"The Korean Liberator" Cover - 20 May 1946

One of my collecting specialties are stamps and covers from the Republic of Korea (South Korea). My favorite by far are covers that mark the first trip of the "Korean Liberator", which was a streamliner that traveled from Seoul to Pusan on 20 May 1946. Tied to the covers below are all six of the "Liberation from Japanese Rule" commemoratives, which is fitting for the first trip of "The Korean Liberator" streamliner.

These are great covers to collect and so far all of the ones I have seen were mailed by U.S. Army personnel stationed in South Korea at the time (1946).







As a military veteran who collects stamps and is married to a wonderful Korean wife these are great items in my collection that I enjoy greatly.

I just wanted to share them with the group!

Great covers!

The cachet is only in English, so perhaps it was created by US military personnel?
Also, that train does not look very streamlined.

Still, I agree that the combination of the stamp issue, events and the military addresses make them outstanding covers.

The second cover notes "Not acceptable in international mail".
Do you think that refers to the stamps?
Is APO to USA considered International mail?

Hi DStamp,

The majority of the cachet's for South Korea are in English, so I am not inclined to believe it was created by US military personnel. In researching "The Korean Liberator" streamliner a while back I was able to pull up old pictures of the train off of Korean websites, though I couldn't find a lot of details about it. I have a lot of information gaps for these unusual covers.

Good question regarding the "not acceptable in international mail" notation. I'm not sure how mail was sent on the Korean Peninsula back in 1946, but sending a letter today from an APO/FPO address back to the states is not considered international mail if on a military installation.

Thanks for the reply and I hope you have a great rest of the week.

Are the cachets all the same or are there different ones?

PP

PP,

I've only seen one cachet type for the Korean Liberator and believe they are all the same.