Dr. Sherwood Hall’s TB/Christmas and New Year Woodblock Print Cards

Along with Dr. Sherwood Hall’s TB/Christmas and New Year seal program, which began in 1932, to raise money for fighting tuberculosis in Korea, a number of items related to the design of the seals where promoted and sold to the public to raise additional funds. As we have seen in earlier articles published on the […]

Continue Reading

Korean Relief Inc. and the Story of Father Aloysius Schwartz

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 […]

Continue Reading

When the war drums stop, so does the KSC

The Korea Stamp Corporation, the stamp issuing organization of the DPRK (North Korea), generally creates stamp along several lines of themes. One of those common themes is something along the lines of “the eternal fight for the motherland against our enemies”. The thing is: the official feelings towards these enemies, whomever they may be (usually […]

Continue Reading

Stop the Presses! A New Cover with Hall’s Korea 1940 Unissued Seal has been discovered

This author has been very fortunate to have discovered a new cover with Dr. Sherwood Hall’s Korea 1940 unissued Tuberculosis/Christmas and New Year Seal. It had been listed on eBay and I was very lucky to obtain it by auction. The last update on this 1940 Korea seal was discussed in the article on the […]

Continue Reading

Postal stationery used in Northern Korea (II): Japanese 5 sen Nanko card 1945-1947

Preface: This series of articles derive from discussions among several KSS member collectors. Some of them are interested in collecting Korean (and Japanese) philatelic items but feel confused in distinguishing different surcharges of early Korean postal stationeries since they cannot read Hanja and Hangul. See here for part I about the usage of these cards […]

Continue Reading

Postal stationery used in Northern Korea (I): Japanese colonial era 1944-1945

Preface: This series of articles derive from discussions among several KSS member collectors. Some of them are interested in collecting Korean (and Japanese) philatelic items but feel confused in distinguishing different surcharges of early Korean postal stationeries since they cannot read Hanja and Hangul.

Continue Reading

Special edition of Korean Philately on Christmas Seals 1932-1952 proposed

Korea Stamp Society’s (KSS) current Publisher/Webmaster, Ivo Spanjersberg, and I are working on issuing a special edition of the Korean Philately (KP). Originally we believed we would prepare a book or ”monogram” that would just cover Dr. Sherwood Hall’s Tuberculosis/Christmas and New Year’s seal program that occurred during the period of 1932-1940.

Continue Reading

Update on the Korea 1940 Unissued Dr. Hall’s Tuberculosis (TB)/Christmas and New Year Seal

We saw in the article posted on the Korea Stamp Society’s (KSS) website on January 23, 2020, that there had been the exciting find of two covers sent from Korea with the unissued 1940 TB/Christmas and New year seal. These were found in the USA by a member of the family of a Christian missionary […]

Continue Reading

Korean National Tuberculosis (TB) Association Presentation Booklet 2014

Recently I joined the Christmas Seal & Charity Stamp Society, and as a result a fellow Aussie, Mr. Ivan Krell, who collects Christmas seals, contacted me to see if we could exchange any Christmas seals.  He wasn’t aware of our Korea Stamp Society, so now he has access to some more detailed information about Korean […]

Continue Reading

South Korea’s Early Proof and Presentation Sheets Addendum

One area of collecting of Korean philatelic material that is out of reach financially (and availability) are the proof and presentation sheets that South Korea issued in very limited numbers beginning with the 1946 set honouring the Liberation from the Japanese. These were never listed in Scott’s because they were not sold to the public […]

Continue Reading

Series of alcohol tax revenue stamps sample pages show up on Kobay

In recent months a seller on Kobay has been selling individual pages with sample revenue stamps on them. The pages seem to be a 1960s/1970s set of samples which were sent to relevant authorities to be able to check which stamps were needed for which product. But who knows more about these stamps? Or has […]

Continue Reading

Korean cartoon “Gobau Inspiration” (1950 – 2000)

“고바우 영감” or “Gobau Inspiration” was a cartoon series created by Kim Sung-hwan (김성환) wich first appeared in the weekly magazine Manga Shinbo (만화신보) in 1950. From February 1, 1955 Gobau was serialized in the Dong-a Ilbo, an important national newspaper. In 1980, the cartoon moved after 25 years to the Chosun Ilbo, another national […]

Continue Reading