Minnesota Explore Minnesota Plate
2017–presentMinnesota · current · “10,000 Lakes”
A canoe on open water under a treeline, and a boast that undercounts itself: Minnesota has closer to twelve thousand lakes over ten acres, so the slogan is modest by roughly two thousand. The picture has been on the plate since 2009 and dates in its original form to 1978. What changed in 2017 was only the serial format, which means the artwork is nearly fifty years old. 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 from a collector listing (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date and the 2017 change of serial format on unchanged artwork (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAA-999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, screened on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original