Latvijas Pasts has released the third stamp in the series History of Latvian Automobile Construction – Unique Exhibits of Riga Motor Museum, and it features Ford-Vairogs V8 (81C), the fire engine model manufactured by Riga car factory Ford-Vairogs in 1938. The first day cancellation of the stamp is scheduled to take place in Riga post office No. 10 located at 41/43 Elizabetes Street, from 10 AM to 8 PM on the 24th of May 2019.
The face value of the new stamp is €1.39, which corresponds to the cost of sending a registered Class B letter within Latvia. The total print run of the stamp is 100,000 copies. The release of the stamp is accompanied by the issue of a special cover with a print run of 1,000 copies. The new philatelic releases have been designed by the artist Ģirts Grīva.
The fire engine manufactured in 1938 is the only Ford-Vairogs truck which has been preserved to this day in good condition and as a complete package. It is a unique monument of the history of Latvian engineering with a great cultural and historical value. Until the mid-1960s it served for the firefighters of Jelgava, and now it is owned by Leons Kesmins, a member of the Antique Automobile Club of Latvia and a renovator of old-time vehicles. Currently the fire engine can be seen in Jelgava Fire Museum.
The most recent philatelic release by Latvijas Pasts is the third stamp in the series History of Latvian Automobile Construction – Unique Exhibits of Riga Motor Museum. The first stamp in the series was released in 2017 and was dedicated to the unique exhibit of Riga Motor Museum – the motor vehicle Krastin, while the stamp of 2018 featured the vehicle Ford-Vairogs V8.
