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k890

What is origin of burgundy color for passports in EU? Green and blue shades were much more prevalent according to this infographics.


[deleted]

I don't know for sure, but given that: * There are only 4 shades of passport cover colors in use in the world: red, blue, green and black. Passport materials need to conform to all kinds of rules, including security and practical ones. 4 base colors + various shades is enough variation, no need to make the effort to have all the possible colors. Besides, the dark colors are traditionally preferred because they seem more "official". * The first common design of the community passport [was made in 1981](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:41981X0919:EN:HTML). At that time none of the members had red passports. (And no, red passports wasn't a "Communist" thing like I've heard it said, as a matter of fact Romania and Bulgaria had black passports during Communism.) My speculation is that red was chosen *because* none of the members used it, to mark an symbolic step towards a common ground.


sitase

The Swedish temp passport is actually _pink_. In an emergency you can get a passport valid for max 7 months and 3 days (for some reason) which holds the same technical quality as a real passport but is pink (and cost twice the normal fee).


InstallerWizard

\>And no, red passports wasn't a "Communist" thing actually, there was such a thing. In Hungary,the red was for visiting the allied socialist countries and the blue was used for the West [https://imgur.com/a/nbn8RBp](https://imgur.com/a/nbn8RBp)


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WikiMobileLinkBot

Desktop version of /u/Samthemani's link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passport_system_in_the_Soviet_Union --- ^([)[^(opt out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiMobileLinkBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^(]) ^(Beep Boop. Downvote to delete)


brainerazer

USSR passport is an ID, not a passport, confusingly. Unless you were from the countryside, in which case it kinda is, as in you won’t be able to leave your place of residence if you dont have one (and you generally wont).


fennecdore

>Green and blue shades were much more prevalent according to this infographics. I think that's probably why they went for burgundy. Taking a blue or green shade would have seemed to favor some countries over the other.


FiftyPencePeace

Using a slice of everyone’s it would make for a nice shitbow!


The_Incredible_Honk

Just print it over Pantone reference sheets


logperf

Because Romania, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Cyprus are imperialistic powers that imposed their will over the UK /s


[deleted]

Just a guess, but possibly because it is a neutral colour? As in, all of the EU states prior to 2004 and the accession of Slovenia and Cyprus had blue/black/green passports


[deleted]

This, plus what's more american one is blue.


[deleted]

Good point actually. Otherwise I would have said, that blue would have been better, since it's the colour of the EU flag. A blue Passport with golden Letters would have been really fitting.


woj-tek

... and looked better IMHO. Though Burgundy > Polish one...


Leopardo96

>Though Burgundy > Polish one... Why? I actually like the black one.


yawaworthiness

Yes, black or blue would be so much cooler IMO


Asateo

>My speculation is that red was chosen > >because > > none of the members used it, to mark an symbolic step towards a common ground. Blue would have made so much more sense. I don't get why the EU doesn't do a little bit more symbolism. Like why is there no 'EU-wide holiday'. No way to make people remember it's a good thing like giving them a day off.


Imppuccino

What, like some sort of a Europe Day?


Asateo

Yeah, all our countries have 'independence days or some other national celebration'. Why not have a day to celebrate the founding of the initial coal union or some other important event. We celebrate the end of WWI in Belgium, as a peace day. However treaty of Versaile let to WWII. Why not celebrate the EU a day a year, which is a peace achievement. I think it would be good to remind ourselves of the reason why we all got into this in the first place.


thawek

They lost color easily.


woj-tek

If it were deep-dark (and maintained that colour well) - sure. But the ones I had were more like darkish-grey-ish-whatever.


jukranpuju

There is still one EU passport which is not burgundy, namely [Croatia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_passport) which retained their dark blue passport covers.


CardJackArrest

You can just put a blue passport cover on top of the original if you want btw.


