The photos on this
website, whether provided by me or other contributors, are intended for use
solely on this website, and may not be otherwise used without permission.
What's new in the last 30 days?
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Click thumbnail images to enlarge ٠ Click links to
go to plate galleries
This Korean
Defense Service plate image was provided by Ryan Battin. The current high number
is 00091K/D.
Spotted this Bronze Star plate recently. Unfortunately neither the
flash shot nor the shot with ambient light came out well. This plate
is the current series high.
I
have made a couple updates to the section on current Municipal plates and also to
the Municipal plates section on the History Page. The image on the far
left was provided by
Klassy Karz and the image on
the near left was courtesy of Clayton Moore. These plates are on a '77
base and were issued up to 1984; however, these are permanent plates and a
number of these are still in use.
The Philadelphia
Union Foundation is now offering a plate. Proceeds from the sale of the
plate are to benefit the Philadelphia Union Foundation. From their
website, "The Philadelphia Union Foundation is helping build relationships
and change a generation. The mission of the Foundation is to provide
opportunities for children through the power of relationships to offer
transformational change in the areas of education, community, health and
recreation". Visit
http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/puf/license-plate. This organization is now selling
plates, but the plate does not yet appear on
PennDOT's list.
On the far left and center left is
a pair of 65 base
Motorcycle plates showing 3- and 4-charactor versions. These were
undated and were revalidated with stickers thru 1970. The series began at 1
so there were 1-digit and 2-digit plates such as 12 and A1.
Eventually plates in this series
exhausted all the 4-character combinations and was expanded to
5-charactors. At this time the stacked M/C was removed and was replaced by
the word
MOTORCYCLE along the bottom border. See more plate data on
the History Page. The first plate was from ebay, the source of the
second plate is unknown and the third plate came from
Jeff Francis/ebay.
Watch next week for images of nice 1914
and 1915 porcelain motorcycle plates.
For the next several weeks I will be
posting images of Apportioned plate Validation Stickers.
Apportioned Buses and Apportioned Trucks use an annual 5-YY (YY= 2-digit year)
where all such plates have a May to May validation year. The stickers
all have PA APPORTIONED across the top. Since these plates were first
issued in 1982, the first validation stickers had 5-83 on them.
Legislation update:Senate Bill 1 continues to move forward. As of May 14th it was
referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. See the posting from
5/12 for more information on this expansive bill, or click the link above
and read all 97 pages of the bill.
This amazing find can be credited to
Tom Perri.
For whatever reason there are apparently only two Little League
Baseball plates in
use and here we have a beautiful image of # 1.
This Superior Court plate image was
provided by
Tom Perri. This is a great find as these plates are exceptionally
rare.
I have images of a total of 4 Superior Court plates, 3
Commonwealth Court plates, but not a single image of a current Supreme Court
plate. Our research suggests that there are likely only 2 or 3 plates in
existence. Several attempts have been made by a few PA plate
enthusiasts to photograph these elusive plates, but so far the efforts have be
futile.
In other plate news, PA
Senate Bill 1, if passed, is set to raise the cost of most fees associated with
licensing and registration. it would increase the cost of vanity
(personalized) plates from $20 to $76. It would increase the cost of
the standard passenger car registration from $36 per year to
$104 for a 2-year registration, the fee for a driver's license would go up
as well. Here is a link to the
Post-Gazette Article, and here is a link to
Senate Bill 1. The bill appears likely
to pass in the Senate, but is less certain when it gets to the House.
Here's a trio of Motorcycle Dealer
plates from 1954, '57 and '71. There are a lot of similarities but you
can see changes as the plates evolve. The earlier plates have the
expiry date along the top border while that feature is missing from the '71
plate. The '71 plate says
MOTORCYCLE
along the top border and
PENNA along the bottom since the
stacked PA from the earlier plates was removed. The '54 and '57 years
used a serial format starting with 1 and and going to 3 or 4 digits, while
the '71 series started at 1000. Note the switch from MCD to DLR to
designate dealer. Watch for additional Motorcycle and Motorcycle
Dealer plates in the future.
Weekly Posting 5/5/2013
Moravian College,
Bethlehem, PA, has redesigned their plate on the far left. The new
graphic is the Moravian Star.
We
knew the redesigned Zoo plate was coming, and were fairly certain it
would become a visitPA clone. The Support Your Zoo
plate on the far left (prototype) and center left is the replacement for the Save Wild Animals
plate on the near left. You can form you own opinion of the plate. Note the
placement of the P/Z is now in the suffix location, and a new legend,
Support Your Zoo.
The legislation to authorize
U.S.
Military Airborne Units
plates was passed back on
October 24 with a 180 day waiting period.
Plates are now available.
The plate images are Jump Wings and Glider Wings.
To
qualify a person would have had to be a member
of one of the following: Parachutist or Glider Units, Glider Troopers,
Paratroopers, Air Assault Troopers, Rangers, U.S. Army Special Forces, USMC
Recon, U.S. Navy Seals, U.S. Air Force Special Operations, Troop Carrier
Command including Glider Pilots and the 160th SOAR. The required form
is
MV-150 and the fee is $20.
The same piece of legislation that
sponsored the above plate also authorized a U.S. Merchant
Marine plate. Any person who served in the U.S. Merchant
Marines during World War II may purchase a Merchant Marine registration
plate by completing
Form
MV-150W, and
submitting a $20 fee. This plate may be used on a passenger car or truck
with a registered gross weight of 14,000 lbs. or less.
As a little side note — more, but not
all, of PA's veterans' plates are now permitted on cars and trucks weighing
up to 14,000 lb. There are now about 28 military veteran plates
available, not counting the organizational plates such as National Guard and
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard Reserve, and several others.
