Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
Philatelic history of Korea
The insured (declared value) system was introduced in Japan in 1900 for cash/bonds/securities. With the issuance of the special envelopes in 1901, the usage of ordinary envelopes for these valuables became forbidden. In 1910, non-official envelopes became readmitted for items larger than the official envelopes, like jewels, art etc. provided they were in previously unused […]
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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 However, the park was closed in 2016 and this souvenir sheet was withdrawn, 3 years after issuance.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 […]
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The booklet was issued by the Ministry of Communications for the North Hamgyong Post Office, as part of the country-wide 10th anniversary of the Liberation commemoration, in August 1955. A set of commemorative stamps (all the stamps are perf 11), a postal stationery envelope and an extensive set of commemorative photographic postcards were produced for […]
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Like elsewhere in imperial Japan and its dependencies, machine cancellations for New Year were used for 1936, 1937, and 1938 (Showa 11, 12 and 13). Shown are postcards in my exhibit “Cancellations of Japanese Offices in Korea (1876-1945)” to JAPEX 2019, scheduled for November 15-17, 2019, in Tokyo. The ones for 1936 and 1937 are […]
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It all started with curiosity. I knew that I had a lot of stamps but didn’t really knew them. Like a normal person, the first thing that came across my mind was is it worth any money? With the help of Mr. Chen Yi Fu and Ivo Spanjersberg, I began to understand the value and […]
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Democratic Peoples’ Republic Korea (DPRK, North Korea) changed the face value of stamps under a new postage order from August 1 Juche 91 (2002). The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the DPRK took a measure that those previously issued 91 postage stamps were overprinted with the new denomination to be used for a certain […]
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One of the most confusing Korean issues for collectors to identify is the 1955-58 series that show the industrial reconstruction of South Korea after the Korean War. The reason that there is confusion about these issues is that there were four different types of paper and two slightly different images used in producing the series, […]
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In the September 2019 KSS Newsletter I showed a stamp from an Ebay auction. The stamp itself was not remarkable: a very common Japanese 8 sen stamp from the first Showa series (Sakura 229, Scott 265, 1939) with an overprint showing a “Rose of Sharon”, the Korean empire/kingdom flower showed to these days on South […]
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In 2018 a Korean stamp dealer sent me several envelopes covered in older stamps. All stamps published by the (South) Korean postal services are still valid, even including the hwan stamps printed before 1962 and the old won values from the 1940s and 1950s as long as they are correctly recalculated into new won.
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German Auction Galleries Hamburg (Schwanke Auktion) No. 6 (Dec. 1/2, 2017) offered lot 96 described as follows: “1897, attraktive Briefvorderseite mit sechs verschiedenen frühen Korea-Marken, teils mit Aufdruck, leicht stockig, ansonsten gute Erhaltung. 1897, attractive cover front with six different Korean stamps, some with overprint, some stain.” Started at 250.-, realized 310.- euros + %.
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