Maine Pine Tree Plate
2025–presentMaine · current · “Vacationland”
The pine and the star come straight off the state flag, and the tree is the reason Maine is the Pine Tree State. It replaced the chickadee plate in May 2025 after thirty-six years, retiring a design people were fond of. VACATIONLAND along the foot is the older claim, on Maine plates since 1936. 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 2025 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 (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). The Secretary of State's own listing, which shows this and the plain plate as the standard issues and prices the lobster plate as an extra-fee option (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999·AAA
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original