Colorado 1958 Skier Plate
1958–1958Colorado · annual · “Colorful”
The first picture Colorado ever put on a number plate: a skier, stamped into the metal at the right-hand end rather than printed. It is an early piece of state self-advertisement, and a specific one, since Colorado's ski industry was in its first real boom. COLORFUL runs across the top, a slogan the state used for decades before settling on Colorful Colorado. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
A plate for one year only
Colorado replaced its plates every year in this era, which is why 1958 is stamped into the design rather than carried on a sticker. The plate was the registration: it was surrendered and replaced twelve months later, and the colour pairing usually changed with it so an officer could date a plate at a glance. That is also why plates from these years are scarce, each one having been current for a single year.
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 (CC BY-SA 2.0, The Eyes Of New York). The embossed skier graphic, colours, slogan and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- A 999
- Material
- Embossed steel
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 2.0
- Reference
- View original