Connecticut Constitution State Plate
2000–presentConnecticut · current · “Constitution State”
A sky fading to white, a small navy silhouette of the state in the corner, and CONSTITUTION STATE in a serif that would not look out of place on a legal document. The claim in that slogan is contested: Connecticut rests it on the Fundamental Orders of 1639, which some historians call the first written constitution of a democratic government and others call a colonial charter. The artwork has not changed since 2000, but the serial format has four times, so the plate cannot be dated by looking at it. 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 2000 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 from a collector listing. It carries an earlier serial format on identical artwork (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date and the succession of serial formats, including the current one from August 2015 (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AA·99999
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original