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...

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 - 18b

When the second World War ended, the Volkswagen factory, who hadn't been producing any civilian VW at all, was doomed to dissapear.
It came  under British control in 1945 and was supposed to be dismantled and shipped to Britain.
Unfortunatly, or luckily, no British manufacturer was actually interested in the factory.
The factory survived by producing cars for the British Army instead.

Major Ivan Hirst

The re-opening of the factory is largely accredited to British Army officer Major Ivan Hirst (1916–2000).
Hirst was ordered to take control of the heavily bombed factory.
Hirst persuaded the British military to order 20,000 of the cars, and by March 1946 the factory was producing 1,000 cars a month, which Hirst said "was the limit set by the availability of materials". During this period, the car reverted to its original name of Volkswagen and the town was renamed Wolfsburg. The first 1,785 Type 1s were made in 1945.

From that time on, the success story of Volkswagens started for real.

magnets from 1944 to 1949

The first Volkswagens that were produced are called the 'split windows', as they have a 'split window' at the back.

Once more, a picture of the Czechoslovakian Tatra from 1934.
Where would the idea of a split window came from?

luxurious Tatra model  with split window

to be continued...

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 18a

I doubted to post this, as it's not a stamp, not a banknote, not a coin...
but since collectors go 'broad' in their collection, I decided to add these items to the blog anyhow.

It's in fact a set of magnets, on the topic of Volkswagen Beelte.

I know that many people collect door magnets too, and I get many requests to bring them along when I abroad.
I don't collect them myself, but in this specific case, I did buy them for myself.
Of course, you 'll understand why...

On of the first designs was Porche's type 12, a car he developed for the German motorcycle manufacturer Zundapp in 1931.

Type 12

This design, as being a prototype, was further on reshaped to get a better result.
At the same time, in former Czechoslovakia, the Tatra company developped a prototype of a new car too.
This prototype, known as the V570 had an air-cooled flat-twin engine engine mounted at the rear. The second version of that V570 had a more streamlined body, similar to that of the Porche Type 32 that was designed in 1933.

Question is, if Porche got his Columbus's egg from his own imagination or if the czech Tatra car helped him.
In fact the similarities are clear.

Tatra V570

Porche's Type 32

The magnet tells us : Volkswagen 1933.
The word 'Volkswagen' however was not yet in use at that time.
In fact the type 32 drew the attenion of Hitler and he instructed Porche to go on developping a car.
In his propaganda campain he wanted a car, affordable for each German family.
The idea of a 'volks' (people's) wagen (car) was born.

To promote the idea, a handful of German representatives of the Third Reich used a car to show the new design to the Germans, who could start to dream of having their own private car.

model 1936

convertible model 1937

The whole idea was to make a car that could be sold for less then 1000 Reichsmark.
In 1933, an average family income was about 32RM per week. The price of 990 RM was similar to the price of a small motorcycle at that time.

The Volkswagen was officially named the KdF-Wagen by Hitler when the project was officially announced in 1938. The name refers to Kraft durch Freude ('Strength Through Joy').
By saving 5 RM per week, this KdF-Wagen was within reach of each family now.
Little they knew that no one would ever see their KdF-Wagen.

model 1938 - KdF-Wagen

Meanwhile in Czechoslovakia, Tatra noticed that Porche became the developper of this new car and that it was clearly based on their original designs. Just before the start of the Second World War, Tatra had ten legal claims filed against VW for infringement of patents. Although Ferdinand Porsche was about to pay a settlement to Tatra, he was stopped by Hitler who said he would "solve his problem". When Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938, the problem was 'solved' in a rather unorthodox way.

Convertable KdF-Wagen, with Porche at the back

back side of all magnets

to be continued...

Theme : Volkswagen Beetle - 17

Lybia was in the news,  so why not an article about Lybian stamps...

Lybian stamps didn't always bare the name 'Lybia', but often also L.A.R.  which stands for Lybian Arabic Republic.
I'm not specificly collecting Lybian stamps, but sometimes my eye catches an item that I can't miss, especially if it fits into my theme collection.

Actually the stamp I'm showing now, is not the most important part of this item. At least not for me.
It's a sheetlet but the border frame is more of my intrest.
Let me show you why.

Lybia sheet UPU 1974

As you can see in the border, a postal vehicle is depicted.
And hurray, it's a Volkswagen beetle !

Detail sheet Lybia 1974

On the stamp, the logo of the UPU is shown.
This sheetlet was issued in 1974, to celebrate the centennial of that UPU.
It's a nice tribute to the UPU, and a great way to promote the Beelte too.

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"