Texas 2012 “Lone Star” Base Plate
2012–presentTexas · current · “The Lone Star State”
Known officially as “The Texas Classic”, this has been the Texas general-issue passenger plate since July 2012. Black lettering sits on a white reflective field, with a lone star at the upper left, the outline of the state as the separator, and “The Lone Star State” across the foot. The plate shown here is a reconstruction carrying an invented serial, so no real registration is depicted.
Origin
The Texas Classic was introduced in July 2012 by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. It replaced the 2009 to 2012 issue that carried Davis Mountains imagery, which had been the first standard-issue non-embossed plate the state produced. The department presented the Classic as a public-safety design rather than a decorative one.
Security threads
The Texas Classic was the first license plate in the United States to embed two high-visibility security threads in its reflective sheeting. The threads run vertically through the plate and let officers confirm from a distance that a plate is genuine state issue. They are the faint wavy lines crossing the white field, easy to miss until you know to look for them.
Reading the design
The lone star and the outline of the state are the two most recognisable emblems of Texas, and the motto beneath them, “The Lone Star State”, is the state nickname. It refers to the decade Texas spent as an independent republic before annexation in 1845. The plate carries no county name, no decorative scene and no colour beyond black on white. Everything on it is either an identifier or a security feature.
Construction
Unlike the stamped plates most people picture, the Texas Classic is digitally printed onto flat aluminium rather than embossed into it, and it was the first digital general-issue plate the state produced. Run a hand across one and it is smooth. Plates are manufactured at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville, and state specifications require the face to be retroreflective and legible at no less than 75 feet under low-beam headlights, meeting a minimum coefficient of retroreflection of 30.
Reading the plate
- Lone star
- Upper left, faceted with white division lines. It is the state emblem that gives Texas its nickname.
- State outline
- The silhouette of Texas serves as the separator between the three letters and four digits.
- Serial
- Three letters, then four digits. Issued sequentially rather than chosen.
- Security threads
- Two faint vertical wavy lines in the sheeting, a United States first, used to verify a plate at distance.
- Motto
- “The Lone Star State” in bold italic across the bottom.
- Mounting slots
- Four horizontal slots, two top and two bottom, for bolting to the vehicle.
- Issued
- Standard issue
- The plate you received by default when you registered a vehicle.
- Serial format
- ABC·1234 (3 letters, 4 digits)
- Material
- Thin flat aluminium with reflective sheeting
- Source license
- Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Reference
- View original