Massachusetts Spirit of America Plate
1987–presentMassachusetts · current · “The Spirit of America”
Red on white with no border, no graphic and no colour beyond the lettering, which makes it one of the plainest plates still issued and, for the same reason, one of the most recognisable. The last digit of the serial is the month the registration expires, one through nine for January to September and zero for October, so a Massachusetts plate tells you when it runs out. There are no November or December expirations at all. A faint grey wavy line runs down the centre where an older design put a separator. 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 1987 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 (CC BY-SA 3.0, Dickelbers). Issue period, the month-coded serial format and the absence of November and December expirations (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 9AAA 99
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Reference
- View original