New Mexico Chile Plate
2017–presentNew Mexico · current · “Chile Capital of the World”
A yellow serial on black, with green and red chilies screened up the left edge and CHILE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD across the head. Introduced in July 2017 and named plate of the year by the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association, it is a state advertising its most famous crop on its own number plates. The newest of the three standard plates a New Mexico driver may choose between, and the only one with a six-character serial. 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.
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 4.0, Jtplates). Issue period, serial format and the 2017 plate of the year award (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAAA99
- Material
- Embossed aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original