California 1916 Undated Plate
1916–1919California · base
The most consequential plate in American motoring administration, and it looks like nothing. California issued it in 1916 with no year on it at all, and a small bracket at the upper left to carry a dated tab instead. It was the first multi-year base anywhere: every state that now validates a plate with a sticker rather than replacing it is doing what California worked out here. It is also the only undated California passenger plate ever issued, and physically smaller than the 1915 plate it replaced. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1916 to 1919 rather than for a single year. A plate that stays on a car across several registrations cannot date itself, so the year is proved separately, by a tab or sticker in the earlier period and by a windscreen sticker later. It is the opposite arrangement to the annual plates, where the plate WAS the registration.
Before the standard
This plate is long and shallow rather than the familiar oblong, roughly 13.4 by 5 inches. The uniform 6 by 12 inch size was settled later through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and until it was, plates were sized to each state's own taste. That is why one of these will not sit in a modern frame.
Stamped, not printed
Every character here is pressed into the metal and stands proud of the surface, along with the raised rim just inside the edge. Run a hand across it and you feel the whole design. The plate was struck from flat stock in a press, then the raised faces were rolled with paint, which is why wear shows first on the tops of the characters.
Sources
Reference photograph of an issued plate (Public domain, Nctriadguy). That this was the first multi-year base issued by any state, validated annually by tab (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999999
- Material
- Porcelain enamel on steel
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original