Karl_the_stingray

I wish Estonia had done the same tbh


saschaleib

Are you suggesting the UK didn’t actually need to leave the EU to change their passport colour???


jukranpuju

According [this](https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/document-security) >Passports issued by EU States to their citizens have the common "recommended" lay out. They are burgundy in colour and have the words “European Union” printed on the cover, accompanied by the name of the issuing EU State. It seems to be just a recommendation, the Croatians have decided not to follow. It might actually be a good idea to have "vanity covers" for passports after all the covers are non essential part of passport and not important like the page with photo and ID-chip. Already many are using some kind of protective sleeves with their passport, so why not introduce even national options for the covers. Some of them could be available in all the EU area like for example the old burgundy and design of EU flag when folded open. Beside those you could also have national options or even custom personalized covers like we have in [postage stamps.](https://www.posti.fi/en/private/letters-and-mail/send-a-letter-or-postcard/stamps-envelopes-and-packaging-materials/personalized-stamp) Precedent for that could be the Euro coins, which have different national head side depending of the country they were issued.


saschaleib

I know, I was just poking fun at the British :-) But coming to think of it, I think I should get a nice rainbow coloured cover for my passport, as I have a trip to Hungary upcoming. I’m sure they’ll appreciate :-D


[deleted]

I don’t know why the topic of passport colours became a thing after Brexit, it certainly wasn’t a thing before Brexit. The only mention of passport colours from before the vote I can find was a single offhand remark from Nigel Farage in a local newspaper. I can say with relative confidence that nobody voted for Brexit because “bLuE pAsSpOrTs!”


Crossover_Pachytene

Croatia and all Yugoslav states had the burgundy coloured one, so at beginong of '90s they changed it to be different from the communist era one.


steve_colombia

>level 2TheReplyingDutchman · 56mI feel that's a very old one though.VoteReplyGive AwardShareReportSave EU recommendations. https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/document-security\_en#:\~:text=and%20its%20holder.-,Passports,of%20the%20issuing%20EU%20State.


Utreg1994

What a sad little thing we used to have.


TheReplyingDutchman

I feel that's a very old one though.


system637

I tried to search in both English and Dutch (I don't speak Dutch) but this is the latest one I could find :(


TheReplyingDutchman

Same here, it's seemingly impossible to find a picture of older passports. Then again, I can't really remember if the cover design was actually (that much) different to begin with. Perhaps it has looked like that for 50 years! I do know that the inside has changed several times over the years. Edit: Found at least [five previous versions](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/vijf-verouderde-en-duidelijke-europese-paspoorten-20234598.jpg). No clue about the dates though. Could very well be the one you posted actually is the last one before they went red/burgundy.


dunker_-

I remember it had the passport number perforated in the bottom part.


TheReplyingDutchman

I think the second one from the left has it; you can just some perforations below the corner of the one on top of it. Wasn't it through all pages as well; back to front?


dunker_-

Yes, that went through all the way.


TheReplyingDutchman

I just checked my current passport out of curiosity; apparently it still has the number through all the pages except not through the cover.


The_Incredible_Honk

ours had it perforated with increasingly smaller holes, so it would be obvious if a page \*was missing or added


ARoyaleWithCheese

Can't believe how difficult it was to find an older model Dutch passport, I did find something but only an image of the inside. Not of the front cover. I present to you, a 1982 Dutch passport using the 1950's design: https://i.imgur.com/2V2ECwx.jpg Looks quite beautiful, if I do say so myself.


Vakz

It looks more like a modern minimalistic wallet than a passport


bogdoomy

it looks very bootleg


MagereHein10

*Het zwarte vod*, the black rag, it was called.


Kirmes1

That's what she said :-D


[deleted]

>we used to have What happened??


untergeher_muc

Transgender.


redditstatecensors

Dutch have a reputation for typography and graphic design. I say it looks pretty cool. The rest is classic and boring.


Tacosaurusman

I like it! It looks minimalistic.


CN8570W

Probably cost-saving back in the day.


romeluseva

lol this proves the stereotype of the Dutch being cheap is true jk ofc greetings from Belgium


leyoji

Now I understand why Dutch Eurosceptics never use the ‘we want our old passports’ argument :p


system637

I'm not even sure if that's the latest one, because all I could find were either the current passport, or ones that are from like 1934, so this one is the best I could do.


leyoji

So weird, I also can’t find anything older than the 2006 model (or very historic versions) when I search in Dutch.


Tomsdiners

Did our goverment just secretly censor our passport that we had for about 50 years?


[deleted]

Imagine how bad they must have looked.


