To increase the worldwide appeal of the Matchbox 1-75 series miniatures range in 1959 Lesney introduced the French built Citroen DS19 which I believe was the only French vehicle to appear in the whole of the regular wheel issues,
It was not until the first of the Superfast models were released before another French vehicle made an appearance. The Citroen can be found painted in one of two distinct shades.
Either it was painted in a rather dull pale yellow or a much brighter orange yellow and it had silver trim applied to the headlights, front bumper and grille, rear bumper and rear grille.
The baseplate was painted either flat black on the early issues or gloss black on the later.
It can only be found with one of two different kinds of wheels fitted, Either grey plastic 9 x 20 or silver plastic 9 x 20 on domed head axles which can be crimped on the early issues or have rounded ends on the later.
There are two casting variations to the body and it is believed that both the of the modifications were made at the same time,
The early issues had a single ejector ring cast on the inside of the roof and it had no door braces, Later issues had three ejector rings cast inside the roof (one large ring and two small) and a one large U shaped brace was added to the insides of each of the doors.
The baseplate also had a minor modification where two small triangular braces were cast in on the edge of the ridge situated just behind the rear axle
It was sold in box types 'B' and 'D', The silver wheeled variation is quite hard to find and fetches a premium but the real gem to look out for is the very rare 'D' box which is one of the rarst of the 'D' type boxes. It was made up until 1962 when it was replaced by the American built 66b Harley Davidson motorcycle and sidecar.
