CAR TAGS

Do you happen to remember when Minnesota license plates started with a 9 to signify which district the car was registered in? Kansas had a two letter symbol of the county; if you were in Arizona looking at a canyon on a Sunday morning and there was another Kansas car with a JO, you knew you were both from the same county. Minnesota and North Dakota added PEACE GARDEN STATE AND 10,000 LAKES to their plates in the 1950's.

Some where along the line, the states stopped offering a new plate every year and switched to just a sticker on the plate. Perhaps the people at the prisons had other things to do. Maybe the people in prison didn't make them at all but that is what my grand father told me.


When did personalized license plates start?
Are there special rules regarding what they can say?
Do they cost the same?
Have you ever had a vanity plate?


Let's go back to simpler times when..............

TWO CONTEST ECK FOR OLDEST CAR TITLE
Eck bought a 1940 license for his 1917 model car, two other Minnesotans have contested his claim to owning the state’s oldest car. A Preston farmer owns a 1916 Reo which he has been driving since 1915 and McCullough of Island Park drive the same “Green Jewel” that he bought in 1915. Kemper does all the repair work on his Reo. McCullough has had license number 152 for many years.

1940 LICENSE PLATE DEADLINE APPROACHES
February 15--only one week away is the final date of which Minnesota motorists may purchase their 1940 plates without penalty. The penalty imposed will maximize at $2.50. The new plates for cars are dark blue with white numerals.


1940 LICENSE PLATES COMPETE WITH RAINBOW
A variety of colors, offering competition with the rainbow, and the appearance of a few exotic shades, features 1940 motor vehicle license plates.
First to catch the eyes are the green and gold Idaho, the cream and coffee brown of Illinois, and the ultramarine blue on yellow of Pennsylvania. Shades of yellow and black compromise the most popular color combination, with blue and white second, and black-and-white third.
Many states will take advantage of the advertising potentials, using special designs, shapes, or slogans. New York again will give a preamble to plug the World’s Fair. Georgia will suggest peaches. Wisconsin’s cars will tell the world that Wisconsin means America is Dairy land.


In some of the states in this area the new plates will not make their appearance on January 1, for Wisconsin and South Dakota have been a break by postponing motor vehicle registration dates until April 1. That gives them time to pay Christmas and New Year bills so the 1940 plates will appear in glory and quantities sometime after April 1. North Dakota and Iowa still cling to the January 1 changeover, and Minnesota motorists will have until February 15 to file applications for new license plates. A few Southern states recognize harvest time, and have put the re-registration dates at October 1.

Perhaps my favorite vanity story is about a respiratory therapist who drove a little red sports car. His plate was O24U. The man that owned the company I worked for saw it one day and wondered how come the guy with the red car had such an odd Kansas plate. I told him what it said. He went to the hospital to find him and find out how to get something like it!

See if you can figure out some of these plates:

ZIPNBY
WHIZBYU
IGOT 2P
ABOK4U

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