Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
Subjects related to the philatelic history of South Korea.
Our past Chairman and Publisher of the Korea Stamp Society (KSS), Ivo Spanjersberg, has long urged that he and I write an article about the Korean Relief Inc. organization and its related Korean philatelic items. Various items of postal history, including postal stationery, aerogrammes, Christmas seals and labels, and other related merchandize, are frequently seen […]
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Last year this cover was for sale on Ebay. I didn’t buy it, but was intrigued by it. The original reason to be interested was because of the seal on the back. This turned out to be an American anti-polio Easter seal, which just like the Korean anti-tuberculosis Christmas seals were sold to raise money […]
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In an issue of the KSS Newsletter, there was a photocopy of part of the membership list of the Korea Philatelic Society. It is interesting to note that two non-Koreans are listed as members, both missionaries. One is KSS member Dr. Lyman Hale (1922 – 2019), a physician at Severance Hospital, Seoul and a member […]
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Recently I purchased on eBay, what is most likely a philatelic cover that was a curiosity to me. It was a cover addressed to a fairly famous US naval officer, Read Admiral Jeraud Wright, dated December 12, 1945. (See images of front and back cover) I was not aware that covers had been made with […]
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The months of July and August 1950 were very difficult months for Seoul. The North had taken over the city very early on in the Korean War and the situation was, to put it mildly “hard”. Atrocities were being committed on a large scale and the ordinary life of the city had basically come to […]
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Shown here are two cards, one sent by correspondent Richard Johnston, the other by correspondent Charles Grutzner, both to their own (postal) addres. Neither were actually handled handled by the US Army-Air Force Postal Service, which means they probably do not qualify as ‘private usage’ in this instance. (See this KP article for the background […]
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In 1957 Korea introduced the first of its Christmas and New Year stamps and souvenir sheets. These were quite attractive and colourful. They also appealed to children stamp collectors and in fact, this is why I started to collect Korean stamps when I was a child. I loved the little colourful souvenir sheets. The individual […]
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This story begins on 1 December 1951 during the breakout from the inlet. I was a Sergeant with Colonel MacLean’s forward CP when the Chinese first attacked the night of 27 November, 1951. Milo Paynovich and I left the perimeter walking along the edge of the reservoir. We came to an area where logs were […]
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In 1951 Korea issued a series of 42 stamps featuring flags of 21 countries that provided assistance in the Korean War (June 1950- July1953). Armed forces were sent from 16 United Nations countries, most from the United States. Five others, including Italy, the only Non-member State to participate (becoming a member on 14 December 1955), […]
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After the Korean War for well over a decade the economic development of South Korea was at a stand still. The country was considered an economic “basket case”. However, during Park Chung-hee’s reign the country began to grow rapidly. One visible effect were the many newly constructed roads and bridges, which featured a lot on […]
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This cover illustrates the use of stamps overprinted for the Custodian Force, India (CFI). This was a deployment of Indian forces, including the 60th Parachute Field Ambulance unit (which had been in Korea from November 1950) to oversee the repatriation of POWs after the armistice. The CFI was in Korea from late September 1953 until […]
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Affording missionary organisations the facility of using APO numbers was something that began with the US occupation of South Korea after WW2. The USA Military Government in Korea started its own parallel Army Post Office organisation on landing in September 1945. Approved missionary organisations, together with commercial suppliers to the military (usually Korean subsidiaries of […]
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Notice something about the sheet for stamps KPC3331-3334? Look again. And then again. It’s really there. Yep, it’s a typo. Look at the first English sentence: “indepence”. Very understandable typo, can happen to anybody. So I emailed the philatelic agency and told them about the error. They emailed back after a couple of days, telling […]
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Held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, the 2018 Winter Olympics were a triumph for (South) Korea in two ways. Not only did it show a very modern and well-organized Korea, an image completely different from just one generation ago when Korea was still one of the poorest countries in the world, […]
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Back in April 2019 I received an inquiry of the German MICHEL-catalog editor. He related a reader’s question on probably different printings of 1964/66 ROK definitives (KPC #218/236), commonly known as the 1st granite paper series.
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Recently, in going over my Korean inflationary issues and presentation sheets, I was struck by a cancellation that is almost too perfect for a routine postal strike: neat, clean, sharp and almost printed-looking. Reviewing KOREAN PHILATELY, I found I am not alone in my suspicion – but its status is still indeterminate.
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Because of the extreme emphasis of Koreans on education there are, even today in times of digital communications, a lot of stationery shops in Korea. These shops sell hundreds and sometimes even thousands of different products, one of them being whole series of sticker stamps. These stickers look like stamps because of their “perforation” and […]
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Yes, Mr. Zip has come to Korea. After starting out in 1959 in Great Britain, according to an announcement of the Korean Philatelic Center, he began working in Korea on July 1, 1970. Postal reform has been recognized as a need by many countries, a reform which is concerned primarily with reducing costs and improving […]
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On August 8, 1983, Forrest W. Calkins wrote the following letter to Frank Allard (only an excerpt is included), along with the enclosure referenced in the paragraph: “Over the weekend I did some digging to find some of the ROK covers that I did design, and was lucky to locate one of the UN stamps. […]
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A series of covers, recently offered for sale on Ebay, show another interesting piece of Korean missionary history. The Christian Literature Society of Korea (대한 기독교 서회) was and is a major publisher and bookseller in Korea, and dates back to the earliest years of Protestant Christian missions. It is an ecumenical organisation as is […]
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