Buyer Beware… Again! Korea First Issue Essay

I spotted this on an archived Delcampe sold file of a highly-questionable Dealer located in France. In my fifty-five-plus years collecting, researching and specializing in Empire Korea material I have never seen, or heard, of this item. This sold for 300 Euros. Apparently, it is the same item that was discussed in this article on […]

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Stamp essay of 1884 5 mun stamp in Spink auction: do we know more about this item?

In Spink’s auction of 12 January 2020 a rather strange item showed up. No, the type of item is not strange, stamp essays are quite commonly available. Actually, one might even say some essays are too common, just have a look at Willem van der Bijl’s article on the subject of North Korean “artworks” in […]

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Interesting Korea related items in Corinphila and Vance auctions

Philatelic items directly related to Korea are relatively rare in (international) auctions. Of course, there are these “collections” with albums packed with North Korean stamps from the 1970s and 1980s or the usual South Korean flag sheets and such, but occasionally interesting items do show up. Here are a few examples from two different auction […]

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Classic Korea stamps and covers with Holcombe certificates (Rapp auction)

We are always on the look out for interesting Korean philatelic materials showing up in auctions. One noticeable item showing up in a Rapp auction (“Rapp Auktion Nr. 39 und Nr. 40 von 23. bis 28. November 2020“) is item nr. 2826. This item is listed in both German and English. The Korean items shown […]

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Handwritten Dae han (Tai han) on piece, for discussion

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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