Korea Stamp Society

Buyer Beware: The 1948 Observatory Issue and 1951 Surcharge

January 29, 2020September 5, 2019 Robert (Bob) Finder13629 Comments

Another Korean issue that confuses collectors and dealer alike is the 1948 issue that pictures the Cheomseongdae Observatory, (Hangul: 첨성대) in Gyeongju, South Korea. The tower is said to be the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia, and maybe in the world, according to Wikipedia. It was built during the reign of Queen Seondeock of Silla, […]

Christian Literature Society correspondence illustrates different surface mail cachets

January 28, 2020January 21, 2020 James H. Grayson1196Leave a Comment

A series of covers, recently offered for sale on Ebay, show another interesting piece of Korean missionary history. The Christian Literature Society of Korea (대한 기독교 서회) was and is a major publisher and bookseller in Korea, and dates back to the earliest years of Protestant Christian missions. It is an ecumenical organisation as is […]

Two Examples of the Often Faked Cancellations of the First Two Korean Stamps of 1884

January 27, 2020January 28, 2020 Florian Eichhorn11938 Comments

Normally mint stamps are worth more than used stamps. One notable exception to this philatelic rule is the often faked cancellations of Korea’s first two stamps issued in 1884, the 5 and 10 mun values. As these two stamps were used for just a few days because of a riot/revolution that burned down the Korean […]

Korean paquebot covers (1954) Part III: The captains and the Busan fires

January 25, 2020May 17, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1017Leave a Comment

This is the final installment of a series of articles which started with a text from Talbert B. Fowler from August 1954 as Part I and some background information to an activity started by Milbury named the Sea-Jug Post as Part II. In this part we look at Busan during the Korean War and learn […]

KSC5235: Sweet Brier

January 24, 2020January 26, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1282Leave a Comment

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a stamp and a so-called entire showing sweet brier. The 10 won stamp, published on 24 January, coincides with the release of a 10 won stamp showing the national tree of North Korea, the pine tree (KSC5233), and another 10 won stamp […]

KSC5234: Bamboo

January 24, 2020January 26, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1048Leave a Comment

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a stamp and a so-called entire showing bamboo. The 10 won stamp, published on 24 January, coincides with the release of a 10 won stamp showing the national tree of North Korea, the pine tree (KSC5233).

KSC5233: Pine Tree

January 24, 2020January 26, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1414Leave a Comment

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) The Korea Stamp Corporation has issued a stamp to “reflect the pine tree, national tree of the DPRK. The pine tree is an evergreen conifer of the family Pinaceae which grows on a vast area below 800m above sea level except the northern highlands of the Korean peninsula. […]

New Discovery of Two Very Rare Covers with Dr. Hall’s Unissued 1940 Korea Tuberculosis/Christmas Seals

January 23, 2020April 26, 2020 Robert (Bob) Finder1370Leave a Comment

There was recently an exciting find by a reader of the Korea Stamp Society’s (KSS) webpage. Mr. Edwin Burgoyne, who has been researching information on old covers that were part of his wife’s (Alison) missionary family’s collection, read the articles about Dr. Sherwood Hall’s TB/Christmas and New Year’s seals. He especially noticed the article about […]

Korean Philately Vol. 54 No. 1 (Q1 2020)

January 22, 2020February 4, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg14614 Comments

For the first time in 7 years the KSS has published a new edition of the KSS magazine, Korean Philately. Our magazine has been published since 1952, first simply as a few typed and copied sheets but later on as an A5 (booklet) sized magazine and more recently as a US Letter sized magazine. This […]

Revenue stamps in album pages?

January 21, 2020March 5, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg1574Leave a Comment

What started with a simple article about someone’s stamp album pages has since become quite a series. So far however all the album pages shown by members are used to store and show postal stamps. Fiscal stamps, or revenue stamps, are a completely different story.

