Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 22

Cars are a commonly collected topic in theme collections.
Searching for specific cars, reduces the stack of stamps worldwide issued a lot.
As for my thematic collection, I limit myself to my love for Volkswagen Beetles.

In this article, I show you a sheet of Finland, with 10 stamps, all depicting historic police cars.
The sheetlet has 10 different 1st class stamp. Each depicting a historic police car.
Each stamp bears the number "1" - the basic rate of a simple 1st class stamp
(at the day of issue : € 1,65 each).

car types on the reverse side

10 personalised stamps with police cars

The reverse side of the sheetlet, shows the names of the type of the cars

1 Volvo PV 444.	2 Renault Goelette.
3 Moskvitsh Elite.	4 Peugeot 403.
5 Volvo Amazon Sport.	6 Porsche 356B.
7 Plymouth Valiant.	8 Plymouth Fury.
9 Volkswagen Kupla.	10 Saab 99 GL.

Porsche 365B

Volkswagen Beetle

The stamps were issued in 2008 and are personalised stamps.
Personalised stamps are printed on behalf of a private company, institution, organisation, and for Finland, (but also for the Netherlands, Belgium, ....) have a similar lay out.
This to make it easy recognisable as a 'personalised' stamp.
Since they are printed by the officially recognised postal services, the stamps can be used for regular use.

lay out of a Finnish personalised stamp

The sheet of 10 stamps are quite simple in design, but the sober design give the stamps a certain style.

More to follow...

Microstates : 18d MMM (fake)

Somehow it's a pity to waste much time and effort to a fake set of notes, such as the (in)famous Mavrodi biletovs.
However I noticed something so remarkable not so long ago, that I didn't want to hold it back.

In fact, this small article has nothing to do with the previous articles I wrote on Mavrodi's MMM bank shares. And yet, it's a nice way to complete this set of articles.

First of all I have to say tell you that in Belgium (where I live), since a couple of years, the licence plates were renewed.
Since we were running out of combinations with 3 letters and 3 numbers. A new digit was added to the official licence plates. New plates look like "1-ABC-123"

belgian licence plate new style

Together with this is was possible to request a private plate, which started with a 9-.........
However, the system was very successful, and although a private licence plate costed € 1000 each, the demand increased. 
Ok, now comes the funny part.... excluded combinations were 'numbers alone' as they are used for the royal family....
A lot of cars were fined in France for speeding, but the French authorities didn't have the means yet to identify the new belgian licence plates, and could only read 1 - ...... which happens to be the licence plate of our King.....
At the beginning a lot of speeding tickets were sent to the belgian royals...

belgian licence plate of the royal family

One problem solved now.
After a while, the possibility to have any possible combination, replaced the 'old' 9-...... plates, and any combination of 8 digits was possible. (Those plates cost € 2000 ! each).
Again, no offensive names, or numbers alone, or politically inspired names were alowed.
For the rest ...

private plate with one digit

private plate with 6 digits

private plate with 7 digits

And finally.... to come where I started the article ...
This car stopped in front of me at the trafic lights :

MMM - licence plate (Belgium)

I wonder if the car owner is aware of the MMM-banknotes, but if not, he's popluar now.

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 18d

It has been ages since I posted other items then stamps, coins or banknotes.
Quite logical if you know the site is about those things.
However, since I'm in love with Volkswagen Beetles, I made an exception for some collectibles that are sidekicks of my collection.

For the magnet lovers, check previous posts on Volkswagen, to see the other items I posted.

A couple of days ago I found another magnet from the set I had so far.
The magnet is the last one so far : 1954
(the others are : '33 - '36 - '37 - '38 - '39 - '44 - '45 - '46 - '47 - '48 - '49 - '50 - '51 and 52)

The 1954 magnet shows a Volkswagen Beetle 1200.

Magnet 1954 Volkswagen Beetle 1200

On the WWW I found the picture of the car that was used for this magnet:

Pic of the Volkswagen Beetle 1200

Back in 1954, amost 1.000.000 Volkswagen Beetle cars were sold already.
A couple of months later, on August 6, 1955, they reached the landmark of 1 million cars.
This amount would be repeated 20 times more, as in total over 21 (!) million Beetles were produced.

1 millionth Volkswagen Beetle in 1955

Hopefully I can continue this set of magnets ...

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 21

It's been a while since my last post on Volkswagen Beetle items.
And although this stamp/sheet does not have the Volkswagen as main theme, it is clearly prensent at the sheet.

This Uganda sheet, issued in 2012, is dedicated to special means of transport.
Uganda has issued tons of stamps, sheets, and not all of them are official.
No wonder there's something strange about the sheet.

