I’m finding that Tom, George and Jim’s book has a wealth of information about U.S. license plates in general. Even though the book is titled Colorado  License Plates The First 100 Years 1013-2013, much of the information in the book can be applied to the history of all U.S. license plates but with variations showing each state’s uniqueness. It would be wonderful if each state could have a similar comprehensive documentation of its license plate history. For now. I’ll share a little bit about the beginning of manufactured plate in the U.S. as written in Colorado  License Plates The First 100 Years 1013-2013:

” State issued license plates changed considerably over the years. Early plates were not fancy – just the state name or abbreviation, registration number and, more often than not, the year. Fancy lettering, reflectorization, slogans, county names, and logos or illustration particular to a state became more common as time passed. One of the earliest application of a logo is Arizona’s steer head on it 1917 plates. In 1928 Idaho used the first slogan, “IDAHO POTATOES” with a large representation of a potato surrounding the numbers. ”

Next week we’ll talk about license plate trends……