Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
Examples of individual articles from Korean Philately magazine.
From the first printed stamps in South Korea in 1946 after the WWII, up to around 1953, many of those issues can be found printed as imperforated stamps, double printed stamps and stamps printed on both sides. The stamps were issued by the US Military from 1946-1948. On August 15, 1948, the South Korean government […]
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Dr. Sharrocks, one of our mission doctors had brought word from the exiled Syngman Rhee to the Koreans seeking independence advising that “It is imperative that if Korea is to attain independence, the will of the people against the Japanese domination be made known to the outer world”.
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Welcome to the latest edition of Korean Philately. This is a welcome return after many months impacted by the fallout from Covid and internal reorganization. All of that is now behind us and I am delighted to take over as Editor of KP. I am confident that we will resume our normal output of four […]
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I started collecting the Postal Stationery of the DPRK as I had one or two clients who were buying North Korean postal history which was all but unobtainable in Western Europe in the 1980’s. After leaving Stanley Gibbons in 1992 to start ‘Carmichael & Todd’, I joined the KSC. I attended, with a stand, the […]
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I have been collecting stamps from North Korea for about 30 years and I can say that the philately of this country has many secrets and mysteries. The main catalogs (Scott, Michel, and Stanley Gibbons (SG)) do not provide complete and reliable information. The catalog printed in the DPRK gives distorted price information. Yes, this […]
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It seems like only yesterday when I first learned of the Society. As I began collecting, two older established dealers suggested I focus on collecting stamps of the group of countries often identified as “U.S. Possessions”. Bright and colourful, the cost of many of them in that era was perfect for a beginning but enthusiastic […]
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I have been asked to share my journey to becoming Editor Emeritus of Korean Philately, and I’m happy to do so. I became a stamp collector at age 8 when living in London, Ontario, Canada. My cubmaster was a stamp collector and thought that I should become one, as well. He had a stamp album […]
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The first set of the five part Korean Fables series which will eventually comprize twenty different stamps and twenty souvenir sheets made its appearance on Sept. 1, 1969 with four stamps depicting scenes of “Kongjwi and Patjwi” a sort of Korean Cinderella legend.
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I was bitten by the stamp “bug” at an early age watching my father work on his U.S. stamp collection. After sufficient pestering, I was given a small starter album, a large packet of U.S. and foreign stamps, hinges and a tongs; I was promised more based on continued interest. I was about six years […]
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(On 15 April an article was published on how the DPRK commemorates the birthday of Kim Il Sung. Here one of our members, Alexander Shaposhnikov, introduces a few other related stamp issues from his collection:) In addition to the article I am sending some photos of several rare imperforated stamps dedicated to the birthday of […]
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October 2021 marked 70 years of the Korea Stamp Society! Really, it did. But did you know about it? Probably not, if only for the simple reason that until then nobody had advertised this fact. (We did in Korean Philately, have a look at the Q4 2021 edition!) Here are two other anniversaries related to […]
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The look of Korean Philately (KP) has changed quite a bit in the last 70 years. There were many stages in the development of the covers of KP. The first KP was published by Harold D. Bearce, who was the first editor for the Korea Stamp Society (KSS), on October 1, 1951 with Albert L. […]
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As I looking through my old Korean Philately magazines in preparation for the KP 70th anniversary issue of the Korea Stamp Society I came across something that I had not noticed before. On the back of a facsimile of the first KP issued on October 1, 1951, I found a summary of the KSS from […]
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Despite being mortal enemies, North and South Korea agree on thing: Dokdo, the group of rocks in the middle of the “Sea of Japan” or “East Sea” is Korean and not Japanese. The international name for Dokdo is officially “Liancourt Rocks”, a name often found on maps to avoid offending either Korea or Japan, but […]
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In the 1960s (and for years after that decade) KSS member Lyman Hale and his wife lived in South Korea as medical missionaries, meaning they stayed there both as medical staff and as missionaries. Especially during the 1960s Lyman Hale wrote a lot of articles for KP (but as recent as 2019 he was still […]
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We have received several questions lately from members on how to order the hard copies of the Korean Philately (KP) magazines. It is currently explained on the website on how to order through Blurb, but we thought it would be good idea to do a refresher article on how the new KP’s came to be […]
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On May 1, 1969 the Republic of Korea released its first postage stamp produced by means of newly installed photogravure printing equipment. The 7W blue regular stamp features the flag of Korea. The photogravure production represents a distinct advance over the lithographed stamps which have been produced by the Korean Government Printing Agency since the […]
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Since there were NO price updates from the 2021 Scotts catalog for the third year in a row, I will not revise my article for 2021. If I get any more information throughout this year, I will pass it on. In the meantime I will conclude by reiterating the following paragraph from Part #11.
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One of the first branches of the old Japanese Government activities taken over by the forces of the U. S. Military Government in Korea (USAFIK) after the occupation was the Communications Department which controlled the services of the post office, telegraph system, and radio stations. At the beginning the Postal Section had no alternative but […]
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Collectors of North Korea (DPKR) should have noticed that there is another Chollima stamp that was issued for the 2020 New Year (Stamp KSC5232, 10 won, “Under the uplifted banner of self-reliance”). It was already shown in the article issued on the KSS website on January 1, 2020. It was issued with both perforated and […]
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