Colorado Centennial Plate
1975–1976Colorado · base · “Centennial”
Colorado turned a hundred in 1976 and marked it with this, which won Plate of the Year from the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association in 1975. Red on white between two blue bands, with centennial and colorado set in lower case, which almost no plate does. It is the design people mean when they say Colorado used to have a good plate. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1975 to 1976 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.
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 State of Colorado (Public domain). Issue period, the Plate of the Year award, colours and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AA 9999
- Material
- Embossed aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original