North Carolina National and State Mottos Plate
2019–presentNorth Carolina · current · “In God We Trust”
The third of North Carolina's standard plates carries both mottos at once: the national one across the top under a waving flag, and the state's own along the foot in italic, quotation marks and all. Esse quam videri, to be rather than to seem, comes from Cicero and has been the state motto since 1893. There is also a paid In God We Trust specialty plate, which is a different thing entirely. 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 2019 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 from a collector listing. No openly licensed photograph of this design exists (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date, serial format and both mottos (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAA-9999
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original