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Gerry's Garage Talk: The story behind license plates
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Posted by mlfulton Fri Jan 28, 2005 09:30:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments I got to thinking about license plates while I was at the car show in Cayucas the other day. There were several people who had vanity plates with the names of their cars, various sayings, short descriptions of the types of cars and other things. After discussing license plates with a friend, he showed me his collection of plates and told me some history of the license plate. It is interesting how the concept first came about.

At first, state and local governments made plates from leather and attached the numbers to the leather. Several states just issued numbers and the owners made their own license plates and attached them to their cars. Some plates were made of metal coated with porcelain and the numbers were baked on. Territories (before they became states) issued temporary numbers on stickers that the motorists just somehow attached to their cars, usually on the dash.

In 1916 in California, these stickers or tags differed between the front and the rear. The rear carried the plate number while the front carried a space in which the owner was required to scratch his name -- and you thought personalized plates were relatively new!

California first started requiring motorists to register their vehicles with the state in 1905, but they did not begin issuing licenses until 1914. In the nine years after 1914, motorists were required to provide their own plates and many styles were used. Some were manufactured, but a lot of them were homemade and most examples carried the abbreviation CAL at some location on the license plate. California plates were made from metal, porcelain, wood, aluminum digits on flat steel or other metals like copper. The Automobile Club of Southern California used to provide porcelain plates to members upon request -- for a fee.

The first slogan to ever grace a California license plate was "California World's Fair 39" in honor of that event. In 1984, the state added "The Golden State" slogan at the base of California plates, and offered plates with the large golden sun. When the Olympic Games took place in Southern California in 1984, the state issued three different styles of license plates: one was stamped with LA, one with CAL and one with US.

License plates not only are displayed on automobiles; they also are used on horses, homes, tree houses and travel trailers. In the Santa Susana area of Ventura County, just southeast of Simi Valley, there is a two-story house/garage made from 3,000 California license plates that date from 1913 to1939. The home is known as the Bethune house, and local residents estimate that there are more than 20 homes made of more that 100,000 licenses plates that can still be found in the area.

If you are interested in obtaining a vanity license plate for your special car go to the DMV's Web site at www.dmv.ca.gov/online/elp/elp.htm. You can chose between several different types of plates, including themes for Yosemite, the arts, preservation of Lake Tahoe, anti-terrorism, support of veterans and others. You can see what the plates look like and find out whether the personalized name you have in mind is available. Then all you have to do is pay the cost and the plates are yours.

Until next time, Gerry

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