Texas 1917 First Issue
1917–1922Texas · base
The first plate Texas issued itself. Before 1917 the state issued nothing: a driver made their own plate and displayed the number their county had assigned, so no two looked alike. This one is white on dark blue with a raised border line and TEX reading up the right edge, and it carries no year at all, because it was not replaced annually. One design served from 1917 to 1922, which is why a plate of this era cannot be dated from the plate itself. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1917 to 1922 rather than for a single year. A plate that stays on a car across several registrations cannot date itself, so the year is proved separately, by a tab or sticker in the earlier period and by a windscreen sticker later. It is the opposite arrangement to the annual plates, where the plate WAS the registration.
Before the standard
This plate is long and shallow rather than the familiar oblong, roughly 13.4 by 5 inches. The uniform 6 by 12 inch size was settled later through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and until it was, plates were sized to each state's own taste. That is why one of these will not sit in a modern frame.
Stamped, not printed
Every character here is pressed into the metal and stands proud of the surface, along with the raised rim just inside the edge. Run a hand across it and you feel the whole design. The plate was struck from flat stock in a press, then the raised faces were rolled with paint, which is why wear shows first on the tops of the characters.
Sources
Reference photograph of an issued plate. Commons dates it 1917 to 1921 where the written record says 1922; the plate carries no year, so it cannot settle the question itself (CC BY-SA 4.0, Absecon 49). Issue period, serial format, and that registrants provided their own plates before 1917 (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999999
- Material
- Embossed metal
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original