Colorado 1919 Welded Plate
1919–1920Colorado · base
Not stamped and not painted on: the characters here are separate pieces of metal welded to the plate face, which is a method almost nobody used and Colorado abandoned after two years. It carries no year at all, dated instead by a tab, brown for 1919 and blue for 1920. Run a hand over one and the numbers feel like objects sitting on a surface rather than a shape pressed through it. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1919 to 1920 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, from the Colorado Department of Transportation (Public domain). The welded construction, the undated plate and the 1919 and 1920 tabs (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999-999
- Material
- Welded characters on steel
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original