Unrecorded Postal Stationery from North Korea

The Pyongyang published Korean Postal Stationery & Maxicard Catalogue of 1999 was an eye-opener for most of us in revealing the richness of postal stationery issued there over the years. It followed on Todd’s pioneering Catalogue of North Korean Postal Stationery 1947-1961 of 1997, and some listings in this Journal (Korean Philately, 34, No.2, 4-9; […]

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A Note on the 2002 North Korean Surcharges

Watching the endless stream of opportunistic issues, largely directed at gullible collectors, coming out from North Korea year after year, it is a pleasant philatelic experience to encounter something unexpected from this source. It has, of course, occurred in the recent past with the discovery of the domestic paper varieties – the ‘yellow paper’ issues […]

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A note on perforation varieties on North Korean stamps

Perforation varieties of early North Korean stamps, say pre-1960, are almost limitless, for example, in his exhibits Dr Maeda detects at least eight varieties for the single Labour Law issue of 1956, (SGN110). The later emphasis on issues for philatelic markets, however, brought about a standardization of production, resulting in much less variability. Almost none […]

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War Validation Chops of North Korea

The end of the Korean War is already more than half a century in the past, and much of the philatelic activity engendered by that conflict has been extensively described and consolidated. A major aspect, however, has escaped attention until very recently. The Korean Stamp Catalogue, published by the Korean Stamp Corporation in Pyongyang, contains […]

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North Korean Postal Stationery Varieties

All of the stamps of North Korea issued before 1950, whether reading from the right or from the left, are inscribed “postage stamp,” yu-pyo (우표). In 1950, however, some came to be inscribed “postage,” yu-pyon (우편). This is the case with all of the stamps in the 5th Anniversary of Liberation series, the Liberation of […]

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