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Pennsylvania License Plate Images

John McDevitt and Jordan Irazabal

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MYSTERY / ODDBALLS / UNKNOWN / MOVIE PROPS / ERRORS / FAKES

BICENTENNIAL STATE '76 oddball

Unknown plate, colors are opposite of typical Bicentennial plate.

from Charlie Metz


from Charlie Metz

BOOSTER / TOURISM PROMOTIONAL

The plate pictured here was spotted in a PennDOT Welcome Center on I-476 at the Delaware/Pennsylvania border. Besides the eight characters, the plate is also flat which is a departure from normal considering PA does not issue all-flat plates.  The plate did have a debossed sticker well.  I am told that these plates are in use at other PA welcome centers.  A point of information; over the years two 8-character vanities have been spotted.  It is believed that they were later recalled.

 

 

DARE?

It has the coding of a DARE plate, but without the legend and graphics, and the placement of the D/A27H5 is centered and high while on the DARE plate it is aligned to the left. It also uses two sticker wells one the lower left and right.  It may be a test plate that got released, or something someone had made up.

from Jordan Irazabal 

& Tom Perri

Diplomatic plate?  Not really

From information received from Ned Flynn, there was a wealthy family in the Stroudsburg area some years ago that had an affinity for New York City theatre.  They purchased vanity tags with DPL in an effort to appear as diplomats hoping they might receive favorable parking,  It is unknown how the use of the keystone separator and a dash came about..

from John Anshant

Fakes

Livery

There is no such plate in PA.  These are  computer generated images, the product of someone's fertile imagination.  These and other computer generated or modified images have been posted on Wikipedia and Wikimedia.  Some have even been attributed to this website.  I have never posted an image on either of those sites.

 

No Fee/Exempt or Rental

There is no such plate in PA.  This is a computer generated image, another product of someone's overactive imagination.  This and other computer generated or modified images have been posted on Wikipedia and Wikimedia.  Some have even been attributed to this website.  I have never posted an image on either of those sites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ford's 28-Millionth Vehicle

This was presumably made to commemorate Ford's 28 millionth vehicle. This image comes from eBay user "punknhetty" and sold for $2,553.88 on February 15, 2023. Thank you to Clayton Moore for the heads-up.

 

ONLYGOD

This street shot oddball was sent to me with the hope that I could explain it. The sender, David Melendez, wondered if PA was offering such a black and white plate with the Philly skyline. I assured him that the state is not offering such a plate. The plate, as shown, has some kind of acrylic cover. It's difficult to know if that cover adds to or changes the appearance of the plate. A vanity check shows that the plate number is in use.

 

ONLYGOD

This street shot oddball was sent to me with the hope that I could explain it. The sender, David Melendez, wondered if PA was offering such a black and white plate with the Philly skyline. I assured him that the state is not offering such a plate. The plate, as shown, has some kind of acrylic cover. It's difficult to know if that cover adds to or changes the appearance of the plate. A vanity check shows that the plate number is in use.

 

Masonic Booster Plate (?)

This was spotted on the front of a vehicle.  It appears to be the same symbol as used by BLUE LODGE and PRINCE HALL Masonic Lodges.  The rear plate was a standard issue.  Posted 5/17/06.

 

75 MOTORCYCLE INVERSION ERROR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

77 MOTORCYCLE INVERSION ERROR

from Bill Pratt

from Bill Pratt

from Dave Lincoln

MOVIE PROPS

Motorcycle

From the TV series “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

 

 

 

 

Municipal

This plate was used in the movie Ground Day.  The PENNSYLVANIA font seems correct but the others are not.  The plate is actually cardboard with no holes.

 

 

Official Use & Municipal

Images of police vehicles used in the making of Tony Scott's Unstoppable from last September 2009.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passenger & Municipal from the 2012 movie Won't Back Down

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passenger from the 2010 movie The next three days

 

from Jim McDevitt


from Eric Butler


from John Netzlof


from John Netzlof


from Jason DeCesare


from Jason DeCesare


from Bill Young

NOVELTY

Note the use of 8 characters.

from Sarge/Klassy Karz

PASSENGER ERROR

Skewed Serial Number

 

 

 

Inversion error

 

 

 

Inversion error + unpainted keystone

 

 

 

Unpainted keystone

 

 

 

 

Inverted S

from Nick Tsilakis

from Grant MacKenzie

from Bruce Bufalini

from Nick Tsilakis

from Bruce Bufalini

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PASSENGER FAKE

This plate appears normal except for the slanted or italic font and the dash separator seems low, below the mid-line of the plate.  Jason says the RATAN-05 appeared to be flat rather than embossed, and the normally white background was more of a dingy grey.  The RATAN-05 is a valid registration number.

from Jason Plank

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

from Tom Perri

from eBay

 

 

PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL POLICE

This is not an official plate, or at least not one issued by PennDOT.  It was in use on the front of a Philadelphia School Police vehicle.

