Texas 1986 Base Plate
1986–1990Texas · base
Dark blue on white with TEXAS picked out in red at the top and a small red state silhouette dividing the serial. The first of this set to use more than one colour of ink, and the beginning of the red-white-and-blue treatment Texas kept for the next fifteen years. The reference is a manufacturer's sample. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1986 to 1990 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.
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 (CC BY-SA 4.0, Thegunkid). Annual issuing practice and the 1955 move to the 6x12 standard (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- 999★AAA
- Material
- Embossed metal
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original