GAI GIBDD
The State Automobile Inspection of Russian Federal Road Safety Service.
In translation the title of this pack is “The State Automobile Inspection of the Russian Federal Road Safety Service”. This 36-card pack was published in 2001 by the Kombinat Tsvetnoi Pechati to honour 65th anniversary of the founding of GAI (the State Automobile Inspection) of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The aces show badges of the different regional offices of GAI, the court cards show operatives against a different background in each suit.
The 10 pip of each suit shows a blue DPS (Road Patrol service) vehicle; the 9 pip shows a white DPS vehicle; the 8 pip card shows a gold/brown DPS vehicle; the 7 pip card shows a gold/brown GAI vehicle, and the 6 pip shows a blue GAI vehicle. But each suit has a background which differs from that of the courts. See the box►
Above: deck published by the Kombinat Tsvetnoi Pechati for the State Automobile Inspection of Russian Federal Road Safety Service, 2001. 36 cards.
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022 • Contact
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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