Some of Jake Wimberley's license plates

This may have been the first plate I ever had to call my own...I can't remember exactly, but I think this was the first. I found this in the woods behind my grandmother's house as a young child. I suppose it escaped someone's garbage pile at some point. I do know it was issued in Henry County, thanks to the county code, 42.

Many collectors try to find plates using their initials. It took me 16 years of collecting to find mine.

A very patriotic issue from Michigan, issued to commemorate the American Bicentennial. This is about as good as embossed graphics get; plus, the two-tone paint is somewhat unusual.

Tennessee originally issued joint plates to vehicles used for both farm and commercial duties. This specimen appears never to have been used. Until recently, joint plates were still used for this purpose, but also saw them on church buses. Around 2003 the state phased out the "Private" and "Joint" classes and licensed all commercial vehicles under the "For Hire" class.

In the years that Tennessee used county numbers, it was not uncommon for the state to run out of combinations toward the end of a particular run. For these three bases, the state switched to a three-letter, three-number format after running out of numbers in a certain county. For the most part, the 1971 bases used series Axx after running out; 1977 bases used Bxx, and 1984 bases used Cxx. Note that the middle plate does not conform to this rule. Greater demand for combinations led to the retirement of county numbers in January 1988, when Tennessee began using the ABC 123 format on a regular basis with the red-white-and-blue base. Note that for the 1977-83 series, some of the later plates had serial numbers with the format 12-AB34 as opposed to the original 12-A345 system; the addition of a second letter to the format apparently wasn't enough to keep up with the demand for new plates.

In a similar vein is this Kentucky issue, which is the result of excess demand for the "Cloud" base that was in use since 1998. The state ran out of Cloud blanks sometime in 2002, so it resorted to producing generic plates until the infamous "It's That Friendly" base could be phased in during 2003. Kentucky has a poor record with graphic bases. The 1988 Bluegrass State base, Kentucky's first-ever silkscreened plate, had to cease production early due to a copyright dispute over its design. A similar generic-looking plate was used for a year or so prior to the release of the Cloud base.

Colorado is somewhat famous for the attractive mountain scene used on their plates. For many years this was embossed. In certain years the mountains appeared at the bottom of the plate, rather than at the top. If you look closely at this photo comparing the two versions, you'll notice that the state simply inverted the die in order to lower the mountains--the positive and negative areas have been exchanged.

As far as I know, Kentucky is the only state to license taxis with motorcycle-sized plates. I bought this run of five at an antique store in Mayfield, Ky. At some point, the state switched to full-size taxi plates. It is not known if these are the plates themselves, or some type of supplement. I think it may be possible that they were used in conjunction with a regular passenger plate to show that the vehicle is a taxi.

Not only is this Ontario plate an optional club issue, it's also a vanity. I bet it cost a pretty penny to register. It is especially interesting to me, as it ties in with my radio hobby. The logo displayed on the left side is that of the Radio Amateurs of Canada, the Canadian counterpart to the ARRL. The personalization probably refers to the licensee's involvement in radio emergency services.

This one came off a vehicle owned by the state of Delaware. Note that this plate, like other issues from that state, is completely flat. However, the production technique used for Delaware plates is seemingly different than the digital silk-screening becoming popular in many states nowadays; Delaware's plates have been flat for many years.

Both of the plates shown here were made outside the states in which they were issued. This has been a fairly common practice in the history of licensing; most states have outsourced plate manufacture at one time or another, sometimes to private companies, and sometimes to other governments. An example of private manufacture is the Tennessee plate at the top of this page, which was manufactured by Polyvend in Arkansas. The Ohio plate at left was stamped in New York, and uses the same dies used on New York issues of the time. The New Hampshire plate was made in Massachusetts and uses the dies still used in that state. It is a Special Commercial issue, probably used on a crane, well driller, or other large piece of equipment.

From Finland, a 1966-67 moped plate. This one is very small by North American standards, being only about 3-1/2" wide.

Now from Alaska, a For Hire plate that commemorates the state's hundredth year as an American possession. This type of registration probably would've been issued to a delivery truck.

The 2000 Census reported Van Buren and Pickett as Tennessee's two least populated counties. Shown here are plates issued in each of those jurisdictions. Pickett County is located along the Kentucky border on the Cumberland Plateau. Van Buren County is nestled between Warren and Bledsoe Counties, a short distance north of Chattanooga.

This was issued to whoever represented District 13 (Bernalillo County) in the New Mexico State Legislature in the early 90s. The "2" tells us it was the second plate issued-- probably for the representative's second car, or spouse's car.

An example of a current Belizean plate. It appears to have been made in the U.S., in Louisiana, due to the die style.

I found this in a big box of older California plates in an antique store. I was quite surprised that such a combination was used, so I purchased the plate. According to this site, by 1979 the combination had been banned from the regular rotation. I'm still surprised that it was used as recently as when this was issued (circa 1972).

I'd like to see the car, and perhaps wardrobe, of the person calling themselves "Dr. Vinyl." Actually, there is a franchised mobile vinyl repair outfit with that name; when I lived in Mississippi the local franchise used the vanity plate DRVINYL. Perhaps this was their counterpart somewhere in Missouri.

I'm guessing whoever ordered this vanity plate was a "Yankee" who wasn't used to our summer heat!

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