Q-and-A Archives — Korea Stamp Society

Some Confusing North Korea (DPRK) Souvenir Sheets of 1976

October 5, 2022August 11, 2022 Evgeniy Savchenko831 Comment

Some of the types of souvenir sheets of North Korea issued in 1976 are confusing to me when trying to identify them. There may have already been articles on this topic that I have not seen, but I hope that some of our Korea Stamp Society members can answer some of my questions. One example […]

Simple ways to identify stamps from Chosun Dynasty, North Korea and South Korea

August 31, 2022September 1, 2022 YONG S YI1361 Comment

One of our newest Korea Stamp Society members asked the Korea Stamp Society for information on how to tell the differences between South and North Korean stamps. As most of our articles on the KSS website are on specialized topics about Korean philately, we thought it would be good to write an article about identifying […]

The 1950 postal stationery inflationary surcharge on stamps?

June 15, 2022May 30, 2022 William Matthews1632 Comments

Occasionally South Korean stamps show up on popular (stamp) auction websites with a 10 won overprint on them. But are these overprints real? According to John Sauer in his Monograph 1, Specialized Postal Stationery Catalog of the Republic of Korea, page 7, postal card KPC #PC15 was created with a 10 won surcharge on the […]

Buyer Beware… Again! Korea First Issue Essay

December 8, 2021May 16, 2021 Hal Klein419Leave a Comment

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 […]

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

November 10, 2021October 4, 2022 KSS Korea Philately Editor576Leave a Comment

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 […]

Reader’s Question: How much to send an envelope from North Korea to the USA in 1978?

October 19, 2021October 19, 2021 KSS Korea Philately Editor4621 Comment

Marci Jarvis, editor of Cat Mews (which is the magazine of the Cats on Stamps Study Unit) has a question with regards to the postage on this envelope. The Korean Stamp Corporation (KSC) sent it to the then editor of Topical Time, Jerry Husak, the founder of the American Topical Association. On it are a […]

Reader’s Question: Why these strange North Korean stamp issues?

October 12, 2021October 8, 2021 Evgeniy Savchenko5212 Comments

Leafing through the catalog of DPRK stamps and analyzing the policy of themes and stories on the stamps, I had several questions. Perhaps you, or other KSS members, can help me with the answer. Starting in 1946 to issue postage stamps with neutral themes (Rosa of Sharon, Diamond Mountains), the postal administration expanded the themes […]

Readers Question: Chōsen Sotokufu Teishin Kyoku Card?

October 9, 2021October 3, 2021 Richard Arent3041 Comment

My question concerns a card that was issued by Chōsen Sotokufu Teishin Kyoku and features a picture of chickens with an inscription in Korean. It appears that the design could have been issued as a New Year greeting. The Teishin Kyoku issued a set of post cards on October 1, 1910 commemorating the opening of […]

Soviet Bloc Charity Seals for North Korea—what are they?

September 11, 2021September 1, 2021 Robert (Bob) Finder3343 Comments

Recently I was looking for Korean Relief philatelic related material, the type of which I have written about in past articles for the Korea Stamp Society’s website and Korean Philatelic magazine. While doing this, I found a couple of sets of seals from Hungary offered by a Hungarian stamp dealer on Delcampe that appear to […]

Reader’s question: Why are local 1930s revenue stamps never offered “used on document”?

May 19, 2021August 18, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg693Leave a Comment

Since first seeing a South Korean revenue stamp in 2010 (when I needed one for a visa document while already in Korea) I have been collecting information about Korean revenue stamps. What is noticeable in my database of 6000+ notes on Korean revenue stamps that some stamps are very easy to collect “used on document” […]

Are these stamps the unlisted series KSC5170-KSC5173?

April 10, 2021December 8, 2020 KSS Korea Philately Editor6102 Comments

One of our readers, Jordan, sent scans of four complete sheets of North Korean stamps asking what we know about these particular stamps. The first thing to do when answering such questions is to look through either the “Korean Stamp Catalogue 1946-2015” (if the stamps were issued before December 2015) or on the Korea Stamp […]

Reader’s Question: What’s the type of bus on this North Korean stamp?

March 6, 2021March 6, 2021 KSS Korea Philately Editor602Leave a Comment

On the KSS Facebook page someone asked about the KSC195 (Stalin Street): “Is it possible to identify the type of bus?” That’s actually a great question! And also an intriguing challenge. So, we had a look around for an answer. Turns out with a bit of research we actually managed to discover the (very probable) […]

Reader’s Question: How to order from KoreaPost and what about all these new DPRK stamps?

January 16, 2021December 8, 2020 KSS Korea Philately Editor84411 Comments

We received a message from one of our readers, Peter, who has two questions. One is on the KoreaPost international stamp sales website and the inability to actually order something through that website, a point raised quite often by both KSS members and visitors of the KSS website. The other question is on North Korean […]

More about the authenticity of KSC #5 (Sc #11) on 1948 postcard

December 17, 2020December 15, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu7801 Comment

(Editor: a recent question by Chen Yi-Fu led to quite a few answers being given in the comments section. The original article/question can be found here.) This small article is trying to answer some comments about the authenticity of KSC #5 (Sc #11) Secondary anniversary of the labour law.

Reader’s Question: is this 1948 North Korean card real or not…?

November 7, 2020October 31, 2020 Chen Yi-Fu130614 Comments

Is this card and the cancellations on it real or fake? I’m not sure if I’m qualified enough to certify this card, but as a serious DPRK collector I think this card has a 95-99% possibility to be fake. In fact, in my personal opinion, this card is totally fake: the card itself is fake, […]

Reader’s Question: El Salvador vs El Salvadol sheet catalog prices

October 31, 2020October 24, 2020 KSS Korea Philately Editor10916 Comments

(Editor: a question from reader Y.W.:) Hi , I am a little confused about the catalog value of the 2 printings of the above mentioned s/s. First printing, misspelled the country as El Salvadol, the second printing has the corrected country name as El Salvador. Scott listed the first printing has a higher catalog value […]

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

August 19, 2020May 18, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg1136Leave a Comment

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 […]

Reader’s Question: What was the use of this quarantine card?

August 5, 2020March 16, 2020 Ivo Spanjersberg13152 Comments

This document (shown here front and back) was for sale some time ago on Kobay, the Korean version of Ebay. I forgot to bid and didn’t see it again, so we have to make do with the photos from the auction.

Reader’s Question: Was their a Russian influence on the 1903 Falcon stamps’ design?

July 20, 2020February 21, 2021 KSS Korea Philately Editor1778Leave a Comment

(Editor: a question from reader Jim, currently living in South Korea:) “I’m interested in any information about how the 1903 Postes Imperiales Coree stamp came to be designed and authorized for issue, especially in that it seems that this stamp had Russian influence just prior to the Russo-Japanese War as Russia’s involvement in Korea was […]

Reader’s Question: Name of designer of 1984 cosmonaut stamp?

June 17, 2020June 12, 2020 KSS Korea Philately Editor12566 Comments

(Editor: a question from reader Petr from the Czech Republic:) Do you know who is the stamp designer of the North Korean stamp 1984 year Scott Nr 2429-2431, Michel 2522-2524? The stamp with Tereskhova is important for me, that is with a value of 10. In my exhibit about Tereskhova, I have two original artworks […]