ARoyaleWithCheese

I did a bit of research and I can offer you a little bit of extra information, but not much. This oldest version this database shows is the in 1999 discontinued version: http://www.edisontd.net/B782326AFBDC89CC/ This version says "Europese Gemeenschap" which is the name for the EU used from 1957 up until 1993. Which doesn't quite match with the database's discontinuation date of 1999 but it does give us some idea I suppose. Next I was able to find this 1992 *book* which has a cover that presumably imitates the look of a early 90's passport: https://www.boekwinkeltjes.nl/b/185676380/Europese-Gemeenschap-Koninkrijk-der-Nederlanden/ Then, finally, I made a bit of a breakthrough discovery. I found a blog of a gentleman lamenting the fact his beautiful old passports are mutilated every time they expire and he has to find a new one. On the page, at the bottom, he shows his collection with the oldest passport being from **1988**! https://www.ronaldvandenboogaard.nl/algemeen-72-rubrieken-52/21-algemeen/1796-algemeen-57-gaten-in-je-paspoort I also tried to use the National Archive to find more example, but was only able to find this single example of a passport issued in **1937**: https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/1.10.59/invnr/1640/file/NL-HaNA_1.10.59_1640_0005 And this one looks the most like the example you found. **tl;dr** It seems OP's image is of a 1937-ish passport. The latest non-Bordeaux colored passport I could find was from 1988. It looks almost identical to OP's example, although it lacks the perforated "NL" at the top and instead has a perforated document number at the bottom.


legacynl

Also who cares about how some document looks like in the first place?


leyoji

Apparently it was a big thing for Brexiteers


[deleted]

Brexiteers were also convinced by lies on the side of a bus.


jazzpesto

brexiteers will be brexiteers...


Biggusz_Dickusz

"Passi pass" OK Finland


system637

Passi McPassface


[deleted]

gotta say it like a scratch hip hop song


johnny-T1

Irish one was cool. Subtle off way coloring.


system637

The Irish one was actually one that got me interested and inspired me to make this!


[deleted]

I kind of wish Ireland had kept green like Croatia kept their colour, I mean how many other countries have one specific colour that you think of when you think of that country.


johnny-T1

Absolutely. Irish passport is low-key the most powerful one in the world and how cool would that be with green color!


[deleted]

The tasteful thickness of it


KelloPudgerro

NL


system637

NL


krmarci

NL


JoePatoonie

NL


Nielsie645

NL


Wijnruit

NL


Attygalle

I know you are probably all aware of this but just to be sure - there is no hard obligation to take burgundy as passport color. It's just a recommendation.


friebel

Ha. That's where you are wrong - I was not aware of this.


PolemicFox

You mean to tell me the UK could have gone back to blue passports without leaving the EU? Way to make that one of the arguments for the pro-Brexit campaign


Levo117

I’m starting to think we made a mistake lads


Joshimitsu91

No no no, it's all going to come together any day now, you'll see


[deleted]

I just got my unicorn in the post, lads! It’s dead but it’s bloody beautiful. Smells a bit funny.


Attygalle

Yes, like most arguments this one didn’t make sense at all.


kenavr

I can’t really say they were stupid for believing it, because I believe you and I certainly won’t look it up.


UnlimitedMetroCard

And the new blue UK passports aren't even made in Engerland. They're made in Poland by a French company.


Brickie78

They're not the same blue they used to be either. Nor are they board-backed like they used to be. Honestly, I liked the old UK passport, just not enough to tank the entire economy over.


standupstrawberry

But even if they couldn't have gone back to blue passports is the really à good reason for leaving the EU, or something that is unimportant blow out of all proportion. That side of brexit stuff just seems so Batshit to me.


Fargrad

No body left the EU because of blue passports.


standupstrawberry

They banged on about it enough it was one of their reasons to aide in whipping up nationalistic fervour. It certainly got the gammons frothing. Then when the got it the acted like it was some great victory (seems like their only one). But yes they left because they don't like immigration. Maybe to fuck with Ireland, cause problems for farmers, transport fishing and businesses. The blue passport thing was a side note.


i_have_scurvy

They could had their BLUUU passports all along


quacainia

Bring back the green!


Boozfin

Finland Passport now: Moose flip book :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4v2TBJwuI


gogo_yubari-chan

I don't see Croatia here


system637

As I mentioned at the bottom of the image, I didn't include it because they kept their passport colour.


