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website, whether provided by me or other contributors, are intended for use
solely on this website, and may not be otherwise used without permission.
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reference-only website, no plate sales.
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Recently I visited the Albright College
campus in in hopes of finding one of their organizational plates on the
new base as shown on the far left. Unfortunately none were to be
found. I did spot this older plate, which would actually be a new
high. It still retains the sticker well. Vanity check
suggests the issued high is A/L00147.
Here's a recent traffic shot of a
Pennsylvania Coal Alliance Inc. plate. The image is from Bruce Bufalini
and shows a new high. There was a discussion among several friends
as to whether or not this plate has a sticker well. So while that
feature may be missing, it can't be determined with certainty.
Such a plate is a visual reminder
that the person to whom it was issued likely went through hell.
This is a first generation Prisoner of War
plate, which is still a valid format. This would have been only
the second plate issued, likely in 1982. It appears that this
plate was restored. Thanks to Drewski for the photo.
There are more legislative
updates for
House Bill 1710,
House Bill 1711and
House Bill 1712. All three of these
bills received final
passage in the House on Feb. 3, and have moved on to the Senate on
Feb. 13.
This
is low-number and rare 1910 Dealer
plate. 1910 was the fist year for Dealer plates. The use of
the 'X' as the prefix and identifier did not begin until 1911.
This 3-digit plate measured 6 inches by 10 inches, and was the middle of
three sizes that year. The reverse of the plate reads: "ING-RICH
PORCELAIN ENAMELED IRON SIGNS COMPANY INGRAM-RICHARDSON MFG. CO. BEAVER
FALLS PENNA". Thanks to Jeff Lesher for the use of the images.
Here is a very low number 1912 Dealer
plate, also thanks to Jeff Lesher. The use of 'X' as part of the
serial number started in 1911. This series started at X1 and
continued to well into the X3000 series. Plate sizes varied
according to the number of digits, with sizes going form 6 inches by 8
inches for X+1 digit to 10, 12 and 14-inch sizes for X+2, 3 and 4
characters respectively, making this plate 10 inches. This plate
was manufactured by BRILLIANT MFG. CO. ENAMELED SIGNS 1035-1037 RIDGE
AVENUE PHILA., PA, as shown on the reverse of the plate.
Here is a pair of needed 1934 Passenger
plates. The far left plate is a Format 5 plate which consisted of
the run from 000A to 999Z on a 6" x 10" base. The run
also went to 5 characters from 100A0 to 999Z9 on
a 6" x 12" base. The plate is from Worthpoint. The other
plate is a Format 7 which ran from AA to ZZ and AA1 to ZZ99, all on a 6" x 10"
base. This plate is thanks to Forrest Kauffman.
These are 1924 Truck plates.
'24 was the first year to use the more familiar R through Z series of
truck weight classes, with R being the lightest class. (Passenger
plates also began using letter prefixes, but only used 'A' in 1924.)
The series started at R1 and progressed to R99-999, then began an
overflow series of 1-R to at least 2000-R. The number of
characters also determined the length of the plate with the 4-character
plate shown here being 6 by 10 inch and the 5-character S plate being 12
inches.
These images are from Worthpoint, a service I subscribed to for research
purposes. If the owner of a plate wishes, however, I can
acknowledge them also.
Yes, it's a 1958 Truck plate
with a '64 sticker, but what's a ZT Class? The 1958 truck series
consisted of 21 plate prefixes that designate not only gross vehicle
weight and number of axles, but also 3 separate series for truck
tractors. Truck tractors were designated with WT, YT and ZT.
This same prefix designations were used again in the 1964 through 1967
run, after which a new system was used. Thanks to Drewski for the
use of this photo.
I recently acquired the far left
1994 PA Apple Festival plate with PA as the registration.
The other plate I have had for a number of years and is shown for
comparison. That plate has the word official and the the number
51. Perhaps one was sold as a novelty plate while the numerical
plate was issued to those running the event.
Posting 2/9/2020
If you haven't seen the latest Penn
State Official plate, these were first spotted in February of
2019. The starting point was A4700P, with the plate shown here
being the lowest number spotted so far. The previous version
appears to have ended at A46-07P. Unlike the previous version, the
large open keystone has been eliminated.
Sometimes tracking license plates is
like a game of Trivial Pursuit. Since PA has removed the sticker
well and added the map outline, often not at the same time, it creates
more features to track. This
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia plate shows a new low on
plates with the map outline. Previously posted was 00548C/H which
is the current high without the map. Sticker well numbers are
unknown.
Here's another low number recently
spotted plate. The Michigan
State Alumni plate program dates back to 2012. Vanity
check indicates that around 80 serial numbered plates have been issued
to date.
