Delaware First State Plate
1969–presentDelaware · current · “The First State”
Gold on navy, unchanged for over fifty years, and the plainest plate in the country: no graphic, no county, no state outline, just a number. That number is the point. Delaware never renumbers, so low registrations survive as heirlooms and change hands privately for tens of thousands of dollars, a three-digit plate being a genuine status object in the state. THE FIRST STATE across the top refers to Delaware ratifying the federal constitution before anyone else, in December 1787. 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 1969 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.
Printed, not stamped
This plate is smooth. The design is printed onto flat reflective sheeting rather than pressed into the metal. It is what makes photographic backgrounds and fine detail possible at all, and it is the reason a modern plate feels like a sign where an older one feels like a stamping.
Sources
Reference photograph of an issued plate. Its edge is flat where plates made since 2008 are bevelled; the design is otherwise identical (Public domain, Awmcphee). Issue period and the numeric serial format. Two collector sources date the design to 1968 rather than 1969; the plate carries no year to settle it (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, screen-printed on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original