When Were License Plates Invented? And Other FAQs

Your vehicle’s license plate is an important legal identifier. If you want to drive your vehicle on the road, all states will require that it have a license plate.

But have you ever wondered how these odd metal plates with their letters and numbers came to be the main way cars are identified? In this article, we’ll be taking a look at license plate history, how plate numbers are assigned, and more.

When Were License Plates Invented?

France was the first country to implement car registration and motor vehicle tags in 1893. If anything, France’s association with plates stretches back even further. King Louis XVI ordered carriage drivers to use metal plates with their names and addresses in 1783.

In 1901, New York was the first US state to mandate vehicle license plates, which are also called vehicle registration plates. These were handcrafted plates where the owners’ initials were engraved on metal or leather. The state wasn’t the one issuing these plates. It was the vehicle owner’s job to make a plate for their vehicle.

Two years later, in 1903, Massachusetts was the first state to officially issue license plates to vehicle drivers.

These Massachusetts plates were iron and covered with porcelain enamel. They had a cobalt blue background with a white number and the words “MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER.” emblazoned along the top. There weren’t any standardized sizes, with plates growing longer to accommodate more numbers.

The first license plate ever issued in the US was given to Frederick Tudor, who worked with the highway commission. His plate read “1,” and one of Frederick’s relatives still has an active registration on the 1 plate.

It took until 1918 for all 48 contiguous states to issue license plates.

Most early plates had the state’s name or abbreviation, the vehicle’s registration number, and the year it was registered. The 1950s saw the standardization of license plate sizes and materials. In 1954, an additional identification method was introduced in the form of a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

What Are License Plates for?

License plates are primarily for identification and keeping tabs on the many vehicles in the country. There were only around 4,000 motor vehicles in the US back in 1900, but that number was quickly rising. The government came up with the license plate system to register all those vehicles under their respective owners.

Today, there are more than 283 million registered vehicles in the US. Without the plate system in place, keeping track of all those vehicles would be a nightmare.

License plates serve several purposes:

• Help drivers identify their vehicle among a sea of lookalikes
• Give officials a set of records for investigations and data-gathering
• Allow witnesses to report specific vehicles in case of a crime
• Allow potential secondhand vehicle buyers to view a vehicle’s history before purchase

All of these are possible because license plates distinguish one vehicle from another.

What Do License Plate Numbers and Letters Mean?

License plate designs and serial formats differ depending on where you are in the US.

Some license plates have six to eight characters and three to four letters. Certain states, like Florida, group their letters at the beginning with a four-letter, two-number format (ABC-D12). Other states switch the letter and number arrangements.

How Are License Plates Assigned?

In some states, like California or Illinois, plate numbers can indicate when the vehicle was first registered.

Other states use the number to indicate when the registration expires. License plates in those states change whenever drivers go in for registration renewal. This is to make it easier for police officials to identify vehicles with outdated registrations.

This practice started in the 1920s, with plates that showed two or four digits to indicate the validity year. Ultimately, license plate assignment regulations vary per state.

In states that don’t use the plate numbers to indicate date, license plate assignments follow an ascending or descending order.

Who Makes License Plates?

Currently, most states rely on prison labor to create license plates.

Correctional institutions, like the ones in Colorado and Utah, have their own license place factories dedicated to churning out plates. They create plates for cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers, and other vehicles.

Around 80% of the license plates produced in the US come from prison manufacturing facilities. This is a rather controversial practice given the low wages that inmates receive, but it also provides them with work experience to use after their eventual release.

Working in the license plate factory is a popular job among inmates, and one only given to those with good behavior records.

When Did Vanity Plates Become Available?

States began issuing personalized plates in 1931. Car owners were allowed to choose the tags for these vanity plates, which often spelled out words or created acronyms of popular phrases.

In 2007, an American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) survey showed that around four percent of all registered vehicles in the US carried vanity plates. These vanity plates were most popular in Virginia, where around 16% of registered vehicles had vanity plates.

What’s the Future of License Plates?

For most of the history of license plates, they have simply been solid pieces of metal with identification numbers and letters clearly visible on their center.

However, new electronic plates have been introduced in Arizona, California, Michigan, and Texas, where digital registration is now available. These states can issue a small, flat-panel screen about the size of a traditional plate that’s either powered by an internal battery or the vehicle’s electrical system.

These new digital plates are supposedly more convenient. The vehicle owner can update the vehicle’s registration online and the plate will reflect the change automatically. Unfortunately, this upgrade comes with a $20 monthly subscription charge.

While the future of license plates isn’t set in stone, there’s no doubt that traditional plates have made the past few years much simpler for governments the world over. As identification devices with their roots in 1700s France, license plates continue to prove the moniker, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”