District of Columbia End Taxation Plate
2017–presentDistrict of Columbia · current · “End Taxation Without Representation”
The only plate in the country that is a protest. District residents pay federal income tax and have no voting member of Congress, and since 2000 the plate has said so; in 2017 the wording hardened from Taxation Without Representation to END TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Bill Clinton put them on the presidential limousine, George W. Bush took them off, Barack Obama put them back, Donald Trump removed them again. The separator is the District flag, three stars over two bars, taken from George Washington's family arms. 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 2017 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. It is a rental-class plate; no photograph of a passenger plate on this base was found above 433 pixels (Public domain). Issue date, the 2017 change of wording and the passenger serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AA 9999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, printed on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original