Korea Stamp Society

How Stalin and Mao disappeared from the map of Pyongyang

January 30, 2021March 5, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg10354 Comments

After the Second World War quite a few cities in Western democracies had a “Stalin Street”. At the time this was quite understandable: the Soviet Union had from 1941 been an important ally against Nazi Germany. However, these streets disappeared overnight when the Soviet army invaded Hungary in 1956. The Stalinlaan in Amsterdam for instance […]

Interesting items in Soler y Llach and Gärtner auctions

January 27, 2021January 23, 2021 KP Online Editor861Leave a Comment

Several interesting items are shown in current auctions run by Soler y Llach and Gärtner. These items are a cover (Soler y Llach) and postcards (Gärtner) with stamps from the classical period of Korean philatelic history, in this case covers sent between 1897 and 1904.

KPC3473-3475: Geostationary Korea Multi Purpose Satellite GEO-KOMPSAT, Cheollian

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg850Leave a Comment

(News from 우정사업본부 / KoreaPost) On 21 January 2021 KoreaPost issued a set of stamps showing the “Geostationary Korea Multi Purpose Satellite GEO-KOMPSAT”, also named the “Cheollian”. The KOMPSAT or Korean Multi-Purpose Satellite is a series of South Korean multipurpose satellite for reconnaissance, communication, meteorological, environmental, agricultural and oceanographic monitoring applications.

Japan Playing with Korea

January 23, 2021March 5, 2021 Robert (Bob) Finder780Leave a Comment

Recently I purchased a postcard showing a Japanese woman throwing images of the first Korean stamps into the air and it intrigued me what this postcard represented. Does any reader know the story behind this postcard? Is it a propaganda anti-Japanese postcard? Where there any other types of these postcards printed?

KSC5316-5319: Plants

January 20, 2021March 6, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg649Leave a Comment

(News from 조선우표사 / Korea Stamp Corporation) On 20 January 2021 the Korea Stamp Corporation issued a set of stamps showing plants. The plants on the stamps, such as the Osmunda japonica and the Helianthus annuus, are all indigenous to the Korean peninsula. The set of four stamps come in the same value, 50 (DPRK) […]

Lee Neung-hwa, an unknown historical figure and a stamp collector in a time of turmoil

January 20, 2021March 5, 2021 Dr. Joel Lee6422 Comments

In Joseon (Korea) in the 33rd year (1896) of King Gojong‘s rule a French person, Emile Martel (1874-1949), established the French Language School in Seoul as a governmental institute in Jong-ro-gu, now known as Susong-dong (Korean: 수송동). Martel arrived in Korea in July 1894 at the age of only twenty years old. Subsequently this school […]

Reader’s Question: How to order from KoreaPost and what about all these new DPRK stamps?

January 16, 2021December 8, 2020 KP Online Editor102811 Comments

We received a message from one of our readers, Peter, who has two questions. One is on the KoreaPost international stamp sales website and the inability to actually order something through that website, a point raised quite often by both KSS members and visitors of the KSS website. The other question is on North Korean […]

The South Korean Stamp Scene (Part 9)

January 13, 2021June 14, 2020 Stewart Steres831Leave a Comment

What follows is an update on my article of 1996 about the investment potential of South Korean stamps. In 1972 (when stamps were touted as investments) Linn’s Weekly Stamp News and others started “Investment Suggestions” which is now called the “Tip of the Week”. In about 1980 Linn’s began a “Trends of Stamp Values” which […]

Classic Korea stamps and covers with Holcombe certificates (Rapp auction)

January 9, 2021April 21, 2021 KP Online Editor628Leave a Comment

We are always on the look out for interesting Korean philatelic materials showing up in auctions. One noticeable item showing up in a Rapp auction (“Rapp Auktion Nr. 39 und Nr. 40 von 23. bis 28. November 2020“) is item nr. 2826. This item is listed in both German and English. The Korean items shown […]

Testing the South Korean postal system after first liberation of Seoul

January 6, 2021August 26, 2020 Anthony Bard622Leave a Comment

Shown here are two cards, one sent by correspondent Richard Johnston, the other by correspondent Charles Grutzner, both to their own (postal) addres. Neither were actually handled handled by the US Army-Air Force Postal Service, which means they probably do not qualify as ‘private usage’ in this instance. (See this KP article for the background […]

Korean Philately Vol. 57 No. 1 (Q1 2021)

January 1, 2021February 4, 2021 Ivo Spanjersberg12562 Comments

The KSS has published a new edition of the KSS magazine, Korean Philately, the first KP for 2021! As a member you can download this edition of Korean Philately for free as a PDF. And again, just as was the case with all four issues for 2020, you can own a full-colour magazine-style hard-copy version […]