Rhode Island Ocean State Plate
2023–presentRhode Island · current · “Ocean State”
Five wave crests, one for each of Rhode Island's five counties, under a small anchor at the top left that has been the state's emblem since the seventeenth century. OCEAN STATE runs along the foot in script: no part of Rhode Island is more than about twenty-five miles from salt water, which for the smallest state in the country is less of a boast than an inevitability. 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 2023 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 of the commercial variant, which differs from the passenger plate only in the word along the foot (All rights reserved, cited not reproduced). Issue date and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 9AA 999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, printed on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- All rights reserved, cited not reproduced
- Reference
- View original