The coming of the zip numbers

January 20, 2020November 20, 2019 Lyman Hale9151 Comment

June 1970 saw the establishment of “zip” numbers in Korea. The provinces are divided up into postal areas as can be seen by the map. Seoul and Kyong-Gi Province have postal numbers from 100 to 180. Kang-Won Province uses numbers from 200 to 250, The two Chung-Chong Provinces use 300 to 390. The Chollas and […]

The story behind the 2010 dinosaur overprint issue

January 18, 2020November 17, 2019 Per-Olof Jönsson1166Leave a Comment

For the International Youth Stamps Collectors’ Exhibition Europhila 2010 on October 2-3, 2010 in Stockholm, the KSC agreed to issue a special overprinted exhibition sheetlet as well as one overprinted postcard and one overprinted entire. Organizer of the Europhila Expo was the Swedish Stamp Youth, the Stockholm district, SFU. 25 children and youth from Belgium, […]

Korea’s Postal and Communications System (1941)

January 17, 2020January 12, 2020 Major V. Rudolfi (ret.)1364Leave a Comment

(This text was originally published in 1941 and republished in KP XI No. 1 (February 1962). It is here being published again for its historical significance.) Only scant remainders enable us today to retrace the origins of the Korean Postal and Communications System. We do know for a fact, however, that the country’s rulers have […]

Methodist mission address “IPO Box 1182” in Seoul

January 15, 2020September 15, 2019 Ivo Spanjersberg962Leave a Comment

From the late 1800s a lot of Christian missionary activity took place in Korea. Given that these people usually were very well educated they inevitably wrote home. Many of these letters including the envelopes in which they were sent were saved by the recipients. In recent years with the passing of many of the post-World […]

More album pages from KSS members

January 13, 2020January 4, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu1692Leave a Comment

(Our informal series on Korean album pages continues with this installment from KSS member Chen Yi-Fu.) For ROK and classic Korean stamps I use an album made by the South Korean company Woo-Moon-Kuan, which is also the publisher of the ROK stamp catalogue. For DPRK stamps I use Palo albums, the only company I know […]

Reader’s Question: American Banknote Co Package #4137 dated Nov 3 1944

January 12, 2020January 11, 2020 Thomas Richards10257 Comments

(Reader’s question) Thought this item of collateral material might be of interest – “American Banknote Co Package #4137 dated Nov 3 1944”. It appears to have contained 100 sheets. The note that came with it said “Korea Occupied Nations Stamp”. Can anyone provide additional info?

Korean forgeries (III): 25 Mon unissued (1884)

January 11, 2020April 25, 2020 Barry Abbott12392 Comments

The third stamp in this series is the 25 Mon. This orange stamp was never issued and therefore any stamp claiming to be used has a fake cancellation. The stamp is designated Scott #3 and Minkus #N3. Black and white images are from Brady-Tyler and colour images are from MikeG Canada (Stampboards) and other sources.

1963 cover from important Methodist medical missionary educator

January 10, 2020December 23, 2019 James H. Grayson8982 Comments

This envelope is particularly interesting from a postal history point of view. The writer, Dr. Roberta G. Rice, was writing to Dr. Charles Mayo the head of the renowned Mayo Clinic, and his wife in a personal capacity. Dr. Rice was a member of the (American) Methodist Mission who had been appointed after the Korean […]

KoreaPost releases stamp publication schedule for 2020

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1828Leave a Comment

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) KoreaPost released the 2020 publication schedule, showing all planned new stamp issues for the whole year. Several anniversaries are on the list and so are both the Korean culture and history related issues as well as Korean independence related stamps.

The 1951 provisional inflationary surcharge issues of Korea (1961): Part 4

January 8, 2020September 5, 2019 Charles Sandberg1315Leave a Comment

(Part 4 of 4) The 1951 provisional Korean stamps were issued with overprinted inflationary denominations of 100, 200, and 300 won on the basic stamps whose values range from 4 to 100 won. These overprinted stamps afford not only an exciting challenge to the casual collector, but also an excellent opportunity for specialization by the […]