It started with stamps on which you could read a motto after some scratching. Soon after that stamps smelled like coffee or roses when you rubbed about them. Then stamps containing rock-crystal and moonstones appeared. Embroided stamps, leather stamps, stamps made from lace and porcelain. Recently even a glass stamp appeared, but now Spain has something completely new: cookie stamps. For Christmas 2016 the 300 years old Correos de Espagna has issued a golden ingot containing 12 cookies. The stamps are said to have a protective packaging, but who knows how they keep with fanatically stamping or hungry postal employees???

If you want to buy a cookie-gold-ingot, this is only possible together with a set of 6 pre-franked christmas cards for the "special offer" price of € 25,-.

From our Canadian member Dr. Kaboom (David Ashcroft) we received a novelty "without motorcycle". He informed us about a Russian stamp that has been issued on September 26th 2016, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the weapon manufacturer Degtyarev in Kovrov, a city in the Russian oblast Vladimir, about 250 kilometers east of Moscow. On the stamp we see on the right a sculpture made from the weapons that are manufactured in the factory and on the left the facade of the old factory.

The factory was founded in 1916 by a Danish consortium as the Kovrov machine gun works, with V.A. Federov (inventor of the machine gun) as director.

After the second World War they already made, after the example of the German DKW, motorcycles for the army. In 1949 the Danish stopped with the factory and Alexander Degtyarev (inventor of the anti-tank weapon), a capable designer, arranged that the Russians let the factory continue. The factory developed into a manufacturer of utility goods. Apart from weapons they made household goods like buckets, watering-cans, furniture, sowing machines, packaging machines etcetera. They also made motorcycle parts for amongst others the Voshkod and the ISH, and in 1950 a successful 175cc motorcycle model was introduced under the own name Kovrovec. In the mean time the name of the factory has changed into Z.I.D., meaning something like "Factory named after Degtyarev", and they make many different models together with the Chinese motorcycle brand Lifan. In total more than 8 million motorcycles, mopeds and scooters have left the factory gate. A few models are the clone of the Lifan 250cc V-twin, the Dune all-terrain motorcycle and the transporter from Mokiko.

Better late than……
Recently an advertisement letter from the Portugese Post CTT was offered for sale on the internet. The advertisement was for a book about the Portugese moped industry.

On the flyer an imprinted Postage Paid image:

Off course we, as motorcycle-motive-collectors, immediately recognise the images on the cover from the stamp series mopeds issued by Portugal on July 4th 2007. In the book this series and the accompanying block are also found.
But..... the book was issued not earlier than June 1st 2015. Thus a bit (8 years) later than the stamp series. Why there is so much time between the stamps and the book.......? The book, Motorizadas 50 CC Portuguesa, has been issued in an edition of 4000 and costs €35,-.

The writer, Pedro Pinto, sheds light on the development of the moped in Portugal and pays a lot of attention to the moped-powered postal service.

Having seen the news about the "litte ball" of stamps in Boys Town (newsletter 117) Peter Fidder informed us about a similar stamp-gadget in our own country. In the poultry museum in Barneveld (NL) there is an egg made of stamps of about 75 cm large. A much shorter travel for those who like it.

The PostNL building in Veenendaal is the most environmentally friendly building in the Netherlands, at least in 2009. It was the first distribution center of PostNL (at that time still called TNT), opened on October 27th 2008, which is fully CO2-neutral. What does this matter to us MFN-ers?
Well, at such a building one can naturally not arrive with a smoking and grunting scoot-moped. Therefore a test had been done in Veenendaal with various electric scooters to be used for post delivery, and such a test scooter was depicted on the MFN NB PPZ used to ship Newsletter no. 116 to your home. Just for information.

At the club meeting André Sierink told that he has the stamp from Togo (see the novelties in newsletter 116) as construction kit. And I think he is right.
With some pottering around the "designer" from Stamperija has magically changed the image on the box of the BMW Racing Motorcycle Model Kit no. 3800-98 from Ideal Toy Corporation into a stamp.

The image of the motorcycle (with sidecar) below comes from the Elvis Presley block, issued in 2006 by Guinee Bissau.
I would love to know which brand and model this is. Can you help me??

In Newsletter 116 you could admire the Turkish stamp on the occasion of the opening of the postal museum. In the mean time we have more clarity about this stamp with its strange shape.
On October 23rd 2013 the Postal Museum celebrated its first anniversary, and on the occasion of this memorable fact a philatelic series of 3 items was issued: two stamps and..... a reply coupon.

Although the stamps were not very relevant for our theme, the reply coupon shows amongst others a postman on a scooter.
The receiver of such a reply coupon can get the equivalent value in stamps at the post office, to frank a reply to the sender. Every country affiliated to the U.P.U. has to accept these coupons.
This special Turkish edition has been given to the visitors of the 1-year celebration in the museum, and can be bought by collectors at the philatelic service in Turkey.
The coupon is contained in a nice portfolio with information on the history of the postal services in Turkey and information about the museum. On the frontside of the portfolio is an image of the museum, made in copper. 10000 pieces have been made of this portfolio.

On June 28th 2016 the Russian Post issued the postcard mentioned in the former newsletter, with the street image with the scooter driver who is just passing the zebra crossing. This set with the theme traffic safety thus contains the card, and a stamp with a child sitting in a child car seat. The stamp is not interesting for us, and the normal FDC shows a warning triangle in the postmark.
But there is also an FDC available with another illustration, on the occasion of 80 years Motorized Inspection from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There we see on the right side a row of cars and on the left side a row of motorcycle sidecar combinations, presumably Urals, with their drivers.

This service is housed in Veliky Novgorod. There are envelops with an extra postmark, placed in the office of this service, with the special postmark shown here as bonus.

Hans de Kloet

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