and on the KSS website we have shown examples of album pages made and/or used by KSS members. Here we show the original KSS album pages, the pages as produced and for years marketed in Korean Philately by our long-time member David Phillips.

In early January 2021 the book “Buddhism on Stamps” was released by the Indian philatelist Mr. Lokeswara Rao (retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Nagaland, India). He spared no efforts in creating his book, as not only does the book come with an introduction by the current Chief Postmaster General, the book also contains […]

Philatelic items directly related to Korea are relatively rare in (international) auctions. Of course, there are these “collections” with albums packed with North Korean stamps from the 1970s and 1980s or the usual South Korean flag sheets and such, but occasionally interesting items do show up. Here are a few examples from two different auction […]