Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
Books and magazines about Korean philatelic subjects.
There are many ways of collecting and studying postage stamps – for their intrinsic collectable interest, for thematic interests, as a representative of the history of the postal service in different countries, and many other aspects. One approach which I follow is to examine the semiotics of the design of stamps. That is, what is […]
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In 2000 the KSS published a monograph, the third in the series of KSS monographs, titled “The Postal History of the Korean War 1950-1953”. Written by Robert W. Collins, this monograph is no longer readily available. As a service to KSS members a scanned version of this document is available online. Some examples and texts […]
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[David Hall’s undergraduate thesis “North Korean National Identity, Expressed Through Postage Stamps, 1948-1970” is published in full on the KSS website. This part contains the Conclusion, several other parts such as abbreviations, and the Bibliography.]
Continue Reading [David Hall’s undergraduate thesis “North Korean National Identity, Expressed Through Postage Stamps, 1948-1970” is published in full on the KSS website. This is “Chapter Three – North Korea and the Changing Nature of East Asia, 1963-1970”.] Due to North Korea’s successful economic recovery and Kim Il-sung’s consolidation of power through Juche and purges, North Korea became […]
Continue Reading [David Hall’s undergraduate thesis “North Korean National Identity, Expressed Through Postage Stamps, 1948-1970” is published in full on the KSS website. This is “Chapter Two – Reconstruction, Consolidation, and Juche Ideology, 1954-1962”.] Damage brought by the Korean war exceeded 420 billion won and thousands of factories, homes, and social infrastructures were destroyed.49 Therefore, Kim Il-sung used […]
Continue Reading [David Hall’s undergraduate thesis “North Korean National Identity, Expressed Through Postage Stamps, 1948-1970” is published in full on the KSS website. This is “Chapter One – State Building, Nationalism, and War, 1948-1953”.] The North Korean state was established 9 September 1948, two years after liberation from Japanese rule and subsequent Soviet administration. From its immediate establishment, […]
Continue Reading [David Hall’s undergraduate thesis “North Korean National Identity, Expressed Through Postage Stamps, 1948-1970” is published in full on the KSS website. This part contains both the “Abstract” and the “Introduction”.]
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In August, 2018, Helen Zirkle’s publication “Philatelic handbook for Korea, 1884-1905”, which was published in 1970, was added to the KSS website for the members to peruse and download. Earlier, in 1966 Ms. Zirkle also wrote for the Korea Stamp Society one of the first comprehensive publications of the Korean seals, called “The Christmas-Tuberculosis Seals of […]
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After ten years since the first edition of this full color(!) catalogue of North Korean stamps, the third edition was published by the Korea Stamp Corporation, Pyongyang, in 2003. Chronologically, the first edition was published early in 1993, containing up to #3277, the winners of 25th Olympic Games, issued December, 1992, and consisted of the […]
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Originally published in French as “Histoire postale du Corps de Volontaires Belgo-Luxembourgeois en Corée” in 2002 by Henri Smets a Dutch translation by W. Major was published in that same year. Titled “Postgeschiedenis van het Belgisch-Luxemburgs Vrijwilligerskorps voor Korea” the Dutch version contains 165 numbered pages with philatelic information on the Belgian and Luxembourg UN […]
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After learning about the existence of the online database of the National Archives of Korea (NAK) I quickly discovered a treasure trove of documents related to Korean philately. Thousands of documents with listings of stamp values, revenue stamps issues (including local revenue stamps) and meter marks, often even shown with (simple) drawings. And that’s just the […]
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The article “The Two Koreas’ Societies Reflected In Stamps”, written by Gabriel Jonsson, was published in “East Asia” magazine in 2005. Mr. Jonsson is currently working as researcher at the Department for Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies at the Stockholm University’s Faculty of Humanities.
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In 1970 the “Philatelic handbook for Korea, 1884-1905” was published by The Collectors Club in their series of handbooks as handbook number 23. Written/compiled by Helen Zirkle and others it was published in 1970 and was, at the time, one of the very few specialized books about Korean philatelic history.
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For those collectors that wish to have a Korean postage stamp catalogue I can highly recommend the latest 2019 edition of the Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue. It is easy to find the ordering information in English using the eBay search engine and entering “Korean Stamp Catalogue”. I placed an order on July 2 and the […]
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An introductory article about North Korean stamps was published in Stamp & Coin Mart (July 2018 edition). Written by Christ West it was introduced as: “As North and South Korea take tentative steps towards reconciliation, Chris West looks back on the history of the region and the stamps issued by one of the world’s last […]
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(From KP May 2012 Vol. 54, No. 2, pages 13-15) Nowadays, many veteran philatelists are quite pessimistic about the future of their hobby. Fifty years ago, every schoolboy was collecting stamps, but now the tradition is obviously dying out. Perhaps, several decades ago, before TV, the internet, iPhones, and video games, stamps were among the […]
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The latest edition, 2019, of the standard Korean language stamp catalogue has been published. This catalogue, internationally known as the Korean Postage Stamp Catalogue (KPSC) and in Korea as 대한민국우표가격도록, is the most specialized catalogue about stamps issued by the Republic of Korea.
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Published in July 2012 by the Korean Postal Stationery Society (한국우편엽서회) the Korean Postal Cards Catalogue (한국우편엽서도감) lists all known postal cards starting with cards from the old Korean empire through to the present day Republic of Korea.
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Published privately in 2006 by Stephen J. Hasegawa the “Dr. Sherwood Hall’s Christmas and New Year Seals of Korea 1932-1940” catalogue is even today still the only publication listing in-depth the seals published by Dr. Sherwood Hall in Korea in the 1930s.
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The most recent edition of the (DPRK/North) Korean Stamp Catalogue or “조선우표목록” is the 10th edition (2016) containing all the stamps published by the DPRK between March 1946 and early November 2015. This catalogue was first reviewed by Taizo Maeda in the August 2003 edition of the KP (Vol. 49, No. 3).
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