That was an exciting year! We went from a proposal to shut down the KSS for good in January/February to creating a completely new website and having new members (welcome!) plus a new KSS Board. In the meantime we have created an online library of all the issues of Korean Philately magazine, filled the website with as many articles as possible and have even started on new print publications. That’s a lot of activity in just one year!
It’s the completely new articles put online, often by authors who had (almost) never before published anything about Korean philatelic subjects, which I would like to introduce here first. These authors are Chen Yi-Fu, Robert Finder, Maynard Redeker, Stewart Steres and Yi Yong Sok.
Some examples of these articles are shown below, grouped by subject. Please note that some of these articles are part of a series, of which individual parts will continue to be published in 2019.
DPRK Domestic versus International printing
Domestic printing versus international printing of DPRK stamps (I)
Domestic Printing Versus International Printing Of DPRK Stamps (II)
Domestic Printing Versus International Printing Of DPRK Stamps (III)
Other DPRK related subjects
ROK Souvenir Sheets
Korean Christmas Seals
Story of the Rarest Korean Christmas Seal and the Japanese Military Confiscation before WWII in 1940
How the Korean Seals Began in 1932 And How to Determine the Differences between the 1936 Reprint
ROK Booklets
Other Korean subjects
Do These Korean Stamps Really Exist? Time for a Quick Update.
Reprinted articles
Besides these new articles several articles by KSS members Anthony Bard and Ken Clark were reprinted on this website. Kevin Mackeown created new graphics for some of his articles previously published in the KSS publication Korean Philately. One example from each of these authors:
North Korean postal history during the Korean War 1950-1953 (I)
Post WWII and the use of Japanese Showa stamps in North Korea
Also of note
Several KSS members did a lot of work completing other parts of the website:
- Note Robert Finder’s work on scanning 200+ individual issues of Korean Philately. These are now online and readily available for members to read!
- Also note the work done by Stewart Steres, John Talmage and Robert Finder scanning all those publications from the past. Members can now read monograms and handbooks of the past as PDF’s. More coming in 2019!
Some examples of these scanned publications publications online already:
Download (KSS members only) “Philatelic handbook for Korea, 1884-1905” by Helen Zirkle
Download (KSS Members Only): “The Christmas-Tuberculosis Seals of Korea”
Download (KSS members only): “Monograph 3: The Postal History of the Korean War 1950-1953”
Thank you!
A special thanks therefore to all the people who did all this work for the KSS in 2018!
Ivo Spanjersberg
(KSS chairman 2018-2019)
PS: if I have forgotten to mention you I am sorry, but that was not on purpose. It’s just that so many people did so many things!