Not the kind of thing I normally
post, but why not. You may be familiar with this sample plate
display if you have visited PennDOT's headquarters on South
Front St. in Harrisburg. Because the display is under glass, with
bright lights, the plates do not photograph well. It would be nice
to see additional displays, since PA offers so many types. This
display seldom changes.
There are a handful of first
generation special organization plates for which I never acquired a photo.
Finally got this Geneva College plate image thanks to eBay user
Jeopardyboy1. This plate program dates back to 1994, with about
765 plates being issued before the changeover to the www base.
These first generation plates are displayed with current College
plates, and on the Special
Organization History page. Geneva College is located in
Beaver Falls, PA.
Here is another of the first
generation plates for which I needed an image. The Rotary
International plate program dates back to 1992, with about 590 plates
issued. These first generation plate are displayed with current
plates, and on the Special
Organization History page.
This
image is from Worthpoint, a service I subscribed to for research
purposes. If the owner of a plate wishes, however, I can
acknowledge them also.
This is a 1944 Dealer
plate. Dealer plates traditionally used an 'X' in the serial
number. This image has the 'X' in the second position, thereby
making it a
Format 2 tag which consists of the progression of 1X00 to 9X999. So
both 6" x 10" and 6" by 11" plates were produced. Thanks to John Anshant and John Willard for the photo op.
Could this be a pre-1956
Press Photographer plate?
The image came from Edward Lipski several years ago suggesting that
other such unofficial Press Photographer plates may have existed into
the late 1940s. Chuck Harrington felt strongly that pre-1956 PP
plates were not press-related. Plates with 2-letter prefixes were
part of standard issue passenger plates at the time. The plates
shown here are unofficial
and unconfirmed with no provenance; however plates with identical
numbers (PP125) were issued in 1957 and 1958. Of course this could just be
coincidence.
It may be a little hard to read, but
this 1920 Commercial (truck)
plate is number 167, and Commercial plates between 1920 and '23 used the
first digit to designate the weight class. With the 1 identifying
the class, the 67 indicates that this was the 67th plate produced in
that class. It also suggests that plates from 11 to 199 did not
use a dash as most higher number classes used.
Also worth mentioning is that plates with Commercial on the top measured
7 inches in height while those with it on the bottom measured 6 inches. This
image is from Worthpoint.
This is a 1949 S-Weight Class Truck
plate. For that year there were 4 serial progressions used: S000A,
S00A0, S0A00, S00AA, with this plate being part of the S00AA series.
1949 plates were still issued in pairs, and measured 6 inches by 11
inches. Thanks to Clayton Moore for the use of the photograph.
Posting 2/2/2020
Today is Groundhog Day (or
Grundsowdaag). In western PA it's Punxsutawney Phil who issues the
weather forecast for an early spring, or not; but here in
southeastern PA, the Grundsow (Groundhog) Lodges come together to hear the
prognostication for the next six weeks. Of course the Grundsow
Lodge gatherings (fersommlings) are conducted entirely in Pennsylvania
Dutch with traditional food and humor. Around 2005 I proposed that
the Grundsow Lodge have their own plate. Unfortunately the idea
didn't have enough support, so the image shown here is just to commemorate the
day.
Back in November of 2019, Paul
Bagnarol, discovered that the
Cradle of Liberty Council would be offering Eagle Scout
license plates. Now it appears that 12 or so plates have
been issued. Once again, there is no mention of this plate on PennDOT's website.
Keep your camera handy.
Here is a recent snapshot of a Support
Our Troops vanity plate. This plate series dates back to
2006. A couple observations on this plate — this is the first one
spotted with the map outline, it is also the first vanity plate seen;
however, vanities with the map are often seen before serial numbered
plates. Thanks to Tom Perri
for the photo.
Here is a mint condition Classic Car
plate from Tom Firth. The plate was likely issued in 2013 not long
before the changeover to the visitPA family of plates look with Classic
Vehicle as the new legend. This change took place at C27900.
The most recent series high spotted is C46814.
Here is a 1990s vintage
State Representative plate. Despite the multiple stickers,
the plate appears unused. These plates were made available to
members of the state legislature upon request. The plate number
corresponds to the representative's district number. There are
currently
203 districts. Plates were also issued with the HR in the prefix position.
The ownership of this plate is listed as undetermined at this time.
Back in 1983 the state began issuing
a new yellow on blue license Passenger plate.
The "Keystone State" slogan was dropped, and a new, more
tourism-friendly, but grammatically poor catchphrase
"You've Got a
Friend in Pennsylvania" was
put in its place. This new series did not replace the the previous
'77 base but continued the serial progression starting at HAA-000.
Thanks to Tom Firth for the photo of this unused '83 plate.
This is a low number 1918 Dealer
plate. This plate measures 6" x 13½" — note the size difference
with the longer serial number on the plate below. Dealer plates
date back to 1910 and were made with porcelain through 1915, then
switched
to painted steel. The plate shown here is white on black.