This sheet is titeled 'special transport'.  "Emergency transport" might have been a better choice for the vehicles depicted.
My eyes - of course - are more interested in the Volkswagen Beetle.
Strange is the fact that the word 'POLIS' is witten on the car.
As to my knowledge, Uganda has English and Swahili as their official languages.
Which means, you would expect 'Police' or 'Polisi' to be written on the car.
Maybe it should have been the Swahili word, but with the last I omitted ...

A bit of research however, shows that the depicted car does exist, but it has little to do with Ugangda.
"Polis" is seen on Turkish police cars and on Swedish. (also on Curaçao).

Swedish Police car on Uganda sheet

As I haven't found any Turkish Volkswagen beetles that were used by Turkish police, the only match to me is the Swedish link.

Swedish Police car 'Polis'

As you can see in the picture, the inspiration for this stamp design, clearly comes from the Swedish police. The details were omitted (lamp on the roof).
If you need special assistance in Uganda, don't expect the police soon to arrive. It's a long way from Sweden to Uganda.

Turkish Police

Swedish Police

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 20

When you collect very common themes, as flowers, insects, animals, famous people, ... your collection can be extended nearly every day.

Choosing a less common theme, or a very specific theme (like my Volkswagen Beetles) has a limited number of issued stamps, but whenever something new appears, the pleasure is double.

So for my next item from Spain.
A souvenir sheet of 4 stamps was issued in 2013.
Each of the stamps shows a 'classic' car.
We see a Mercedes Benz 190 (1962) - a Citroën 2CV (1948) and a Seat 1500 (1963).
The fourth stamp shows - of course - a Volkswagen Beetle.
Although each other model shows us the car from the mentionned year, the Beetle stamps indicates : "Volkswagen Beetle (1938)".
The first "Beetle" may then have been produced around 1938, under the name of KdF-wagen, the car depicted in the stamp is a 1966 model.

full sheet Spain 2013

In my - humble - opinion, a missed chance to depict a real old model, as the subtext is suggesting.
Or at least the marked year of 1938 could have been adjusted to the depicted model.

detail of the sheet, with left corner

Finally the choice of the colours of this sheetlet disspaointed me a little bit too.
The print under the stamp (back side of a red Beetle) is the only highlight in the rather tasteless design.
I think there was more creativity possible in creating this sheet.

Nevertheless, a nice new item for my theme collection.

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 19

With theme collections, collectors tend not to limit their collection to one specific item.
Most of the time, anything that is "related" to the theme is accepted.

With my theme collection on Volkswagen Beetle, I do lots of miniature cars, books regarding the theme, posters... even magnets as I posted in previous articles.
But as this blog is mainly about stamps, coins and banknotes, I should limit my 'related' items to a strict mininmum.
However, today's post is an acceptable collectible.

I was on an auction, and bought a stamp album for a very low price.
I had looked into the album but I didn't see all items that were in it.
After buying it, I had a closer look to what I just purchased.

A postcard (with address, but never sent - or at least not cancelled) with a picture of the 'economic miracle"'.
The term 'Wirtschaftswunder' (economic miracle) is often given to both Volkswagen and former Chancellor of West-Gemany, Ludwig Erhard.
Erhard rejected the Nazi regime and worked on an economic reconstruction plan before the war was over yet.
He became Minister of Economics under Konrad Adenauer, and under his influence, the new German Mark was introduced, a brave decision that made the newly introduced neoliberal based German economic flourish again (for the record : the correct term is ordoliberalism).
In this perspective, he was given the title 'father of the German economic miracle.

Ludwig Erhard

Ludwig Erhard on stamp 1987 Germany

Detail from the card : Erhard, Volkswagen 1948, new german coins (1948)

Oh... there's a Volkswagen dealer in Neufahrn (north of Munich (Germany)),
in the Ludwig Erhard street n° 15. (Autohaus Neufahrn)

to be continued...

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 18c

The last set of Volkswagen magnets I found so far, are those from the 1950's.

Volkswagen became more and more popular. The magnets in my collection however stop at 1952.
About the moment when the 'split window' dissapeared and was replaced by one, oval shaped window.

I don't know if there are more magnets in this series, if so, please let me know

The last so far, but hopefully, this article helps me to find the missing magnets.
After all, the (Volkswagen) story has to go on ...

Volkswagen magnets 1950/51 and 52

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 16

After the split of the former republic of Yugoslavia, many countries were formed. (See post 15 in this series)
One of them is the beautiful country of Kroatia.

They made me very happy in 2008, when they issued a special stamp, dedicated to my beloved car.
I was lucky to get not only the stamp, but also a label and a tab!
3 for the price of one...

Kroatia - 2008 - Volkswagen stamp, label and tab

As you can see in the detail below, similar to Serbian language, a beetle is also called 'Buba'.

