First published on the Korea Stamp Society's website on 18th February 2021 - koreastampsociety.org
Throughout the history seals have adorned letters and manuscripts. Whether wax or paper, this simple practical device has been utilised as a messenger in its own right, demonstrating power and status, highlighting a worthy cause or sending a seasonal greeting (see the famous TB Christmas seals). The seal and its cinderella cousin have a justified standing in the field of postal history and a well-earned place in the hearts of many collectors.
The Korea Stamp Society has taken the exciting decision to join this wonderful tradition with the issuing of two miniature sheets of KSS seals.
Figure 1: KSS seal “souvenir sheet” type A. This sheet contains 6 labels showing the (current) official KSS banner.
What began as a casual comment by our then KSS Chair, Ivo Spanjersberg, over the course of the next year developed into a wonderful project and being part of this was truly like being involved in the early days of stamp design and printing. The knocking backwards and forwards of potential ideas and designs, the investigation of printing layouts, different perforation options and whether there were companies out there that could actually product the sheets in the end anyway.
Finally, a number of options presented themselves. The first but most difficult was to produce actual postage stamps, designed by the KSS and printed in South Korea via their postal service’s customisable stamp scheme (see the “My Own Stamps” on the KSS website). Although this was a very attractive option, in practice it would be quite costly and, before we could proceed, it would require a South Korean residential address and bank account.
Figure 2: KSS seal “souvenir sheet” type B. This sheet contains a total of 6 labels in 2 different designs. One design is the same as the 6 labels in the type A sheet, the other label is a representation of a Korean Christmas seal card from the 1930s
Therefore this option was not really viable and the ‘cinderella’ (non-postal validity) option was the way forward. We were then faced with a choice of producers. The type of perforation (comb, line, etc.) turned out to be critical as it determined the nature of the final design. In the end it was decided that for now a design based on a more traditional linear perforation would be the best way forward. The seals have been produced by the German company “Yourstamps”.
Figure 3: Before cutting out both types of souvenir sheets the sheets are first printed on A4. We decided to also offer such “printer’s sheets” to KSS members and others interested in this type of sheet. It comes in two forms, one uncut and still without perforations and one uncut but with the perforations done. These two sheets are effectively the first two production steps of 1. printing on A4 sized paper and 2. perforating as required. Note the unperforated printer’s sheet is slightly larger than the perforated sheet. That’s because the unperforated sheet is 100% A4, while the perforation machine requires the A4 sheet to be slightly smaller in size. Therefore the perforated version has already gone through that particular step.
Based on one of Korea’s 1930’s Christmas seals and incorporating the present KSS logo, here are the two final designs and we hope that you like them. They are available for sale through our Delcampe page as:
“souvenir sheets”: we have created 130 copies of each type, type A and type B, both containing six seals of two different designs;
“printer’s sheets”: the uncut A4 sized sheets used to create the two different sheets are also available. There are 20 of these sheets available with the perforations in the A4 sheet (but the sheets uncut) and 10 of the same A4 sheets but without any perforations done.
Check the KSS Delcampe shop for current prices including post and packaging to your address.
Figure 3: Before cutting out both types of souvenir sheets the sheets are first printed on A4. We decided to also offer such “printer’s sheets” to KSS members and others interested in this type of sheet. It comes in two forms, one uncut and still without perforations and one uncut but with the perforations done. These two sheets are effectively the first two production steps of 1. printing on A4 sized paper and 2. perforating as required. Note the unperforated printer’s sheet is slightly larger than the perforated sheet. That’s because the unperforated sheet is 100% A4, while the perforation machine requires the A4 sheet to be slightly smaller in size. Therefore the perforated version has already gone through that particular step.
Figure 4: After perforating but before cutting the printer’s sheet looks like this from the back. The middle row of seals is actually where the cut will be, effectively these are not seals but the lower resp. upper part of the souvenir sheets.
Please note that these seals are not valid for postage in any country in the world! These seals are meant as souvenirs only and are not meant to indicate any opinion in any form with regards to the political situation in/around the Korean peninsula.
First published on the Korea Stamp Society's website koreastampsociety.org on 18th February 2021 - koreastampsociety.org/2021/02/18/the-korea-stamp-societys-seal-of-approval-2
Despite their status as "merely" souvenir stamps, this is interesting. Stamps as artistic form have a certain interest that goes beyond their postal use.