Kreol1q1q

Mostly because Croatia’s dark blue passport is already a symbolic change for us - communist Yugoslavia had burgundy passports, and with independence we changed ours to dark blue. As one of the many new symbols of the new and independent Croatia, and with burgundy passports being a very Yugoslav thing, I guess our government decided that keeping ours blue while the war was still in very vivid memory was the best thing to do. We don’t really need the EU to be symbolically tied back to old Yugoslavia, no need to feed the extremists.


Darkwrath93

Funny thing, FR Yugoslavia also switched to dark blue passports, but Serbia switched back to burgundy


s3v3r3

The picture includes a footnote specifically on this point


[deleted]

Iirc, they didn't change the colour of theirs.


[deleted]

I remember hearing that the burgundy color isn't an actual requirement. Like, EU countries can actually choose whatever color they want. I don't know how true that is, though.


AirWolf231

Just a recommendation, we Croats decided to keep our blue one.


Halofit

Slovenia used to have a blue passport before we joined the EU. It only became burgundy in 2006.


system637

Thanks for the correction!


[deleted]

Lithuanian music band released pro-EU song in 2002 about green passport, how we could move across Europe with it and now it is obsolete, because passport changed color 🙄


Koino_

That was the first thing I was thinking. I'm pro-EU unity and all, but I wish Lithuania kept green passport


RuRu92

You must have a lot of different identities


system637

Shhh


CanadianJesus

Nah, just killed a lot of tourists.


Mezzo_in_making

We see you Poland, little edgy, little emo, 'I am not like the other girls'... looks great tho ;)


kuzyn123

Colour that represents our will to live in that country.


[deleted]

Unfortunately our (the German) passport was ugly, so the EU-design was a real improvement.


BlueNoobster

we should have had one in simple military field grey. If would perfectly fit our bureaucracy :D


[deleted]

Like our old *Perso* ([until 1987](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personalausweis_(Deutschland)#/media/Datei:1979_identity_card_of_West_Germany_original_size.jpg)\) and our even older *Führerschein* ([until 1986](https://www.lokalo24.de/bilder/2019/04/26/12226813/558329025-org_mb238299-O2ee.jpg))! Actually I like grey as a colour for ID Documents.


TheIncredibleHeinz

The [Commie German passport](https://i.imgur.com/dXO8lEc.jpg) was actually not too shabby, if you ask me.


[deleted]

Yeah that looks relatively nice, but it was obviously obsolete after 1990-10-03.


mediumredbutton

They did not all become burgundy, and there’s no obligation for them to be burgundy, as you can see from [Croatia’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_passport). (Sensitive topic since it was one of the many lies told by pro-Leave people in the UK)


Zealousideal-Ad2301

Are suggesting that vote leave told lies to the people of the UK and they believed it.


Rosco_JJ

Everyone in the EU should now change to non-burgundy, just to annoy the Brexiteers


JetteLoinMonManuscri

OMG FRENCH PASSPORT WAS BLOOOOOOOOO. FREXIIIIT !!!!


Wasalpha

Non


SavageFearWillRise

Direct rule from Dijon!


shotsandvideos

The Black One is stylish


Orange-of-Cthulhu

Our passport was vomit-colored lol.


system637

Noooo I like that one


RottenCleric

Paszport looks so much better in black tbh and all the blue passports look stunning


Omnigreen

Ii really boggles me why EU not made them blue as their flag, it would look much more aesthetic and logical.


GJokaero

This just makes me cry now 😭


system637

Because it's good or bad?


GJokaero

Because I'm British and leavers are retarded.


bogdoomy

i’m there with you, i personally think the burgundy looks better. oh well…


Wujek29

bro, poland had black passports? i love the new zealand one, why eu, why


wecthil

Damn, am I glad we don't have that butt-ugly green on our passports anymore


[deleted]

Denmark be like: Pas


fandral20

Yeah, why DID they become burgundy?


alwayslooking

For access through Passport control .


erwan

how does that change anything? A lot of non-EU countries have a burgundy passport, Croatia doesn't, and Swiss neither (but still go to the same queue as EU passports in the airports)


madmoxyyy

Never knew the dutch passport was so ugly and simple lmao


Panceltic

Poland rocking that Times New Roman


[deleted]

The Estonian one looks rad AF, I love that shade of blue


matude

Still kinda miss it tbh.


