Come On!!! (A “shout out” popularized by the Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt). Surely at least one of our Korea Stamp Society (KSS) members has some used North Korean stamps that they would like to share with one of our newer members, Paul Scholtens! On December 5, 2020 we published a short article (put in link) in which Paul asked if any members had used North Korean stamps for trade.
I was curious if anyone had replied to Paul after sending an e-mail to him, he replied to me with this note:
Good evening Bob,
I am sorry to say that I received not one response and I was a bit sad about that.
I knew that there were not many stamps actually used for postage in North Korea but I was hoping that someone might have wanted to make contact with me even if it was about 10 stamps – not necessarily the quantity I put in my advert. I would have been happy to provide the person with a small bundle of Australian franked stamps for their trouble.
However while I was in contact with the KSS I responded to an advertisement on the Internet from The Mystic Stamp Co in the USA offering 200 mixed North Korea stamps. They kept telling me that my order was hard to fill but they were trying and would keep trying! By about the beginning of December I was sure I had lost my money, $24 USA + postage, but in early January 2021 the stamps arrived. There were 200 and no duplicates. They might all be fakes and forgeries for all I know but they are colourful, cover a wide range of topics, and are all franked or cancelled and look good in my album!
I would still be happy to make contact with a couple of members, especially if they live in Korea or Asia, who would like some Australian stamps. I see it as less of a ‘business’ swap or trade arrangement and more of a ‘friendship’ deal.
Best wishes,
Paul
I followed up and asked him if would let us publish his note to me and also, if he had some scans of the stamps he received from Mystic Stamp Company in the USA, so we could show some of them to members and ask for comments. From what I can determine, most look like they are cancelled to order (CTO). Paul noted:
“I have 15 pages of N Korea stamps now!! I have attached a couple of pages for the members to have a look at and comment on. I am happy for these pages, and perhaps my naiveté, to form the basis of an ‘article’ in the newsletter. I am happy to scan the remaining pages if it will serve a useful purpose.”
Shown are some of the images from his collection.
So members, please share you comments on these stamps and if any of you have excess used North Korean stamps, please contact Paul.
Collecting Australian stamps is easier than collecting DPRK stamps since Australia has more communication to other countries in the world than DPRK. I think that is the main reason why nobody wants to exchange DPRK stamps with Australian stamps. CTO DPRK stamps are very very cheap and not difficult to buy online.