Korea Stamp Society

Every year since 1957, the Republic of Korea Post Office has issued New Year greeting cards, and since 1975 New Year envelopes, although these special envelopes have not been issued every year. In 1974, as a ‘one-off’, Korea Post issued a special New Year letter sheet. These New Year greetings stationery are issued for the […]

When new Souvenir Sheets come out, at the issuing post offices there is a line-up outside of the crowds of people who are trying to get them. At 8 .30 AM, a P. O. official will then come out and hand out slips of paper specially marked which allow the owner to then go in […]

On auction websites a lot of 1950s-1980s covers and postal cards show up with recognizable names on them. These items are not just Korean postal history, they show more than just that: they show Korean history. One example is the card shown in this article.

The second stamp in the series comparing genuine stamps to forgeries is the 10 Mon issued in 1884 – Stanley Gibbons #2; Scott #2; Minkus #2. Again, I am using the Brady-Tyler Handbook and stamp images and references shown on Pages 7 and 8. Colour images are primarily from MikeG, Canada – Stampboards.com. As with […]

(Translated by Warren Hahn from “Korean Stamps” July 1965) The original design of the airmail issue of 1952 (Scott #C6-8) consisted of a plane flying over the National Capitol Building in Seoul. However, when the Korean War necessitated the evacuation of Seoul, and the transfer of the seat of government to Pusan, the design was […]

In 1959 considering the importance of stamp design, the Ministry of Communications decided to employ full time designers and was able to obtain two well known designers. They were Messers. Choon Whan Kang and Tai Sung Kim. Mr. Kim resigned from the post after four months and Mr. Boo Young La took his place.

(Reader’s question) In a recent Ebay sale a set of pages was sold which are contain quite a lot of work done by someone in the past. These pages, 18 in total, show remarkably detailed research in sometimes very tiny differences within the same stamp series.

This set of four stamps, listed in the “Korean Stamp Catalogue” (the North Korean catalogue), sometimes shows up on English (Ebay, Delcampe) and Korean (Kobay, Narauction) language auction websites. What is noticeable about this small set is how the set is listed for relatively high prices.

One of the most challenging aspects of collecting Korean stamps is that there are many forgeries/counterfeits/fakes of both the stamps as well as the overprints and cancellations of the early “Empire” issues from 1884 to 1900. Very often, the stamps, overprints and the cancellations can all be forgeries. Fortunately, there are few or none known […]

(Our informal series on Korean album pages continues with this installment form KSS member Walter Swanson.) I am a member of Athens (Georgia, USA) Philatelic Society and before my retirement from teaching I was a member of Sunrise Stamp Club in Florida. I am #843 of Korea Stamp Society, since 1979, and Scandinavian Collectors Club […]

PostNews, one of the websites maintained in the KoreaPost family of postal websites, released images of the series of New Year greetings cards for 2020. The (Chinese/Korean) year 2020, starting on January 25 2020, is the Year of the (Metal) Rat. Several of the cards therefore show a rat/mouse, but other images are available.

The Korean National Tuberculosis Association interviewed the illustrator who created this year’s Christmas seals, Ahn Sol (안솔). The seals show the Haenyeo (해녀) of Jeju island, the women who dive for seafood around the coast of the island. Ahn Sol created the artwork for the seals while staying for a couple of months on the […]

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 2 December 2019 KoreaPost released two stamps celebrating the New Year and New Year’s Greetings. After the year of the pig, 2019, the year 2020 will be the Year of the (Metal) Rat according to the Chinese zodiac, which is why these two stamps depict rats.

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 27 November 2019 KoreaPost released two stamps commemorating that Korean falconry is a “UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. The stamps were released in a souvenir sheet showing 5 each of these two stamps making a total of 10 stamps of 380 won, the current standard postal rate.

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a series of four stamps portraying “cultural remains of the Korean nation” such as a “Pipha-shaped dagger and narrowshaped brass dagger” and an “Oxidized-copper incense burner at the Singye Temple”.

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has published a stamp series showing “Folk Customs of the Korean Nation”.