Korea Stamp Society

This author has been very fortunate to have discovered a new cover with Dr. Sherwood Hall’s Korea 1940 unissued Tuberculosis/Christmas and New Year Seal. It had been listed on eBay and I was very lucky to obtain it by auction. The last update on this 1940 Korea seal was discussed in the article on the […]

Preface: This series of articles derive from discussions among several KSS member collectors. Some of them are interested in collecting Korean (and Japanese) philatelic items but feel confused in distinguishing different surcharges of early Korean postal stationeries since they cannot read Hanja and Hangul. See here for part I about the usage of these cards […]

Outside the USSR, after 1946 field post correspondence was only used by Soviet troops in occupied territories (e.g., Korea, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, etc.). Registered letters sent through field post offices after 1946 are extremely rare and normally have NO censor mark. Moreover, no international letters sent with Field Post cancellations from the Russian army […]

One of our readers, Jordan, sent scans of four complete sheets of North Korean stamps asking what we know about these particular stamps. The first thing to do when answering such questions is to look through either the “Korean Stamp Catalogue 1946-2015” (if the stamps were issued before December 2015) or on the Korea Stamp […]

Collectors of North Korea (DPKR) should have noticed that there is another Chollima stamp that was issued for the 2020 New Year (Stamp KSC5232, 10 won, “Under the uplifted banner of self-reliance”). It was already shown in the article issued on the KSS website on January 1, 2020. It was issued with both perforated and […]

What follows is an update on my article of 1996 about the investment potential of South Korean stamps. In 1972 (when stamps were touted as investments) Linn’s Weekly Stamp News and others started “Investment Suggestions” which is now called the “Tip of the Week”. In about 1980 Linn’s began a “Trends of Stamp Values” which […]

Come On!!! (A “shout out” popularized by the Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt). Surely at least one of our Korea Stamp Society (KSS) members has some used North Korean stamps that they would like to share with one of our newer members, Paul Scholtens! On December 5, 2020 we published a short article (put in […]

On the KSS Facebook page someone asked about the KSC195 (Stalin Street): “Is it possible to identify the type of bus?” That’s actually a great question! And also an intriguing challenge. So, we had a look around for an answer. Turns out with a bit of research we actually managed to discover the (very probable) […]

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.

Much has been written on the logistics, causes, and effects of the Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953). Charles Armstrong was correct to assert that the Cold War was a campaign of propaganda and psychological warfare,1 with the Korean War being no exception. It was not just a physical conflict, it was […]

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 […]

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 4 April 2021 KoreaPost issued a set of stamps showing parts of a large classical Korean folding screen, with the individual images of the screen used for the designs of individual stamps. The whole series was also issued in a souvenir sheet, which shows the whole screen.

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 25 March 2021 KoreaPost issued a set of three stamps showing aircraft produced in Korea. Last year’s series showed helicopters produced by Korea Aerospace Industries, this year shows a combination of types of aircraft: the T-50B jet, the KUH-1 helicopter and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) RQ-101. Interestingly, the […]

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) On 7 April 2021 the Korea Stamp Corporation issued a set of a stamp and a souvenir sheet commemorating the “60th Anniv. of Pukchong Enlarged Meeting of the Presidium of the WPK Central Committee”. The text the KSC released for this issue states: “Pukchong Enlarged Meeting of the […]

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) On 24 March 2021 the Korea Stamp Corporation issued a set of stamps showing animals. These animals are all indigenous to the Korean peninsula. The set of four stamps come in the same value, 30 (DPRK) won each, and are available in sheets as well. At the same […]