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 […]

(Including the mystery of which 1 won Bee design is the rarest one?) It is important to note that Mr. La’s design for the Children’s Savings stamp issue was used again from 1962-4. This is another series of the stamps that can be confusing to collectors because of the type of different paper used in […]

John Bull Stamp Auctions, Ltd. from Hong Kong has a cover in its “332nd Auction” (5 – 8 December 2019) which was sent in April 1891 from Mrs. Hunt in Fusan (Busan) to Mrs. Appenzeller in Seoul. The cover has a starting price of 1.000.000 HKD, which is approx. 127.500 US dollars or 115.000 EUR.

(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.

The other day Ivo Spanjersberg shared scans of the front and back of a letter envelope which was posted from Korea to the United States at the end of 1952. Ivo asked me why a non-military person could use military post? I didn’t have an answer to this and referred the question to my colleague […]

(Reader’s question) I have a question for readers of the KSS website. Many, if not most, of the 1960’s souvenir sheets from South Korea have gum creases or folds that are especially prominent on the gum side of the sheets. With scans, you can see some of the folds on the face of the souvenir […]

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”.