Revenue stamped document: Masan middle school graduation certificate

From the collection of Joe Ross, well-known amongst revenue stamp collectors as someone with one of the largest revenue stamp collections in the world and author of several revenue stamp catalogues, comes this revenue stamped document from the city of Masan (마산), now part of Changwon (창원시). Unlike with postal documents, revenue documents are usually not available to collectors of revenue stamps, meaning that this type of document is quite rare.

What are we looking at? This is a certified copy of the middle school graduation certificate of (name redacted), born in 1977. This person went to the Masan Dong Middle School between 1990 and 1993, finishing middle school in the three years middle school takes in Korea.

Masan is part of the city of Changwon, which is in Gyeongsangnam Province. Changwon is a port city to the west of cities such as Gimhae and Busan.

In order to explain the details on the document all relevant parts have been marked with a letter. See below for the individual translations/explanations.

The individual parts are as follows:

1. 제 570 호 = (document) number 570
2. 졸업증명서 = graduation certificate (copy)
3. Revenue stamp of 200 won:
   • 경상남도교육청 = Gyeongsangnam Provincial Office of Education
4. 본적 = original place of residence of family, in this case “미기재” (= lit. “not shown” as in: no information available)
5. Details of person:
   • 주민등록번호 = national identification number; here 77xxxx – 1xxxxxx, where 77xxxx is “date of birth” (see below) and 1xxxxxx starts with “1” which means person is male (if 2 then female)
   • 성명 = name (omitted)
   • 생 년 월 일 = date of birth
6. School career details:
   • 1990년 3월 5일 제1 학년 입학 = start of school (here: 5 March 1990)
   • 1993년 2월 13일 제2 학년 졸업 = graduation date (here: 13 February 1993)
7. 위의 사실을 증명함 = “I certify above facts as true”
8. 1995년 8월 2일 = 2 August 1995
9. 마산동중학교장 = Masan Dong Middle School principal; this school still exists, see http://masandong-m.gne.go.kr/
10. AUG 17 1995 = date cancellation (notice: 2 weeks after date at line H)
11. Identification of officials:
    • There are two different name chops on the document, the top is probably the school principal, the lower one perhaps the administrator/clerk who made the document and/or checked it with the original.
    • 확인 = check/verify
    • 대조 = compare (=to see if this copy is identical to original document)

It is not known how or why this document came onto the market, but somehow it found its way out of Korea (Joe lives in California).