Texas 1995 Statehood Plate
1995–1996Texas · base · “150 Years of Statehood”
Issued for the sesquicentennial of Texas joining the Union, with the state outline set into an abstract graphic and 150 YEARS OF STATEHOOD along the foot. It reads like a commemorative and is easily mistaken for one, but it was the general issue: every passenger registration in that window received it, and it took Plate of the Year for the best new standard-issue plate of 1995. It lasted barely six months before the previous base returned. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 1995 to 1996 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 of an issued plate (CC BY-SA 4.0, Zcarstvnz). Confirms this was the standard issue and won Plate of the Year (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- AAA-99A
- Material
- Embossed aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original