Illinois Land of Lincoln Plate
2017–presentIllinois · current · “Land of Lincoln”
Lincoln watches from the left edge, so faint he is easy to miss, above a skyline that runs from the Willis Tower to a barn to the Capitol at Springfield: city, farm and government in one strip. He was born in Kentucky and buried in Illinois, which has claimed him on its number plates as LAND OF LINCOLN since 1954. The state changed its serial dies in February 2024, so plates made since then carry a slightly different character shape. 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.
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, chosen over a larger public-domain photograph whose colours are shifted (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date, serial format and the February 2024 change of dies (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