Michigan Water-Winter Wonderland Plate
2021–presentMichigan · current · “Water - Winter Wonderland”
A reissue of the 1965 plate, brought back in December 2021 and taken up more than a million times since. Water-Winter Wonderland was Michigan's slogan through the 1950s and 60s, hyphen and all, claiming both the lakes and the snow in one phrase. Maize and blue on a Michigan plate reads as the university's colours whether or not the state intended it. 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 2021 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 (Public domain). Issue date and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 9AAA99
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- Public domain
- Reference
- View original