Oregon Douglas Fir Plate
1989–presentOregon · current
A Douglas fir stands between the digits and the letters, doing the work a dash does elsewhere, against mountains under a pale sky. Oregon has run this artwork since 1989 with no slogan at all, which is rare: most states use the space to sell something. Since 2017 the sheeting has been prismatic, so the same picture reads far brighter in headlights than it did for its first thirty years. 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 1989 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 (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date of the artwork, the 2004 serial format and the 2017 change of sheeting (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999 AAA
- Material
- Aluminium: stamped serial on screened reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original