Alaska Last Frontier Plate
2010–presentAlaska · current · “The Last Frontier”
Gold and blue, the state's own colours, with the Alaska flag standing in as the separator between the letters and the digits: the Big Dipper and the North Star that a thirteen-year-old designed in 1927. THE LAST FRONTIER runs along the foot. Since March 2023 only the serial is stamped, the state name, flag and slogan having moved to the printed layer, so a plate issued today feels different under the thumb from one issued in 2020 even though it looks identical. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
Still on the road
This is a current issue, first seen in 2010 and still being handed out. Nothing about it is settled history: the serial sequence is still advancing, and the design will only stop where the state decides to replace it.
Half stamped, half printed
Run a thumb across this plate and only the serial answers. The registration is still pressed into the metal the old way, while the state name, the slogan and any artwork are printed flat onto the reflective sheeting around it. Most plates issued in America today are made like this: the part that must be legible at speed and survive a decade of weather is stamped, and the part that carries the state's personality is printed, because printing can do colour and detail that a press cannot.
Sources
Reference photograph of an issued plate. It shows the fully embossed manufacture used until 2023 (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced, Jack and Petra Clayton). Issue period, serial format and the 2023 change in manufacture (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAA 999
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original