KIYRGCHIASTANIA??
Sometimes I am surprised that the names of cities and countries are written so differently in different languages.
This is also the case with the stamps of Kyrgyzstan reported in the previous newsletter. The country itself writes Kyrgyzstan and in Cyrillic Кыргызстан, but until a few years ago, the Western world spoke of Kirghizia. For the name in the catalog I stick to the Dutch spelling, which is Kirgizstan.
Kyrgyzstan is a weird one, because it is the (so far) only country in the world with two state postal companies: the KP (Kyrgyzstan Post), which was founded in 1992 and the KEP (Kyrgyzstan Express Post), which started in 2014. Both companies co-exist and complement each other's services.
On October 16th 2019 the KEP issued the stamp series with four motorcycles with the theme "Motorcycling in Kyrgyzstan". On the collector sheet we see four of the 600 motorcyclists with the flag bearing the logo of the national motorcyclist organization.
The motorcycles are already clearly denominated on the stamps.
The Yamaha XV 1600 had a 1602 cc V-twin engine in its year of birth, and was given the addition of the letter A. In the USA, the name was Road Star, while in Europe it is called Wild Star. From 1999 to 2005 several special models were made, such as the Limited Edition (ALE), the Midnight Star (AS) and the MM (Midnight Moon), both with mat black engine, Silverrado (AT) and Silverrado Limited Edition (ATLE) where the S type was equipped with additional chrome parts.
On the 50 and 100 Som stamps we see respecitively a chopper and a custom, based on the Ural M-67-36.
The Ural was produced from 1939 on in Russia at IMZ (Irbitski Mototsikletni Zavod) as a clone of the BMW R71, and sold abroad under the name of the chain of mountains where Irbits is located, the Ural. In England the Ural is called Cossack.
The first Ural motorcycles had the designation M72. The M for Military. In 1941 a second factory was set up in Kiev and the motorcycles made there were named KMZ Dnjepr (KMZ = Kievski Motocycle Zavod), Dnjepr after the river flowing through the city. Production of the M-67-36 started in Irbits in 1976. Now the M stands for Motot. The model was the first from Irbits with a 12-volt electric system instead of a 6-volt system. The 67 would either stand for the model serial number (which is inimitable) or for the number of cc's. But the latter is also incorrect, because the engine was 649 cc. The 36 would reflect the number of horsepower supplied, which was a true phenomenon in those years in Russia.
The cafe racer on the last stamp is an IZH Planeta 5.
This motorcycle was built by the Izhmasj factory in Izhevsk. The Planeta 5 was built from 1987 to 2008 and has an air-cooled 346 cc engine, a single-cylinder two-stroke that produces 22 kW. The Ishmasj factory is the oldest motorcycle factory in the Soviet Union and produced the IL brand in 1929 with models based on Harley-Davidsons and Indians. The factory closed its doors in 2009.
The FDC's are provided with a postmark specially made for this issue:
The envelope for the collector sheet is simple, but the envelope for the FDC with stamps torn loose from the sheets is pretty:
On the envelope a parked BMW S1000RR in a color scheme that is unusual for our regions.
Finally some philatelic data. The stamps are printed in sheets of four stamps each. The edition is small: only 2000 of the collector sheets were printed, and in total only 8000 stamps of each image were printed. This means that only 1500 sheets of four of the same stamps have been printed of each motorcycle. So little. Only 200 pieces of the FDC with the BMW designed by Daria Maier were made. Daria was also responsible for the design of the stamps, sheets and maximum cards (below), of which only 200 of each were printed. So, if you want to have such a scarce envelope or set of cards in your collection, urgent action is required.
Hans de Kloet
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