Texas 2000 Space Shuttle Plate
2000–2004Texas · base · “The Lone Star State”
The most ambitious plate Texas had issued: a single pale scene running the width of the plate with a mounted cowboy, an oil field, a space shuttle, stars and a moon. It is the state describing itself in pictures rather than colour, and it was the ordinary plate on ordinary cars for most of a decade. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 2000 to 2004 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, AllenLow). Issue period and serial format (CC BY-SA).
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- A99-AAA
- Material
- Embossed aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Reference
- View original