South Korea Help, Please?

I collect stamps where the place of cancellation can be ID'd from the postmark, but a lot of the spellings of the romanized town names on South Korean stamps have baffled me. No, I can't read Korean, tho I spent a delightful semester in Seoul & saw the 1988 Olympics there.
Is there a reference source that can help me?
For instance, the leftmost stamp's town begins "Goanghoa..." I can't find a reference source that uses that romanized spelling. I seems to be "Gwang..." in the sources I've found, although I've also seen it as "Guang..."
I've often had this problem in the postmarks that seem to have this unusual sort-of-rosette border in the postmark.
Appreciate any help! Thanks in advance.

Looks like the right hand stamp is cancelled in the town of Taegu KS

The left hand one might be Gaon, Seoul KS

Hi, the cancel on the leftmost stamp is very likely to be of "Goanghoamun", which is now spelled as "Gwanghwamun", Seoul.

I have found (on Web) an example of roller date stamp bearing the same "Goanghoamun" spelling; the alphabetical spelling of Korean post office seems to have several variations, which are indeed confusing...

http://blog-imgs-54.fc2.com/k/o/m/k...601115f4.jpg


- Hironobu

Also found this one on the Web, which matches the one on your leftmost datestamp.



- Hironobu

Thank you oldguy & unechan. Very helpful.

This form of South Korean cancellation was used solely for International mailing and is called a "Hibiscus" cancel.

Good to know about the Hibiscus cancel. Thank you.

For all, I phrased my response poorly. The Korean Hibiscus-style cancellation was used on International Mail on Outbound International Mail Cancellation and Inbound International Receiving or Receiving/Transit Cancellation. The cancel was first seen used at SEOUL main post office beginning in mid-1956, in conjunction with the standard double-circle Roman-style comb cancellations, and was ceased being used in 1969-1970. The Hibiscus-style cancellation was not used or adapted at all Korean Post Offices for use and was seen predominately SEOUL and a few, not all, larger POST OFFICES as well as PUSAN, etc. The cancellation is found in: Purple, Black and Red (scarcest). The Hibiscus-style cancel usage is an interesting chapter in modern Korean Postal History as that it never replaced standard double-circle Roman-style comb cancellation; it has developed its own group of specialized cover collectors. There are several There are several town, style and type varieties that have become highly desirable and sought after.

I don't see a lot of hibiscus cancels, but I'd be amenable to keeping an eye out for you for rare ones you mentioned if you give me an idea of what to watch for.

This discussion has revived in me the memory of a philatelic adventure in Seoul. In 1988 I was a visiting professor in Seoul and at that time was also collecting identifiable dates in postal cancels (I eventually got 33,000+ different before switching t places). Somehow I managed to find a stamp shop in Seoul, went there & told him I was looking for date cancels on Korean stamps. He beamed at that and said he had just the thing for me! He whipped out a box of hundreds of stamps and, yes, they all had the date cancel on them!
One little problem, though, THEY WERE ALL CANCELED ON THE SAME DATE!

Somehow I knew my response would open the door for that question. I am a past-publisher of "KOREAN PHILATELY" which is why I know something about the cancellation. Unfortunately, it is not my speciality in Korean postal history, it is in Empire Period, Japanese Occupation Period and US Military Period Overprints.

John Strout of Cape Girardeau, Mo., wrote an excellent series of articles on the Hibiscus Cancels that appeared in 'KOREAN PHILATELY', publication of the Korea Stamp Society in the 1970s and 1980s. The publication is in English and is on file at the APRL (American Philatelic Research Library) in State College; Strout had classified and rated all the Hibiscus varieties.

You may want to take a look at the following ebay store's listing, under "Worldwide Philatelic Covers" . One dealer I know, located in Korea (see:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/primechoic...047675.l2562
has a a large group of International covers demonstrating the cancel's usage. If you are interested in specializing in the area, you should be able to locate covers and stamps fairly easily since it is it was used only on International mail.

I had to chuckle at your story of Korean CTO stamps.

Thanks for the further info. Anything that helps me to figure out what I've got is certainly welcome.

Hal,

Thanks for the interesting story on the hibiscus datestamps; this indeed is a very attractive area !!

I have been trying to find out more about the second stamp without success. One thing we can notice is that the "text" is in two rows; it's too long for a PO name and looks quite strange. Also, "GUGGA" could be interpreted as "nation" or "national", "HOE EUI" ("hwe eui") is "meeting" or "conference", and they look inadequate as a part of PO name.

My guess is that this may be a commemorative datestamp celebrating some national meeting or conference, but are there any such usage of the hibiscus datestamp?

Interesting Post....nice work Hal.

Very interesting...... have not inventories that Country yet

Domo, Unechan! Thanks, rod222!

On review, my collection was devoid of any "Hibiscus Style" postmarks,

...apart from two, lonely, tiny, "hints" that may have been................