The American and British legations in Seoul at the end of the 19th century / Courtesy of Diane Nars Collection

Following the establishment of the Imperial Korean Customs in 1883, international smuggling has been a problem in Korea. Chinese and Japanese junks frequently attempted to avoid inspections, passengers aboard the handful of steamships hid goods among their luggage, and perhaps even more egregious were foreign representatives who used their diplomatic immunity for their own gains.

Sometimes the smuggled items were relatively small and perceived to be inexpensive — such as stamps. However, Korea’s turbulent politics soon transformed these stamps into rare and valuable items coveted by collectors around the world.

On the evening of Dec. 4, 1884, a banquet was held at the newly established post office in Seoul to celebrate the successful inauguration of Korea’s postal system. It was as this banquet when the unsuccessful, but very bloody, Gapsin Coup began. The resulting destruction proved beneficial to Ensign George C. Foulk, an American naval officer attached to the American Legation in Seoul, and stamp collectors around the world.

After the coup, Foulk acquired several stamps and sent them to his family so that they could sell them. He explained to his parents that Korean post office “had only been in existence a few days when [the coup attempt] broke out in Seoul.” The postmaster, Hong Yong-sik, was murdered, the post office gutted and the Korean government declared the fledgling service officially abolished. “The stamps certainly ought to be very valuable to the ‘friends,’ and you must not let them go for any sacrifice.” He optimistically suggested the stamps would fetch $30 or more each. He was wrong.

A postcard of a Korean postman in the early 20th century / Robert Neff Collection

In early 1885, he bought 15,000 stamps “from a wretch who could give no account of how he got them.” He paid only $3 for the entire lot. Foulk justified his act by claiming he originally intended to return them to the Korean government once it reestablished its postal service. However, he soon learned the government would commission an entirely new series of stamps and the stamps Foulk had in his possession would be voided “as the handiwork of the conspirators.”

He sent 6,000 stamps to Yokohama where a fifth of them were sold for a couple of hundred dollars. Although it isn’t clear if his possession and sale of the stamps violated any laws, Foulk prudently warned his parents not to “say anything to anybody about the matter.”

Stamps were not the only things Foulk was........

© The Korea Times