This
image is from Worthpoint, a service I subscribed to for research
purposes. If the owner of a plate wishes, however, I can
acknowledge them also.
Here's a nice 1919 Dealer
plate. The red on black colors shown here are correct as PA
hadn't standardized the colors for a few more years. The plate
measures 6" by 16", however, plates with fewer characters were smaller
as seen on the 1918 plate above. Thanks to Platedog for the use of
this image.
Hard to believe these before and
after plate photos. The un-restored look may have its place for
some collectors, but it's hard to argue with these results on this 1946 Tractor
plate. The serial number starting point is believed to be 0001,
making this the 22nd plate produced. The
un-restored image was from Clayton Moore some years ago, and the restored photo is from
Tim Gierschick.
Old but very nice! This low
number 1926 R-Weight Class
Truck plate is very unusual as most plates seen are of the
6-caharacter variety such as R12-345 and measure 6" by 16", whereas this
plate is 6" by 12". The R-series started at R-1 and progressed to
6 characters before shifting the R to the suffix position.
This image
is from Worthpoint, a service I subscribed to for research purposes.
If the owner of a plate wishes, however, I can acknowledge them also.
I've always been fascinated by
2-letter prefix truck plates. Maybe it's because they are so rare,
and so few have survived. Here we have a 1948 UZ-Weight Class Truck
plate. The 2-letter prefix truck plates issued that year went from
TZ00A to ZZ00A, and were issued to 3-axle (2 rear axles) trucks.
Thanks to Clayton Moore for the photo.
Posting 1/26/2020
Here's the first of two 'plates of
the week'. This
Passavant Memorial Homes Family of Services plate was recently
photographed by Bruce Bufalini.
Here is a link to the
organization's website. Presently about 29 such plates have been
issued, yet the PennDOT page of
Approved Special Organizations doesn't even list the plate! It
would be an improvement if the official page would at least be up to
date and reflect what's current and what's pending. There are other
organizational plates that are not listed as well.
Here's the other plate of the week.
This
Ridley School District has been mentioned several times recently
but this is the first image of an issued plate. There are about 22
serial numbered plates in use. It is also one of several plates
that is not listed on PennDOT's page of
Approved Special Organizations. Thanks
to Tom Perri for this perfect
image.
Here is a photo of a
Pennsylvania Equine Council sample plate which was provided to
Paul Bargnarol by the organization. At present some 149 serial
numbered plates have been issued. Their plate program dates back
to 2012, and plates are available to non-members.
PA Amateur Radio
plates with the number 3 as the call sign indicator for this region
would not be considered rare. On the other hand, PA plates with
other than 3 would be considered unusual. The plate shown here
with the call sign with 9 as the region identifier would have originally
been issued to someone from Indiana, Illinois or Wisconsin who later
moved to PA. Thanks to Bruce Bufalini
for sharing this photo.
This is a very early www base Dealer plate likely
issued on or close to 9/1/1999. This plate was also likely a
replacement for one the previous series Dealer plates. The
previous series progressions used A00-000A, through F99-999F, excluding
C00-000C. The G00-000G series was never needed. The
re-plating in 1999 launched the series shown here. Thanks to
Bruce Bufalini for sharing this photo.
This personalized Disabled Veteran
plate was recently spotted by Arthur Levine. I'm going to guess
that 1STID stands for 1st Infantry Division. It appears that this
plate does not have the sticker well. This change was previously
spotted on serial numbered plates.
Here is a new high number Mass Transit
plate spotted by Brandon Sowers. This series, which is believed to
have begun in 1982, started at M/T10000.
The series has continued with that progression since the start, and now
38 years later the series is still below 50,000, which means actually
less than 40,000 considering the starting point was 10-thousand.
These were also number gaps when switching to new bases in 1984 and
2000.
This Format 2 1937 Trailer
plate shows what the PA Archivist describes as a new high number.
While the paint is not in great condition, Drewski, the owner, feels it
a nice candidate for a restoration. This plate measures 6 inches
by 12 inches. Format 1 was all numeric from 0001 to 9999, Format 2
started at A000.
Here's a very nice 1915 3-Star Weight Class Truck
plate. As you may know, truck plates were first issued in 1914.
During 1914 and '15 the plates were porcelain on steel. The
aluminum band on the left depicted the weight class by the number of
stars ranging from 1 to 5 for the lightest to the heaviest classes.
The aluminum keystone was riveted to the plate with the words
NON TRANSFERRABLE
showing the MAKERS
NUMBER which is the same as
today's VIN number. Thanks to Tim Geirschick for the plate photo.
Here are several welcome additions
to the 1924 Truck
photo gallery. 1924 marked the beginning of the R to Z letter
classes. 1924 also saw the first use of alpha characters on
Passenger plates starting with A. So to keep the series separate,
the Truck series used 8 letter classes at the end of the alphabet
excluding X. Here we have an R-overflow plate on a 6" by 12" base.
