Montana 2000 Big Sky Plate
2012–presentMontana · current · “Big Sky”
The millennium plate, reissued as a standing option. The year 2000 is ghosted across the whole field, which makes this the only plate in the archive that advertises a date already a quarter of a century past. As reissued it is printed flat where the original was stamped, and the bison skull separator replaces the plain dot the 2000 original used. 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 2012 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. It shows the reissue rather than the 2000 original, which differed in its separator and was embossed (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). The statutory rule allowing any design first issued in 1989 or later, and the serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 9-AA9999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, printed on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original