This is the story of the rarest issued Korean tuberculosis (TB)/Christmas and New Year seal: the 1952 issue. One might believe that the rarest and most valuable Korean TB/Christmas and New Year seal is probably one of the series of seals that Dr. Sherwood Hall began to issue in 1932. However, discounting the unissued seal confiscated by the Japanese in 1940, the rarest seal, by far, is the 1952 TB/Christmas and New Year seal issued by Dr. Hall’s protégé, Dr. Moon Chang-Mo in 1952.
As previously discussed on the KSS website, Dr. Moon resurrected the Korean TB/Christmas and New Year seal program in 1949 to raise funds and increase the awareness of the fight against tuberculosis. Tuberculosis was still a serious disease problem in Korea after WWII. Dr. Moon’s fledgling seal program was interrupted by the invasion of South Korea by North Korea in 1950. Tuberculosis would become even worse throughout all of Korea during the Korean War period. Dr. Moon would once again try to start up the TB/Christmas and New Year seal program with a new seal in 1952.