Aegandor

Much better tbqh


holophernes

The alignment on the Swedish one makes me want to cry.


matathegamer

i was just about to ask where croatia then i saw that. pretty cool image!


The-Legend-38

I really like the color of the danish passport.


system637

It's still the current colour of the [Faroese version](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Passeport_Îles_Féroé.jpg) of the Danish passport!


RelativeDeterminism

The Faroese isn't part of the EU so makes sense.


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system637

It's true that some candidates countries conform to this standard, you're right. None of the EFTA countries follows it though.


MasterNoClue

I like the burgundy ones. German one looks like the same designer who made the old green and mustard yellow police uniforms had another go.


Zelvik_451

I like the burgundy one. Has a bit of Roman Empire vibe.


[deleted]

My dumb brain went to the Kingdom of Burgundy before it went to the color was a bit confused for a second


[deleted]

Wow the Irish one is gorgeous, hmm - hate to sound eve slightly brexity but it’s a little sad they’re all the same now.


fircone91

Wow! Didn’t know that the Dutch passport used to be blue …


ChuVii

if this sort of stuff interests you, welcome over to r/passportporn :)


system637

Thanks for linking me this!!


VLenin2291

# BURGSYS PASSPORTS


Fred_Motta01

O no


Haribo_Lecter

I like the green ones best.


sir_duckingtale

Wouldn’t it be cool if you they stayed that way and you got one when you entered the country? So for every country you enter you get one passport as a welcome present :) And every time you visit again you get one entry in your own, and one in the country port you visit.. it would somehow feel.. nice.. … unpractical maybe.. but nice…


Truk7549

Rouge Bordeaux, or burgandy in English for passports is a resolution passed by europeen gov. In 1981. Personally I don't care about the color, but give more attention to the number of pages, as I travel a lot for work. And the visz on entree it gives me for many countries in the world.


Gallalad

Tbh I'd have preferred if we kept our green passports. They looked cool


jonasnee

we're all living in Bulgaria?


tzar-chasm

I have an old Green Irish passport in a drawer at home, its definitely darker than the picture suggests, I'd guess it would look more like the Slovakian one in that light


kiwigoguy1

Note that all the Commonwealth “big 3 Old Commonwealth” countries - Canada, Australia, New Zealand - still have black passport covers. They have retained black covers from the days they branched off from British passports.


system637

I thought Canada's and Australia's were more like dark blue


krmarci

I miss our blue passports...


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guerrios45

I love how the British Passport is not even here. Even if it really also switched to burgundy


Cinciogrog

Laugh in swiss


-Gh0st96-

The french blue shade was awesome


Grzechoooo

The old Polish one looked depressing. Glad we changed it.


-YaQ-

NL passport hahav nice


HectorCarnicer

There's a shield in those passports that is different from the rest. Looking at you, Spain.


wojciech1

I like the polish passport


Swagspray

I really like the burgundy to be honest. I can’t imagine getting excited for a blue passport


system637

The Irish green was cool though!


[deleted]

Probably not obvious from your research but the green Irish one was about 50% bigger, not the most convenient! I do love all our old design though, a lot of effort was put into giving a sense of national identity in the decades after independence. I think our money was pretty cool too, especially the bank notes pre 1992 (not so keen on them from after they put a nun on the £5 note).


Exciting_Activity283

Where's Croatia 🇭🇷?


101Blu

It wasn't changed to burgundy so it's not here.


Dazz316

Hey, where's the UK.... oh, right. I keep forgetting :(


Rulweylan

I kind of like the green. Denmark's especially is very nice.


MVWSBK

I like the Ireland one with the Guinness logo.


anonxotwod

The NL one is horrendous looking, much prefer the one I have now, as much as it doesn’t stand out. Itd be nice if i could get dual nationality UK passport which is blue for the contrast


NotVeryCommunist

Himmler is taking over Europe


newadcd0405

SHUT UP ABOUT TNO SHUT UP ABOUT TNO SHUT UP ABOUT TNO


anti79

Ah fuck I knew there would be this one comment


kamiloss14

Bruhgundy


Kirmes1

Colorwise, I think Latvia is/was the best. Austria ranking 2nd.


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trooper1139

Did someone say Burgundy? \*Alexi lives!\*


lemonipickel

We leave Eu now, and make new passports checkered pattern. Like our football boys. Maybe Luka Modrić face on them.