Tennessee Volunteer State Plate
2021–presentTennessee · current · “The Volunteer State”
Tennessee put four designs to a public vote in 2021 and this navy one won with forty-two per cent of more than three hundred thousand votes. THE VOLUNTEER STATE stacks at the top left, the state name sits inside a white outline of Tennessee, and the tri-star roundel between the serial groups is the emblem from the state flag, its three stars standing for the three grand divisions: east, middle and west. 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 2021 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 2022 sub-design. The state publishes only artwork of the current design, carrying no serial at all (CC BY-SA 4.0, PlateNerd). The 2021 public vote, issue date and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAA-9999
- Material
- Flat aluminium, printed on reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original