Here's
the current Farm Truck
high number plate courtesy of Ryan Battin. This type progresses slowly
and my guess is that they will likely switch to the visitPA base upon
reaching the D suffix.
I've said all along that I
would not do a
Motorcycle History section. But what am I supposed to do when
contributors send great pictures? LOL. Anyway, Jerry McCoy has
provided this image of a '27 Motorcycle plate on the center left.
He also included a 27 Motorcycle Dealer, so watch for an MC Dealer section coming
soon. The image on the near left was from is a 1916 Motorcycle plate.
As always I welcome images, and have a number of pictures to post over the
next few weeks.
Pennsylvania has at least two more new
plates on the launching pad. These include Gettysburg College Orange &
Blue Club and Thiel College, which is roughly 80 miles north of
Pittsburgh. In addition, Moravian College, of Bethlehem, will be
giving their plate a facelift. Watch for images next week.
In other plate news, it appears
that the reuse of Antique Motorcycle numbers continues. We've seen
images in recent months of new A45 and C86 plates. Now from two
sources it has been reported that plates X5 and 8G have been issued.
After the
A0A to Z9Z filled
up, the only remaining 3-character combination appeared to be 0AA
(first character is zero), however, this series has not been seen.
Instead older number are being reissued. Hopefully in the next few
weeks we will have a picture of a new 2-character plate.
Clayton Moore saw an older Municipal
plate at Carlisle the other day. This plate was
MG-91034 and it
was the blue-on-white base. This helps to better establish the
changeover from the blue-on-white to the white-on-blue base. The
changeover point is now thought to be at
MG-92000.
St. Francis
University is updating their plate with a
color graphic logo and now on the visitPA base. A prototype of the new
plate is on the far left, with a sample of the existing plate on the near
left for comparison.
These picture perfect images of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation plates were
provided by
Tom Perri.
Finding the number 1 plate is always a bonus, especially when it's not
shrouded by a frame.
Nick Tsilakis
points out that there is a difference in spacing between the Maltese Cross
and the serial number on these Fire Fighter plates.
It appears that plates in the 36000 and 37000 series have a narrow spacing
while plates in the 38000 series have a wider spacing. In my opinion
this was a matters of inconsistent placement of the number dies rather than an intentional change in
formatting.
I have never tried to present a
section on older Motorcycle plates. That being said,
Tiger Joe Sallmen
sent me this image of what is believed to be a
1936 Motorcycle sample.
So this is the first image of an older M/C plate. If anyone has other
images of (older) M/C I'll post them.
This license plate handicraft shows a
unique use for a license plate, in this case a
Conserve Wild Resources - Owl sample plate used to cover a bird
house. This was made at
the State Correctional Institution at Rockview. This is not the same
facility that produces license plates.
Weekly Posting 4/14/2013
So where are the new PA
Zoo plates? These
Save Wild Animals
/ Tiger / PA Zoo
special fund plates were
expected to be unveiled around April 3rd, taking the place of the plates
that were originally released in April of 1996, but so far nothing.
This Honoring Our
Veterans plate image comes from Jerry McCoy. It is the current
high suggesting that sales have been brisk but not great. I do believe
that Pennsylvania's commitment to basing every new license plate on the
visitPA design severely limits its marketing potential. For example,
take a look at the Kentucky plate below. I'm just saying from 50 feet
away there is nothing to make one PA plate stand out stand out from another. As a
result in the long run sales will be disappointing. The same thing can
be said about the DARE
plates that went from the distinctive black to the not-so-special visitPA
base.
And another low,
Purdue University,
this one from
Eric Conner. Eric
has recently put together a website called Pennsylvania Politicals (http://www.pennsylvaniapoliticals.com/).
The site provides lots of history of PA's Governors, Lt. Governors, Senators
etc. There is even a section on license plates.
The Ohio State Alumni
plate image on the far left was recently taken by Brendan Sherry. It
is also the current high. The photo on the near left was taken several
years ago and is a good example of the previous generation plate on the www
base.
And finally: On or shortly after the 22nd of April, we can expect the
arrival of new plates for members of the U.S. Merchant Marine who served during World War
II, and for veterans and members of United States military airborne units.
These new plates were authorized by
Act 158 (formerly
House Bill 1830) which was signed into law on 10/24/2012 with the act
taking effect in 180 days.
Welcome to PA PL8S / PA PLATES
I
have made a couple updates to the section on current
Municipal plates and also to
the Municipal plates section on the History Page. The image on the far
left was provided by
Klassy Karz and the image on
the near left was courtesy of Clayton Moore. These plates are on a '77
base and were issued up to 1984; however, these are permanent plates and a
number of these are still in use.
Moravian College,
Bethlehem, PA, has redesigned their plate on the far left. The new
graphic is the Moravian Star.
This
first image of
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia plate was provided by
Tom Perri.
We
knew the redesigned Zoo plate was coming, and were fairly certain it
would become a visitPA clone. The
Support Your Zoo
plate on the far left (prototype) and center left is the replacement for the
Save Wild Animals
plate on the near left. You can form you own opinion of the plate. Note the
placement of the P/Z is now in the suffix location, and a new legend,
Support Your Zoo.
Here's
the current Farm Truck
high number plate courtesy of Ryan Battin. This type progresses slowly
and my guess is that they will likely switch to the visitPA base upon
reaching the D suffix.
St. Francis
University is updating their plate with a
color graphic logo and now on the visitPA base. A prototype of the new
plate is on the far left, with a sample of the existing plate on the near
left for comparison.
This
very low number
PA Society of Physician Assistants plate image has been provided by
Bruce
Bufalini.
In
other plate news,
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia appears to have about 75
tags in use.