Texas 1926 Annual Plate
1926–1926Texas · annual
Six embossed black digits on a flat grey field, split by a five-point star, with “TEX” and the year stacked up the right-hand edge. Texas issued a fresh plate every year in this era, so the plate is its own proof of registration. The plate shown here is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
A plate for one year only
Texas began issuing registration plates in 1917 and, like most states then, replaced them annually. That is why the year is stamped into the design itself rather than carried on a sticker: the plate was the registration, and it was surrendered and replaced the following year. The practice is what makes early plates scarce, since each one was only current for twelve months.
Before the standard
This plate is long and shallow rather than the familiar oblong. A uniform 6 by 12 inch size was only settled later through the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and the first Texas plate built to it was a modified 1955 issue. Earlier plates were sized to each state's own taste, which is why a 1920s plate 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 running just inside the edge. Run a hand across it and you feel the whole design. That is the opposite of the current Texas plate, which is digitally printed onto flat stock and is smooth to the touch.
Colour of the year
Texas changed the colour pairing annually, which let an officer date a plate at a glance. 1926 was black on grey. The years either side looked nothing like it: white on maroon in 1925, white on green in 1927, then white on dark brown and orange on black as the decade closed.
Reading the plate
- Serial
- Six digits in two groups of three, issued sequentially. No letters were used.
- Star separator
- A five-point star divides the two groups, the one piece of Texas iconography on the plate.
- Vertical legend
- “TEX” and the year read upward along the right-hand end, saving width on a narrow plate.
- Raised rim
- An embossed border line just inside the edge, which also stiffened the metal.
- Bolt holes
- Plain holes near the corners, without the slots later plates use.
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999★999 (six digits, star separator)
- Material
- Embossed metal with a raised rim
- Source license
- Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Reference
- View original