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Weekly Posts

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10/1/2023 Posting

Julian Marrero sends in this picture of a Official Use - PA Turnpike (Non-Commercial) plate. In 2018, a few sub-types split off from the Official Use plate type: Turnpike Commission, PennDOT, and State Police. Similar to the standard Official Use plates, Non-Commercial has "P/A" at the end of the serial and Commercial has "P/A" at the beginning of the serial. In this case, "commercial" refers to the type of vehicle the plate is registered to. See the Highs page for links to all of these types.


This new high for University of Michigan comes from John Clark. This plate type has been around since 2003, which means about 27 plates are issued per year, on average. It's also one of a handful of plate types that is still on the "www" base, which means that PennDOT overestimated demand and "www" base plates are still sitting in their inventory.


This personalized U.S. Marine Corps Veteran plate was photographed by Brandon Sowers. PennDOT offers many veteran and military plates, click here to see the full listing!


At first glance this might look like a Passenger plate, but this is actually a personalized plate and the serial is from the "www" base. This particular number was issued late-1999 or early-2000. Thanks to Nick Tsilakis for sending this picture in.


Kaylee sends in this picture of a "personalized" D.A.R.E. plate. Personalized is in quotes because personalization was not an option at the time the black D.A.R.E. plates were being issued. Whoever made this plate did a great job because everything looks correct, from the base plate to the dies for "NUDE".


9/24/2023 Posting

The Plate of the Week award goes to Clayton Moore for finding this 1928 Trailer plate! Before now, no plate numbers under TT-100 were known for this year and all known plates measured 6" x 15", but thanks to Clayton we now have evidence of a sub-100 number and have confirmed that these plates measure 6" x 13". Great find!


Tom Castelli sends in this picture of a Superior Court plate. This is a very uncommon plate type to find in the wild. This number was previously photographed by Tom Perri.


This World War II Veteran plate was photographed by Bruce Bufalini. Unfortunately, this type will one day be extinct as the last of the WWII vets pass away. Your author is acquainted with a gentleman who served in WWII and was in the campaign that freed the Jews from Buchenwald. Luckily his memory is still sharp and he is able to recount his experience in the war. Thank you all for your service!


Chris Van Zandt sends in this picture of a personalized Philadelphia Fire Fighters' Union plate. This plate type has been around since 2005. One quirky thing about this plate type is that a handful in the 23000 block have been issued in error.


Last but not least, Matt Ciecka sends in this picture of a personalized Emergency Vehicle plate. Most types have personalization available but this type doesn't see much of it. This plate type has a two-tier numbering system (Paying Customers and No Fee/Permanent) but, unless you know which fire department it is, it's impossible to tell which tier it is on a personalized plate.


9/17/2023 Posting

Jeff Lesher sends in this picture of a new high for the Antique/Historic Vehicle plate type! This type has been around since 1956 - it started on the white-on-purple base and transitioned to the "Family of Plates" style in 2005. For all current highs, be sure to check out the Highs page!


Here's another high, this time from Jordan Irazabal for the St. James Alumni plate type. This type started in 1996 on the blue base and transitioned to the "www" base in June 2001, with new registrations starting at S/J 11000. That means that only 173 plates have been issued since 2001, or about 8 plates per year since 2001.


This plate, sent in by Chris Van Zandt, appears to be a Vanity plate on the "You've Got a Friend" base, but upon further inspection, it's a homemade plate to look like same. Quite a few homemade plates have been spotted over the years.


Chris Van Zandt also sends in this picture of a personalized Wisconsin Alumni Association plate. This plate type has been around since 2009 and costs $47 plus $128 to personalize. Click here to order one!


Last but not least we have this personalized Afghanistan and Iraq Veteran plate type, sent in by Dan Mong. This plate is available to veterans that served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and costs $26 plus $128 to personalize. Click here to order one! A copy of your DD214 must accompany your order form.


9/10/2023 Posting

Clayton Moore found this picture on eBay of what appears to be the first Penn State (Official Use) plate produced! This type started arond 1983 and was white on blue until 2019, when it moved to the "Family of Plates" design. There were actually two variations of the white-on-blue plates: very early plates had two sticker wells (top-left and top-right) and the rest had one sticker well (bottom-left).


Here's another #1 plate, this time from Tim Gierschick for the Exeter Township Fire Department plate type. Exeter Township is just east of the city of Reading. This plate type has been around since 2013 and the current high is 00016 E/T, so only about 3 plates have been issued every 2 years, on average.


At first glance, this plate does not appear to be anything special, but it's actually one of the rarest plate types to spot on the road: Superior Court. The Pennsylvania Superior Court is one of two intermediary appellate courts in the state, the other being the Commonwealth Court, which also has a plate!


Clayton Moore shares this picture of a 1923 Truck plate. From 1920 - 1923, Truck plates were all 6" x 16", regardless of the amount of digits on the plate. As mentioned in previous posts, Truck plates have always had some sort of weight class system. During those four years, the first digit of the plate number defined the weight class (1 being the lightest, 7 being the heaviest). The highest plate number known for the "2" weight class is 26939.


Bruce Bufalini sends in this new high for the School Vehicle plate type. As you can see in the History page that's linked, PennDOT has been anything but consistent with using the keystone separator over the years. We do our best to track this! For all current highs, be sure to check out the Highs page!