Korea Stamp Society

In an earlier article on finding certain issues of Korea, it was mentioned that this author has been searching for a Korea 1956 Scott 212E on horizontal laid paper for many years. See Figure 1 for an example of 212E on vertical paper. The Scott catalogue makes a note under 212D-F, that all three exist […]

With all the recent publications on the 1930s/1940s Christmas seals on the KSS website by Robert Finder one might forget that these Christmas seals are not only interesting from a historical point of view. They are actually still around, being published every year! However, most publicity is available only to a Korean speaking audience. To […]

Internet is where most people buy and sell stamps today. In the months leading up to the February 2019 US – DPRK summit in Hanoi, there were massive unloads of North Korean stamps on the internet. This presented a good entry point for beginning collectors like myself to acquire some early North Korean stamps. However, […]

This is a short refresher course on the 1895 Taegeuk series and the differences between the first and second printings. After the first short-lived attempt to issue postage stamps in 1884, Korea would not issue postage stamps again until 1895. The first postage stamps to be issued in ten years by Korea had the taegeuk […]

It has been known for some time that the DPRK had numerous stamps designed that were numbered in the Korea Stamp Corporation’s DPRK Stamp Catalogue. Some of these items were illustrated as unissued stamps, but other “others,” until this past year, were not illustrated at all. Why they were not illustrated (though numbered) prior to […]

The North Korean Government performed a drastic monetary devaluation on July 1, 2002, having dramatic influence on both domestic and international postal rates. However, how major the changes were and when they became effective were not known until several months after the changes. The purpose of this article is to convey the information obtained from […]

(Reader’s question/Q&A) I am student and collector of Pre-stamp postal history between USA and Asia. While I have found fair bit of literature on Pre-1860 postal history between USA and China and Japan, I have not been able to find any such information on mail between Korea and USA. I understand US churches including Baptist […]

While browsing Ebay I recently ran into a listing which I first thought had read incorrectly. It was the “The 80th Anniversary of the Victorious Battles in the Musan Area” set of stamps, with a date of publication of 22 May 2019. However, despite these stamps’ future day of issue here they were, available from […]

Question: what do railway tickets and stamps have in common? Answer: not much, unless they come in stationary made exclusively for the tickets. Which is what is shown, amongst all the tickets of course, in the “Korean Railroad Commemorative Ticket Traffic Card Catalogue”, published on March 26 2013. 

One of the most detailed catalogs for Korean stamps (not including the Korean Empire), was published for the first time in September, 1959 by Commander L.L. Dilley , USN (Ret.). Commander Dilley, seen here in a photo from World War II, was in the Cryptanalysis Section of Fleet Radio Unit Pacific (FRUPAC) based in Hawaii, […]

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 19 April 2019 KoreaPost released four stamps in the “Science in Korea” series. This is the 5th installment of that particular series of stamps showing Korean scientists and scholars of the past.

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 11 April 2019 KoreaPost released a stamp commemorating the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Provisional Government. The event commemorated with this stamp’s release is directly related to another event of 100 years ago, the March First Movement of 1919, also commemorated by a recent stamp release.

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has published a sheetlet containing two stamps showing the cap-badges of the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has published a 30 won stamp on the occasion of “Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s Official Goodwill Visit to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”