My roadgeekiness got me into the hobby of collecting plates a few years ago. I've completed a full set of US plates, along with Canada, and am working on a Mexican collection.
The bonus room in our house is a travel/road themed room with license plates, framed maps, highway signs, and vintage TWA posters (my wife's grandfather worked for TWA for numerous years, and that's her collection)
Just curious if anybody else is interested in plates?
Most of my collection is online at https://www.aaroads.com/license_plates (https://www.aaroads.com/license_plates) , but there are several other tags that are unphotographed. I try to stay on top of getting the latest issues, but they change so often there's often a lag on getting all the new versions unless you are able to attend one of the license plate shows. One run I've been working on since I started tag collecting in 1993 is a Florida County run. You'll note many of the county tags I have on the Florida section of the license plate page.
If you have not checked it out before, a good resource for license plate news is the web site http://www.licenseplates.cc (http://www.licenseplates.cc)
That's an awesome site, aaroads. I really collect more as a casual hobby (picking up from antique stores, flea markets, etc.) but it's great to know there are others out there.
Quote from: DrZoidberg on February 24, 2009, 11:54:50 PM
That's an awesome site, aaroads. I really collect more as a casual hobby (picking up from antique stores, flea markets, etc.) but it's great to know there are others out there.
Most of the ones I've purchased over the years were from antique stores, flea markets, yard sales, other collectors online, ebay, and in the past few years, platedepot.com. I also ask friends or people that I know if I can have their old tags when they are done with them, and have gone to a couple of plate shows now too.
QuoteI also ask friends or people that I know if I can have their old tags when they are done with them, and have gone to a couple of plate shows now too.
Not a bad idea, I should do that. Of course, in Oregon, people never have to re-tag. I still see plates out here from the late 60s! I think Florida requires you re-plate every so often, is that correct?
Quote from: DrZoidberg on February 25, 2009, 12:02:06 AM
QuoteI also ask friends or people that I know if I can have their old tags when they are done with them, and have gone to a couple of plate shows now too.
Not a bad idea, I should do that. Of course, in Oregon, people never have to re-tag. I still see plates out here from the late 60s! I think Florida requires you re-plate every so often, is that correct?
Yes, Florida issues you a new tag every five years. Alabama, Indiana, Nebraska, Mississippi have a tag replacement cycle as well, but those states do a general re-issue, whereas Florida, you get a new tag after five years, so when a new issue is out, you still retain your old issue until its 5 years old. Florida comes out with a new tag design every so often too. Last issue was out in 2004, the previous appeared in 1997.
South Carolina just came out with a new tag design and them, like many other states now, are using the silk-screening process for the letters and numbers.
QuoteSouth Carolina just came out with a new tag design and them, like many other states now, are using the silk-screening process for the letters and numbers.
I think Oregon is getting to going all flat-printed plates. The plates I have on my car are the Crater Lake plates, which aren't embossed. I'm really surprised that, being Oregon's 150th this year, a Sesquicentennial plate wasn't issued. Lots of other states seemed to have done this (including my home of WI)
I collect plates as a casual hobby. Being from Nevada, I have quite a few from there--mostly the silver "Bighorn Sheep" plate design which was standard circa 1983-2003. I also have some from California, Florida, Washington, Maine (which I found on the side of the road while working for NDOT) and others.
Nevada does not have a periodic plate replacement requirement. The Bighorn Sheep standard design was required by law to be replaced with the current "Sunset" design around 2003. Nevada has a large number of specialized plates (some of which are no longer in production), as well as the high number of original standard blue pre-1983 design; these plates did not have to be replaced with the new design.
Also, Nevada has completely switched to non-embossed license plates. The flat plates began as a trial run with the "United We Stand" plate design that started being offered around 2004-05. All plates went flat either by the end of 2008.
I have one from every state--Hawaii included. I drive lots.