These with the R in the suffix position were used after the original
series hit R99-999. Next is a Class W plate. While many
5-character plates measured 6" by 12", this plate with the wide W used
the 6" by 15" base. Finally the addition of this Y Class plate.
These images are from Worthpoint, a service I subscribed to for research
purposes; however, if the owner of a plate wishes, I can acknowledge
them as well.
Posting 1/19/2020
I had knee surgery this past
week. While recovering over the next couple weeks, additions to
this website may be limited.
While this is not a new Boy
Scouts of America high, it is the highest plate spotted that
still retains the sticker well. Thanks to Bruce Bufalini for the
photo. Plate 00171B/S, without the
sticker well, was previously spotted by Brendan Sherry. This
organization's plate program dates back to 2007.
To the left and below are a couple
recent veteran's plates from Bruce Bufalini.
Oft times these traffic shots aren't perfect, but always worth the effort as
with this
Expeditionary Forces. This is one of those 'tweener'
plates without a sticker well but still no map outline. This plate type
dates back to 1996.
This tough traffic shot was also taken by Bruce Bufalini.
And while it's not the first example of a vanity Vietnam War
Veteran plate, it is the first one spotted with the map outline.
These veteran plates date back to 1999 when they were fully embossed and
remained so until 2014 when the color graphic base was introduced.
This remarkable 65 year old plate is
part of a matching pair of 1955 Motorboat
plates. For 1955 the series ran from 1 to at least 43609.
Starting in 1955 Motorboat plates looked much like motorcycle plates of
the day except for the colors and legend. These plates were on
eBay this past week, and my thanks to eBay user snortwheeze55 for the
use of the photo. There were also Motorboat Dealer plates which
used an 'X' prefix.
Here is a pair of 1933 Passenger
plates. The first of these shorties is a 3-digit Format 1 plate
which went from 1 to 99999. The next is a Format 2 which ran from A to Z9999.
Both plates measure 6 inches by 10 inches. The first image is from Worthpoint,
a service I subscribed to for research purposes; however, if the owner
of a plate wishes, I can acknowledge them as well. The other plate
is from eBay user zekeyman50.
These
photos are of before and after 1916 Trailer
plates. The early photo was from Judd Clemens which I've had for
several years, the new owner of the plate is Clayton Moore who
refinished the plate. He also confirms the actual size of the
plate to be 6 inches by 14¼ inches. The series started at T1 and
extended to at least T427. T+1 digit and T+2 digit plates are
believed to be 6 inches by 11 inches.
This 1951 Trailer
plate is thanks to eBay user j0hnnyo (not a typo). It is part of Format 3
where the progression ran from 0A00 to 9Z99. Plates measure 6" x
11". The Archives lists 667R as the high, but in 1952 the series
went to a 5 digit format at least as high as 17663. I would not be
surprised if some 5 digit plates were issued late in 1951.
This is a
1942 R-Weight Class Truck
plate with a '43 tag. The R weight class used 4 serial
progressions that year including: R000A, R00A0, R0A00, R00AA. The
photo gallery now has an image of each of the four serial progressions.
Thanks to eBay user PA-Collector for the use of this photo.
This is a 1951 Y-Weight Class Truck
plate. Unlike the '42 above, there was only a single serial
progression for the Y-class — Y000A. All plates measured 6 inches
by 11 inches. Thanks to eBay user j0hnnyo for the photo.
This
is low-number and rare
1910 Dealer
plate. 1910 was the fist year for Dealer plates. The use of
the 'X' as the prefix and identifier did not begin until 1911.
This 3-digit plate measured 6 inches by 10 inches, and was the middle of
three sizes that year. The reverse of the plate reads: "ING-RICH
PORCELAIN ENAMELED IRON SIGNS COMPANY INGRAM-RICHARDSON MFG. CO. BEAVER
FALLS PENNA". Thanks to Jeff Lesher for the use of the images.
PA Amateur Radio
plates with the number 3 as the call sign indicator for this region
would not be considered rare. On the other hand, PA plates with
other than 3 would be considered unusual. The plate shown here
with the call sign with 9 as the region identifier would have originally
been issued to someone from Indiana, Illinois or Wisconsin who later
moved to PA. Thanks to Bruce Bufalini
for sharing this photo.
These
photos are of before and after
1916 Trailer
plates. The early photo was from Judd Clemens which I've had for
several years, the new owner of the plate is Clayton Moore who
refinished the plate. He also confirms the actual size of the
plate to be 6 inches by 14¼ inches. The series started at T1 and
extended to at least T427. T+1 digit and T+2 digit plates are
believed to be 6 inches by 11 inches. 
