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When we are working with North Korean stamps, we often stumble with several different kinds of design,coexisting harmoniously in each year issues... I'm talking of the period that goes from the end of the 40's until the end of the 70's...we have some simple designs, almost childlike (1) , other not very attractive (2) but very colorful, and even very nice Landscape Painting works (3) , some were made by Artists specialized in Poster Design (4) and in the end the Engraved stamps (5) ... all of this 5 types of design exists at the same time during this large period of 30 years.... the reason why many people don't like North Korean stamps is that the most common stamps available are from the first and second types....the engraved stamps, for example are much more scars and do not appear commonly on sellers in the Internet...but they are many, and for example in the 50's and beginning of the 60's are a considerably large part of each year issues... I think that all of us should take a minute to know more of these sometimes very beautiful stamps... I should say that most part of these engraved stamps are not [Recess] printed,but are more commonly in a [Litho] printed form....
Today I have a small selection of stamps, where the these 5 categories are very well represented...I do not know what are the reasons behind this mix of simple and detailed designs, but it is clear for me , that the most part of other countries always tried to have the best Artists of the moment designing their stamps...this mix is somehow incomprehensible..!
Another fact that always kept North Korean stamps a little out of the system is the Ferocious Animosity to US ideas and Life Style... North Korea have the most offensive stamps towards another country in the all world... I often say that we , as collectors, should not mix Politics and Hobby, but I admit that to a US collector some of NK stamps are really "not collectible"....
We have here a first series ,from 1966 , that could belong to the first group of stamps... As you can see, a very simple design, with no work trying to get better details... just a colorful design...it is clearly a PDSMID (Please don't See Me In Detail) stamp....
1966 "North Korean Folk Dances" (5) [Litho] Sc(714,...,718)
These are single stamp issues,they have nothing in common except the year of issue...Scott Catalog display them individually in their issue date...but I had a hard time trying to find them in SG catalog, because there they are grouped in a series... As you can see the design and level of detail is very different from the one above.. they are engraved , not the best nor even a very good engraver work but now we could say that a detailed view of the stamp won't harm anyone..! (Now is the time to say that the level of quality of some other NK engravings is much higher than these...)
in the [left stamp] , the dredger boat 'September 2' is represented, and in the [right stamp] a view from recent buildings in Pyongyang is showed...
[Left] 1968 "Dredger boat 'September 2'" (1) [Litho] Sc(718)
[Right] 1968 "Building in Pyongyang" (1) [Litho] Sc(831)
These two stamps are also from a 1968 series , and could be placed into the category of those who were designed by Poster Designers... these are clearly small posters, with a clear message ...the series is about the 20th Anniversary of the NK Republic and the Anti US felling is notorious in the [Left] stamp... this category of stamps is in the most part ,very Politically oriented , very warmongering and following the example of other Nations , very Nationalistic , with the only desire of lifting the People's Morale...I want to talk a little about two other characteristics of these stamps... they are also very colorful (as the others from the first group) and the printing has a distinctive singularity.. the image does not seem to be well focused.. it is almost if there was a fog layer above the pictures, and as a result we can not see all the details... but these are good designs, and nice stamps....
1968 "20th Anniversary of the Founding of the Korean Democratic People's Republic" (8) [Litho] Sc(843d,843h) [ this series was issued as part of a MS with all the 8 stamps...]
Another single stamp series , now from 1969... the stamp is focused on the Chollima statue, present in numerous other NK stamps...it is again an engraved stamp, and I cannot refrain myself from thinking in this strange coexistence of some of the simplest and colorful stamps in all the world with the continuous issue of single colored engraved stamps...
A very nice series of engraved stamps from 1971...good quality work and good examples of this high detailed branch of NK stamps...the series show us several accessories or tools for the industry in general... tools to construct or results of the industry work...
1971 "Accessories for the industry" (4) [Litho] Sc(993,...,996)
This is clearly a type 3 design, with very nice landscape paintings... As many others they call our attention by their fresh and vivid colors... beautiful stamps..!!. there are many of these series, specially in the 60's and 70's , with landscapes from NK, and they are without doubts one of the strong points of NK Philately...
1973 "Moran Hill Scenery, Pyongyang" (4) [Litho] Sc(1147,...,1150)
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I like to open now a small section for Space stamps... some of the first and simplest space stamps I have seen...
well, there is not much to tell about these stamps... they are part of the category 1 !!
1959 "Launch of soviet Moon rocket" (2) [Litho] Sc(160,161)
1961 "Launching of Soviet Venus Rocket" (1) [Litho] Sc(282)
Here we have a distinct type 2 series.. it is a series with that common look we don't like to find... the stamps are not bad, but they have nothing that really appeal to our sense of beauty or that ignite our will to buy....they are just stamps...that is the reason why You find so much of these stamps in sellers in the NET... few people buy them...they could be space stamps, animal stamps, commemorative stamps , but they simply don't appeal ...they are type 2..!
1966 "Cosmonauts Day" (3) [Photo] Sc(703,...,705)
Now that I'm ending this post , I am seeing that this division of the stamps by sections (from 1 to 5 or more ) could be applied to any country... the real difference is that in most part of the countries You will find only one or two of these sections coexisting in time... That what's troubling me in North Korea... they have stamps that fit all the sections in the same time frame... Unbelievable..!!!
I sincerely hope that this post have contributed to bring you to the group of those who like very much North Korean stamps...
something that is happening for a year or so, is that the market is increasing the prices of NK stamps... some years ago it was easy to find large lots from the 50's and 60's and now they are almost impossible to find...
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