Identifying a 20 Hwan Korean Revenue Stamp from 1962

One of our readers sent us a question about a South Korean revenue stamp: “I have acquired an older Korean Revenue stamp. It has value of 20 Hwan on a banner in the lower right corner. The text on the banner in the left lower corner I have not been able to translate. The banner across the top I have been told says “The Government of the Republic of Korean”. It shows also the yin and yang symbol in the top banner. The center image is a version of the Silla Dynasty tile, different than the stamp issued in 1964 I think. Stamps colors are buff tan and ultra blue. A photo of this stamp has been included.

I haven’t found the stamp in any catalog. Scott’s is my primary search option, but no revenues made it a challenge. Online searching led me to your website. I know that Hipstamp has one listing of the same stamp. It is listed for sale, my contact with the seller was not fruitful as he knew little about the stamp also. Postmarked 1965, which I knew was after the hwan series was changed in 1962. Postmark on mine has no date visible. Date searches were a bust also.

Thank you for your expertise. If possible could you give me a catalog listing? Also, could you translate all of the text in the banners? That is basically what my entire search has been about, ID, information and Catalog Number.”

Several KSS members are revenue stamp specialists. It seems you have a version of this stamp:

This is an examples of the 20 hwan value stamp issued in the 2nd hwan series of February 1962. However, given the colours of your particular version of this 1962 stamp, you probably have the indigo version of the stamp. These stamps, in both the blue and indigo versions, were used during a very short time only, as later that same year (on 31 May 1962) the new won series revenue stamps were issued when the hwan was replaced with the won. Despite their short period of usage though they are very common and worth only a few dollars.

With regards to your request to translate the texts on the stamp: the Chinese characters on the stamp read “大韓民國政府收入印紙” (Chinese: “Dahan minguo zhengfu shouru yinzhi“, Korean “대한민국정부수입인지” or “Taehan Minguk Chŏngbu Suip Inji“), which means “Revenue stamp of the Government of the Republic of Korea”. The other characters on the stamp read “20環” or 20 hwan, also listed in English. When these stamps were issued it was still very common to use Chinese characters (named “hanja” in Korean) instead of Korean letters (“hangul”) when writing Korean texts. The use of hanja is now quite uncommon, but that’s the reason why so much of the text was written in Chinese, not in Korean, on these stamps.

How to find a catalogue listing for these stamps? Unfortunately revenue stamps are very much unloved amongst stamp collectors, only few catalogues list revenue stamps. Scott lists US revenue stamps, but the international listings are for postage stamps only. For (South) Korean postage stamps there is only one easily available listing and that is the listing in the Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue (KPSC). The most recent edition, the 2024 edition, has a complete listing of South Korean stamps issued since 1945. This photo shows the listing of the series from which your stamp came. It is stamp #48, with your particular stamp looking like the indigo version listed underneath #48.

There is something interesting about this stamp: it is the last in a series of stamps using the exact same design for a decade! It started with a stamp issued in mid 1951 during the old won era. That stamp was a tall stamp, but in 1952 this was changed to this square design:

When in early 1953 the hwan was introduced as the new currency, a revenue stamp set was needed using the hwan. The easiest thing to do was to reuse the previous design. To make it easier to distinguish a different colour combination was used. This led to this version of the stamp:

Then in early 1962 for some reason the government decided to update the hwan era design. That meant the stamp changed colours again, creating the stamp shown in figure 2. Later on in 1962 the hwan was phased out and the new won became the new denomination. The stamp was reused yet again, but the only change this time was the denomination, the colours staying the same. After that the design wasn’t (re)used again, and by 1967 completely new revenue stamps were issued. However, hwan era postage and revenue stamps could still be used (by recalculating their value in won), which was quite common during the first years after 1962. That’s why the dealer had a 1962 hwan stamp with a 1965 cancellation.