 

 

 

Sample Mystery Type

Information from Bruce Bufalini:

Image taken September 22, 2001, at the University of  Pittsburgh, Greensburg campus. The plate was on the front of a DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection)-owned car. There was some sort of conference there held by the DEP, and at the time I had theorized that there was a DEP prefix plate series reserved for them, though I've never seen another such plate, sample or real issue, before or since.

from Bruce Bufalini

Sovereign Citizen

It was mounted on a partially de-badged 3rd generation facelift Mitsubishi Outlander and was seen in Southern Bucks County PA. The car had a matching flag sticker on its rear glass.

This is not a state or government issued plate.

from Donald Lewis

Image

added

11/6

 

CAMPUS USE PLATES

West Chester University

This plate type will be used on university-owned vehicles that are not used on public roadways. This includes small campus vehicles (ATVs, UTVs, tractors, Cushmans, etc.) that are used off road around the campus for identification purposes. Full size vehicles that travel on streets and roads will continue to use Pennsylvania Official Use plates issued by PennDOT.  Plates measure 4" by 7" and use a bar coded validation sticker.

Plate series begins with # 1.

Type added 6/8/2008.

 

 

 

Moravian College

This plate, or whatever it, is was spotted on a Moravian College campus vehicle.  The plate appears to be a made-up piece of card stock based on the Moravian College plate.  Its official status is unknown.

 

 

PLATES THAT DIDN'T MAKE IT

Antique Automobile Club of America

Plate history unknown

from Michael Wiener

Commercial Dealer

This may have been a mock up or proposed plate, but never went into production.

from Clayton Moore

 

Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley

Type added 1/1/05 and placed in this grouping on 7/7/05

from Nicholas Santiago

Conrail Historical Society

Type posted 5/30/07

Removed from pending list 8/24/08

from Steve Ondik

 

Conserve Wild Resources (prototypes)

These two plates, along with the current Conserve Wild Resources (RC) River Otter plate, were candidates to replace the previous Conserve Wild Resources (WR) Saw Whet Owl plate.  The upper plate shows the bald eagle and the lower one is the peregrine falcon.  See respective plates above for more information.

 

 

The 'wildlife' plate to the right never made it either, it appears to be another variety of the resource conservation prototypes, however, it could also be a Hunting Angling (HA) plate.  If anyone knows more about this plate, please share with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episcopal Church

 

 

 

Franklin & Marshal

F&M later issued plates but not on this base.

 

 

Grundsow Lodge

 

 

 

 

PA Chiropractic Society

Very little is known about this plate, but appears to have been an approved organizational plate.  It is unknown if this organization is associated with the PA Chiropractic Association.

 

 

Rajah Temple A.A.O.N.M.S.

 

Terri Lynn Lokoff Foundation

Child Care

This was a proposed special organization plate that failed to get the needed 300 supporters.

 

There were other special organizational plates that didn't make it; however, those I am aware of were prior to the plate changeover.  If anyone has information on others since the changeover, please contact me.

 

 

DCNR PLATES & STICKERS

ATV (Class 1)

Plate measures 4 x 7. Class 1 ATV is a motorized off-highway vehicle, which travels on three or more inflatable tires and has a maximum width of 50 inches and a maximum dry weight of 1200 pounds.

Format 1: 0000A to 9999W

Format 2: 000A0 to 999W9

Format 3: 00A00 to 99W99

Format 4: 0A000 to 9W999

 

 

Format 1


Format 2


Format 3




Format 4

from Andrew Pang

 

ATV-2 (Class 2)

FORMAT 1: 0000X to 9999Z

FORMAT 2: 000X0 to 999Z9

FORMAT 3: 00X00 to 99Z99

FORMAT 4: 0X000 to 9Z999

FORMAT 5: X0000 to Z9999

Plate measures 4 x 7. Class 2 ATV is a motorized off-highway vehicle, which travels on three or more inflatable tires and has a width which exceeds 50 inches or a dry weight which exceeds 1200 pounds.

See Reference

Format 1



from Vern Kreckel


Format 2


Format 3

from Jordan Irazabal


from Vern Kreckel


Format 4


Format 5

 

 

ATV Dealer

0000

Newer style plate measures 4 x 7.  Base plate color is almost white. Older larger style replaced by this smaller version by mid-2006.

 

See Reference

from Dominic Fornato



 

 

ATV Temporary

"T" 00000

 


 

 

Snowmobile

See Reference

Snowmobile Temporary Registration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Registration Sticker

A0000 to Z0000

Unknown vintage

 

 

 

 

Registration sticker is believed to be newer than the one above, unknown vintage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2001 Snowmobile Validation Sticker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2004 Snowmobile Validation Sticker and Registration Sticker

 

 

 

2005 Snowmobile Registration Sticker and Validation Sticker 

 

 

 

Another 05 Validation Sticker, appears to be a different color, but may be faded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2008 Snowmobile Registration Sticker and Validation Sticker 

 

 

2009 Snowmobile Registration Sticker and Validation Sticker 

 

 

 

2012 Snowmobile Registration Sticker and Validation Sticker 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowmobile Dealer

0000

This image was sent to me by DCNR and measures approx. 2¾ by 4¾.  It is quite possible that the actual plate measures 3 by 5 and was rendered smaller by the fax machine.  The plate is made from plastic.

See Reference

 

 

 

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