Supporting Philatelists Since 1952
This is the story of the rarest issued Korean tuberculosis (TB)/Christmas and New Year seal: the 1952 issue. One might believe that the rarest and most valuable Korean TB/Christmas and New Year seal is probably one of the series of seals that Dr. Sherwood Hall began to issue in 1932. However, discounting the unissued seal […]
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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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There was recently an exciting find by a reader of the Korea Stamp Society’s (KSS) webpage. Mr. Edwin Burgoyne, who has been researching information on old covers that were part of his wife’s (Alison) missionary family’s collection, read the articles about Dr. Sherwood Hall’s TB/Christmas and New Year’s seals. He especially noticed the article about […]
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The other day Ivo Spanjersberg shared scans of the front and back of a letter envelope which was posted from Korea to the United States at the end of 1952. Ivo asked me why a non-military person could use military post? I didn’t have an answer to this and referred the question to my colleague […]
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The Korean National Tuberculosis Association interviewed the illustrator who created this year’s Christmas seals, Ahn Sol (안솔). The seals show the Haenyeo (해녀) of Jeju island, the women who dive for seafood around the coast of the island. Ahn Sol created the artwork for the seals while staying for a couple of months on the […]
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The new Christmas seals for Christmas 2019 have been released by the Korea National Tuberculosis Association. The stamps feature Jeju island and the famous local diving women, the “haenyeo”. The sheet is for sale online through the KNTA website and costs 3.000 won (approx. 2,50 dollars / 2,30 EUR).
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In the article of December 28, 2018, on the KSS website discussing the 1936 Korean Christmas and New Year seal, there was also information given about “The Fifth Year Souvenir Sheet”. These souvenir sheets were used by Dr. Hall’s Christmas seal committee to promote the sale of the seals. It was noted that there were […]
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In a recent blog post the 대한결핵협회 / Korean National Tuberculosis Association (KNTA) shows Sherwood Hall’s turtle ship drawing, which was a subject proposed for his first Christmas seals. In the end this idea was not used and another seal was released. Interestingly this version of the drawing is slightly different from the one in […]
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I had just written about the very strong market for the rare Korean Christmas and TB seal on August 4, 2019 with two 1953 sheets selling for around $2000 each on eBay. Now a pair of the very rare unissued Dr. Hall 1940 seal has just sold for US$2600. One of the pair was damaged […]
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A Dutch footballer famously once said approx. “you will only see it if you understand it“. This is true of Korean blogs as well: sometimes you really have to read on before you notice there is something important being said. Take a recent blog post on Korean National Tuberculosis Association’s Facebook page.
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The 대한결핵협회 / Korean National Tuberculosis Association (KNTA), known for issuing the Korean Christmas seals since 1949, also published some materials related to both the March 1 movement of 1919, 80 years ago, as well as the 74th anniversary of Korean independence from Japan in 1945. That’s a lot of anniversaries in one sentence!
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What surprises many stamps collectors who do not collect Korean stamps is the strong demand and high prices for the early Korean Dr. Hall (1932-1940) and post WWII late 1940’s to early 1950’s Tuberculosis (TB)/Christmas and New Year seals. Because of the Korean problem with TB and Dr. Sherwood Hall’s program to issue these seals […]
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I became interested in Korean Christmas Seals in 1936 when I was asked to cover the South Pyengan Province. Each year, thereafter, I sold more than anyone else. In the ninth year – 1940 – I sold all that were sold in that area as far as I know. This consisted of an order for […]
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Dr. Sherwood Hall, the creator of the Korean tuberculosis Christmas and New Year seals, was an avid stamp collector. His hobby of collecting of stamps, besides his knowledge of how the seals successfully raised money in other countries to fight tuberculosis, probably contributed to his original idea to promote the seals in Korea to fight […]
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In the December 15, 2018 article on Dr. Hall’s donation of his Christmas seal collection to the Smithsonian Institute in 1972, it was noted that the collection had been found at the request of the author. It had been moved to the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC in 1993. It was written that the […]
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The program begun by Dr. Sherwood Hall, who had been born in 1893 in Korea to Methodist missionaries and doctors, to raise funds to fight tuberculosis (TB) in Korea by issuing Christmas and New Years seals, ended in 1940, as the Japanese forced him to leave the country. It would not be until 1949 that […]
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From a collector’s standpoint, the 1940 issued seal is very simple. For the officially issued 1940 seal there is only one design, one type of booklet with 5 panes of 10 (5 x 2), one type of sheet of 25 (5 x 5) and two postcards designs. As with the 1939 issues, the postcards are […]
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With all the recent publications on the 1930s/1940s Christmas seals on the KSS website by Robert Finder one might forget that these Christmas seals are not only interesting from a historical point of view. They are actually still around, being published every year! However, most publicity is available only to a Korean speaking audience. To […]
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The 1939 Koran Christmas and New Year seal program is similar to 1938 as there are two different booklet sizes. There was just one design. There are regular sheets of 25 (5 x 5), sheets of 40 (4 x 10) that were used for the small booklets, and sheets of 9 plus 9 labels also […]
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The 1938 Korean Christmas and New Year seal program differs from past years in that there were two different booklet sizes. Other than the different booklets, there were sheets of 25 (5 x5) and two postcards designs. Some observers believe that the previous year program, 1937, was the peak in popularity and sales of Dr. […]
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