How’s My Drivin’?

04 Shining Star

DID YOU KNOW??
License plates have been around longer than automobiles!!

The City of Victoria in the Province of British Columbia, Canada was the first to test the vehicle licence plate in 1884. They issued the plate to a horse-drawn hackney carriage. Here in the U.S., plates were first required in New York, but they were not government issued. Motorists were obliged to create their own. Not until 1903 were plates issued by individual state governments, beginning with Massachusetts and West Virginia. Those early plates were manufactured from porcelain baked onto iron or ceramic with no backing. Few of these early plates survived as they were a bit impractical for the wear and tear of daily traveling. Cardboard, leather, plastic, copper and pressed soybeans were also experiemented with! So, the next time you are sitting in traffic, remember that the little metal plate hanging on the car in front of you has come a LONG way.