Chen Yi-Fu, Author at Korea Stamp Society

A new discovery of early Korean philatelic items

July 15, 2020April 22, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu212Leave a Comment

Recently I acquired a piece of black paper with many Korean stamps affixed. The title at the top reads “Korean stamps” in Kanji. The paper is folded into 4 columns. The first column has 3 North Korean stamps, issued in 1946, at the upper part, followed by the wording: “North Korean stamps, issued at Pyongyang […]

The Korean Language and How to Read DPRK Military Postcards

May 20, 2020May 23, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu4002 Comments

For anyone studying Korean postage stamps and postal stationery, understanding the structure of the Korean language and the Korean alphabet will enrich the understanding of any material which you have. The Korean language is highly structured and regular. Some sixty percent of its vocabulary derives from written Chinese (called in Korean Hanja 漢字).

Korean geography through postal history

February 11, 2020February 7, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu393Leave a Comment

It is interesting to study geography through postal history. Recently I acquired this postcard. I noticed it because the sender’s address was written as “KyongSong”, the old name of Seoul during the Japanese colonial era. So at the first glance it seems this was a card sent from the South to the North.

More album pages from KSS members

January 13, 2020January 4, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu452Leave a Comment

(Our informal series on Korean album pages continues with this installment from KSS member Chen Yi-Fu.) For ROK and classic Korean stamps I use an album made by the South Korean company Woo-Moon-Kuan, which is also the publisher of the ROK stamp catalogue. For DPRK stamps I use Palo albums, the only company I know […]

Modern DPRK rarities (3): Pyongyang folk park (2013)

October 16, 2019April 19, 2019 Chen Yi-Fu4071 Comment

The DPRK issued a souvenir sheet of Pyongyang folk park in 2013. This souvenir sheet depicts a view of this theme park and its face-value is 60 (30+30) won. However, the park was closed in 2016 and this souvenir sheet was withdrawn, 3 years after issuance. This is probably one of the most well-known modern […]

Modern DPRK rarities (2): History of the porcelain stamps of 1999

August 24, 2019August 24, 2019 Chen Yi-Fu7901 Comment

The DPRK issued a set of 5 porcelain stamps in 1999. The KSC numbers for these stamps are KSC3983-3987. However, a careful collector might find something strange about two of the stamps in this set, KSC3983 (70 jon) and KSC 3987 (2.50 won).

Modern DPRK rarities (1): Unissued 2012 3D giant panda stamps

June 15, 2019March 8, 2019 Chen Yi-Fu775Leave a Comment

In 2012 the DPRK issued a set of giant panda stamps. This set consisted of 2 stamps and 1 souvenir sheet. The KSC numbers given to these stamps were 4838-4840.

The “Back Stories” of Unissued Stamps of The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

April 3, 2019March 25, 2019 Chen Yi-Fu8533 Comments

The greatest difficultly in studying DPRK stamps is that reliable references are very limited in number, and the information available might be incomplete or even incorrect. Some stamps are without images in catalogues, some are unissued; and once in a while, collectors may surprisingly find something they have never seen or known before. However, it […]

Domestic Printing Versus International Printing Of DPRK Stamps (II)

October 24, 2018February 16, 2019 Chen Yi-Fu895Leave a Comment

Recently KSS members Yi Yong Suk and Chen Yi-Fu showed the difference between domestic printings versus international (collector’s) printings by showing Scott No. 2824 & 2824a side by side. But then Yi-Fu also said something about more modern domestic printings.