Now we come to the former Soviet Union (FSU) countries. When the various countries gained independence at the collapse of the Soviet Union, all re-plated with their own distinct styles between 1992 and 1996. Nearly all these countries suffered from an excess of mint unused plates going straight from the factory in Germany to collectors in Germany. These were then sold on as the genuine article. Just about all the mint first series after independence plates in collections are samples and they have never been to the country they represent. About half of the samples are of test designs and are wrong, the test design having never been adopted.
There is no such thing as a correct design mint plate that has come from the actual country it is made for as the FSU countries are very strict about not letting any plates out of their hands.
Moral: Mint German made FSU plates are always samples and often of the wrong design.
Estonia.
There are almost no Estonian samples and I think it is because Utsch does not have the contract for Estonian plates and machines.
The plates in this picture are just about all that I know of.
The top two are German samples from when Utsch was trying to get the contract in 1990s. Both are completely wrong and nothing like the real plates used in Estonia. The bottom one is a fake or copy that may have been made in America with slightly wrong dies and letters EST.
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