The word 'Buba' was replaced, because this was actually a very special beetle that was used for the design of this stamp...
You might have remarked the gold colour of the Beelte.

Kroatian stamp - detail

This isn't an ordinary one, but the 1.000.000 th Beetle!
After the Allied Forces restarted the factory in Wolfsburg, after the second World War, the Beetle became more and more successful. Less then 10 years later, in 1955 the millionth car was produced in Wolfsburg.

1 million people in the pic? or 1.000.000th Volkswagen Beetle?

1 millionth Volkswagen Beetle indeed!

For this special occasion, the car was put into a gold colour.
The car can be seen at the new 'Autostadt' in Wolfsburg, Germany.
I was lucky already to see the car myself.

1 millionth Beetle, now in Autostadt, Wolfsburg, Germany

Who could ever have guessed that many years later, the Volkswagen Beelte would even celebrate the 20.000.000 th Beetle, and had become the worldwide most sold car ever!

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 15

I never knew that stamp collecting should be complicated, but for the next item, some additional information is needed.

I start my story in the First World War.
By the end of that war, the region I talking about was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
In 1918, the Union of Austria and Hungary is solved and next to both countries, other nations are formed.
One of them is the the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was established on 1 December 1918 by the union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia (to which the Kingdom of Montenegro was annexed on 13 November 1918).
On 3 October 1929, the Kingdom was renamed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This remained until 1941, when it came under communist influence.

From 1943 to 1992 on this country changed it name several times.
1943 - 45 : Federal Democtatic Republic of Yugoslavia,
1945 - 63 : Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia,
1963 - 92 : Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia


The constituent six Socialist Republics and two Socialist Autonomous Provinces that made up the country were: SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Slovenia and SR Serbia (including the autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo which after 1974 were largely equal to the other members of the federation.
This was the Yugoslavia know under Josip Broz (Tito)

Marchal Tito

From 1992 on, a lot of wars and declarations of Independencies result in a wide range of states :
Countries created from the former Yugoslavia:
A  =Adriatic Sea

Ok, I hope everyone is still following.

For the post of today, which is about 'Volkswagen Beetle'...
I'm showing stamps from the 'Serbian Republic' (3b in my table) - this is not the independent republic of Serbia, but an autonomous region in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Within Bosnia)-Herzegovina, each region has it's own postal services.

And now, finally, the post of today :-)

The Republic of Serbia emitted in 2009 a set of stamps on famous old cars.
Among the chosen ones we'll find : Fiat 500; Citroën 2CV and of course, my beloved Volkswagen Beetle.
Production dates are mentioned on a tab next to the stamp, each with a detail of the depiced car.
For the Volkswagen Beetle we find : 1938 - 2003.

on top : Bosnia I Herzegovina - Republic Serbia at the bottom "Buba" - Serbian for Bug (Beetle)

Detail of the tab

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 14

For non-europan followers of this blog, Åland [Oland] might not be known.
Even many Europeans are not familiar with the Åland Islands.

In fact it's a part of Finland, but the inhabitants of Åland Åll speak swedish.

The flag of the islands is more similar to the swedish then to the finnish flag.

BecÅse of it's particular pÅsition, right in the middle between the two countries, it has Ålways been an important economic and strategic group of islands in the Baltic Sea.

Within Finland, it has autonomy, such as an own parliament, and Åland issues its own stamps.

flag of Åland

Åland on the map

This small group of islands however have pleased me with a very nice booklet of 'old vehicles', including ( Åf cÅrse) with a VÅlkswagen Beetle.

4 old cars are depicted. The VÅlkswagen Beetle is a 1964 version.

booklet - outside

booklet - inside

the single Åland stamp - first class

Åland licence plate on the car

FÅr this one time, you will have to excuse me the jÅke with the "Å"

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 13

In 2001, the smal country of Luxemburg, made me happy.
Luxemburg always makes me happy, but this time, it was for a special reason.
A small booklet with 12 auto-adhesive stamps was issued, dedicated to the Postal Services of Luxemburg.
Depicted were two cars that were used by the postal services.
One was the Citroën 2CV, the other one the Volkswagen Beetle.

Being in the middle of two big countries in Europe (France and Germany). A set of stamps with the most famous cars of both countries, wasn't a bad idea at all.

Altough there are 2CV collectors, I will focus on the Volkswagen Beetle, as it 's my topic.

VW Beetle, used as postal vehicle in Luxemburg

On the booklet there are 6 stamps with the Citroën 2CV and 6 with a Volkswagen Beetle.
The Citroën has a facevalue of 0,07 €; the Volkswagen 0,45 €

inside the booklet

outside the booklet

I was lucky to be in Luxemburg at the time of issue.
This made it possible to find (and buy) two additional first day covers.

First day cover with two different stamps

First day cover with two 'beetle stamps'

First day cancel