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.
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.
Tajikistan.
There are almost no Tajik samples as, I think, they are manufactured by a Tajik company. The silver on black plate was sold on Ebay a few years ago as a 1996 series private plate. The registration is correct but the colour is not. It could be a French made fake. The lower plate is a diplomatic sample or fake and looks to have been made on a Soviet Russian machine. The dies are wrong and the spacing of the number is wrong.
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