Texas 2009 Base Plate
2009–2012Texas · base · “The Lone Star State”
The plate the 2012 Classic replaced, carrying a full-colour scene of the Davis Mountains under a Texas sky. It was the first standard-issue Texas plate that was not embossed: the artwork is printed flat onto the sheeting, which is what made a photographic background possible at all. Its decorative ambition is exactly what the Classic was a reaction against. The plate shown is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
One plate, several years
This design served from 2009 to 2012 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.
Printed, not stamped
This plate is smooth. The design is printed onto flat reflective sheeting rather than pressed into the metal. It is what makes photographic backgrounds and fine detail possible at all, and it is the reason a modern plate feels like a sign where an older one feels like a stamping.
Sources
Reference photograph (CC0, SuperSonic337). 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
- AA9★A999
- Material
- Thin flat aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- CC0
- Reference
- View original