An article on the basic introduction of the use of Japanese postcards through 1946 by South Korea, ended with the issuance of the South Korea’s first own design of a postcard with the unissued 1946 “Liberation” postcard , Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue (KPSC) UPC1; and with that postcard’s first surcharge of May 1, 1947, KPSC PC12. Before it is explained how that basic “Liberation” postcard design was used through 1953 by South Korea in this article, it should be noted that one other new designed postcard was issued by South Korea in 1946, the 25 ch “commemorative” postcard that honoured the 1st Anniversary of the Liberation of Korea from Japan on August 15, 1946. The postal rate for a postcard in South Korea was 25 ch from August 16, 1946 until March 31, 1947.
South Korea’s first commemorative postcard is quite colourful and depicted on the reverse side of the postcard are young Koreans waving South Korean flags, while walking over Japanese flags lying on the ground. On the addressee side of the postcard is the value of 25ch inside the image of one of the famous Korean “turtle” warships, which some historians consider to be the world’s first use of a armoured ship. These turtle warships were made famous by Admiral Yi Sun-shin when used in winning 16 naval battles during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592-1958. Thus they are the perfect image to use on this 1946 commemorative postcard to celebrate the liberation of Korea from Japan.
The Korean Stamp Catalogue (KPSC) gives commemorative postcards of South Korea a different number designation than for the regular postcards, and uses the letters “CP” as opposed to “PC” for regular postcards. This first liberation commemorative postcard is given the number CP1. The author does not know how many of these CP1 postcards were printed, but they must have been relatively expensive to print because of the colourful reverse design. The author has not seen a postally used example of one of these CP1 postcards, but as shown in this article, the author has seen these postcards with cancelled-to-ordered postmarks. This CP1 postcard can occasionally be seen offered for sale on online stamp auctions site.
Hi Bob,
You wrote:
“About a year later a 200 won rate was introduced and this postcard has a chop showing that the fee was “paid” for the 200 won rate. It can be confusing to identify this postcard, as there are some with a 150 surcharge and the post paid chop, some with a 50 won or 200 won surcharge, and even some with only the post paid chop, itself. The KPSC gives this 200 won postcard the number of PC18.”
– The reason is, that these were elder postcard (PC12-17) where e.g. 20 W. or 50W. already had been paid. The marking “fee paid” in this case meant that only the missing amound (180 or 150) were paid by the customer.
As PC1/16 were demonetized after 1951.12.31, usages of this “fee paid” handstamp other than on the PC17 (50 paid) are very scarce.
regards
Florian
Thanks for that added and valuable information, Florian. Bob