I began collecting plates back before I was much into roads and traffic signals. I've been collecting about 15 years and it began from traveling with my parents as a kid. I liked seeing what each state's plates looked like and began a 50 state run in antique shops and garage sales. Once the internet became an option searching became much easier and I began getting more serious than just one from every state. I also have at least one from every Canadian province. I have hundreds of plates of all different types from my home state of New Jersey alone. Neighboring New York and Pennsylvania I have a decent collections of as well (well, as much as i can get from NY). I focus on test and sample plates and some states make it very difficult to obtain samples, NY being one of them.
As far as replating goes...NJ law allows any plate issued from 1959 to current to be used today, provided the registration never lapsed. The color scheme was black on straw and you still see some in use today. Saldy, less and less all the time. They then issued straw on blue in 1979 and they too can still be used today assuming the registration never lapsed. In 1993 NJ issued the current reflectorized base. Old numbers that were originally on straw or blue could be remade on the new base or kept on its original (owner's choice unless it became illegible). Anyway, sorry for rambling on. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.
That's interesting information on NJ, signalman. I think Oregon is the same way. Most plates from the late 50s onward are still valid and seen on the road today. (I believe the oldest type of plate I've seen are the "Pacific Wonderland" style.
That said, I think Oregon is due for a new plate. I'm surprised they didn't issue one for their Sesquicentennial (sp?) this year.
I have a Texas plate :) and im gonna ask my Aunt from Washington State if she would give one to me and my Aunt or Grandma from Iowa
Say, BigMatt, do Texas plates have any sort of county coding? I saw on a license plates website that they're coded for the county they were issued in, but I can't seem to see how. There aren't any stickers, and I wasn't sure if this website was accurate or not.
Glad to hear my ranting was interesting to you, DrZoidberg. I find plates extremely interesting. Also, it's nice to hear from other road geeks from the other full service gas state.
QuoteWant a Washington State Plate :) (by BigMattt)
I don't need anymore. Thanks for offering though.
QuoteAlso, it's nice to hear from other road geeks from the other full service gas state.
Not to mention the other state without a sales tax! :D But we do pay for it with property taxes. Are they (property taxes) bad in Jersey?
Property taxes in New Jersey are the highest in the entire country.
Besides, I think you mean Delaware. It's Delaware that doesn't have the sales tax. I don't know if they "make up for it" in property taxes, but I usually think of NJ and NY as having the highest property taxes.
Are they (property taxes) bad in Jersey?
Oh yes. Let me put it to you this way....you need to make 60 a year to live comfortably alone. Very high property taxes and the highest auto insurance rates in the country. *sigh* I did not realize there was no sales tax in Oregon....interesting. And it is Delaware that is sales tax free. I think NH is also, or at least it used to be.
We Washingtontonians have a 8.5% sales tax (now 9.6% in the Seattle metro), so people that are in Vancouver (near Portland, OR) buy their gas and groceries in Oregon.
I was in Delaware this weekend and I found a couple of errors. a P/C (pleasure/commercial) on the white on black porcelain replica. That type was never avaliable on porcelain. I also saw a commercial type that was too new to have ever been on porcelain..CL1635. The CL prefix was not added until the early 80s. The only eligible commercial plates to be replicals are C9999 and lower. Both plates were stickered, so apparently they were legit.
QuoteI was in Delaware this weekend and I found a couple of errors. a P/C (pleasure/commercial) on the white on black porcelain replica. That type was never avaliable on porcelain. I also saw a commercial type that was too new to have ever been on porcelain..CL1635. The CL prefix was not added until the early 80s. The only eligible commercial plates to be replicals are C9999 and lower. Both plates were stickered, so apparently they were legit.
It is not that uncommon to find these "illegal" black and white tags hanging around Delaware. Since it involves so much "status" to those who value it, people who cannot get one of the legitimate low numbered tags have one crafted anyway and just drive around with them regardless of the legitmacy. The law, at least from what I was told, is that you have to have the blue/gold tag that matches the numbers on your black/white tag somewhere in your car, so I guess they do that and call it good.
FYI, p/c stands for passenger car, not pleasure commercial (I used to think that too). Originally p/c was for station wagons and passenger vans, but that extends now to mini vans and some suv's.
I have also heard about the false replica plates. I had just never actually seen one before this past weekend. Also, thank you for correcting me on the p/c prefix. I knew they were originally intended for station wagons and were later issued to pickups and SUVs. However, I assumed they were like Connecticut's combination plates. DrZoidberg, you seem to know a decent amount about plates. Do you by chance belong to ALPCA or some other collecting group?
I don't know if you are aware of it, but Delaware is issuing Centennial License plates right now. I have not seen one personally, but they are not that exciting.
Here (http://deldot.gov/information/media_gallery/2008/centennial_plates/index.shtml) is the Deldot page on it if you have not seen it.
I have seen a few in use. I personally like them. I emailed DelDOT about obtaining a sample plate, but none are available at this time.
Being a history buff, I do enjoy seeing old license plates (even in photos), and my favorites are Indiana's "In God We Trust" plates, Michigan's plates from 1932-1939 + 1955-1967, and Tennessee's state shaped plates.
This is probably a "shot in the dark," but if anyone should spot a 1956 Michigan license plate, CW-6437, it was taken out of my parents house some years ago, and I would like 2 get it back. :coffee:
Nebraska has a new license plate design slated for general issue in 2011.
See http://www.licenseplates.cc/ (http://www.licenseplates.cc/) for the design.
That royally sucks. Nebraska's current plates are beautiful, but I know they love their redesign.
Anyway, that reminded me, I'm back in Idaho now so here is a photo of the license plate wall in my bedroom. As soon as I get my own place where I can punch holes in the walls, these are coming with me
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.davidjcorcoran.com%2FIMG_1537.JPG&hash=dcd5955572137dab5b03e0000805cd226a451a3a)
When I last had a plate wall, to minimize holes, I hung one plate with nails and then strung six more from it with twist ties (like the ones you get with electronics, bread, etc.). I had 42 tags hanging with only 14 holes. :D
My outer walls are reinforced concrete, no way I can get a nail in there. I need to drill a hole first in those walls. Drywalls are suitable for nailing stuff to the wall though.
Man, that new Nebraska plate is fugly. I have liked many of their past plate designs, but this new one is not the least bit appealing. The fact that it was voted in too makes me wonder what the competing designs looked like.
Quote from: signalman on July 30, 2009, 03:22:08 PM
Man, that new Nebraska plate is fugly. I have liked many of their past plate designs, but this new one is not the least bit appealing. The fact that it was voted in too makes me wonder what the competing designs looked like.
You can see the other designs in this article (http://www.kearneyhub.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20315717&BRD=268&PAG=461&dept_id=577571&rfi=6).
corco: Thanks 4 sharing the photo. Impressive. :coffee:
Here's a license plate collection in L'Anse, Michigan taken by someone 8 years ago:
http://pasty.com/discuss/messages/994/1473.html :coffee:
Thank you for the link, AARoads. Any of the other options would have been better than what was picked. Number 2 was probably my favorite choice out of the 4 though.
Ive allways wondered how to get licence plates from other states :-D(no pun intended)
But really would it be worth while to check out the local wrecking yard?
BigMatt
Matt,
A junk yard could be a good source. Plates from every state can be found on Ebay as well. You're looking for real plates, I assume, not samples. Is your ultimate goal to have one from every state?
Quote from: BigMatt on July 31, 2009, 02:23:53 PM
Ive allways wondered how to get licence plates from other states :-D(no pun intended)
But really would it be worth while to check out the local wrecking yard?
BigMatt
The best place to get license plates outside of flea markets and yard sales is http://www.platedepot.com/ (http://www.platedepot.com/) Run by a fellow roadgeek, the prices are very reasonable and his selection is always decent.