Art & Inspiration YOM license plates

In 1956, the State of California issued EVERY car in the state new plates (yellow/black lettering). They did the same thing in 1963 (black/yellow lettering). IMHO, keep your black plates and get them restored. And you avoid extra YOM fees. Old registration --> the DMV will only let you assign black plates outside of YOM (and not the new Legacy ones) only if you can prove those plates were originally on that car (or truck). This will tie the plate to the VIN. The only way to do this is a pink slip or old registration.

 

Here is the address for a license plate site that shows plates from all over the world in color. California, including the early years is well covered with pictures of the plates.

http://www.worldlicenseplates.com

Charlie Stephens

 

What happened to tubman could never happen here in Alabama. As long as a number sequence is in use, it can't be used by anyone else, not even on differing year tags. We have 67 counties, the first three prefixes 1,2, and 3, are the three largest population counties, after that, it goes in alphabetical order to the last county which is number 67, 70 was used as a replacement tag if yours got lost or stolen, etc. I bought a 1947 tag off of eBay for mine, but it wasn't for my county. I never registered it, hoping to run across a 32- prefix for Fayette county, but never figuring I would find one. Past searches for different years never turned any up. Then one day at our local yearly car show, a guy asked me why I had a out of county tag on the front of my car and the vintage vehicle tag on back, I told him I'd never found a 47 tag with a 32- prefix. He told me to stay there, he'd be back in a few minutes. Sure enough, he came back, toting a 32- prefix 1947 tag! He said the old house he lives in had a chicken coop out back covered in tags. He said a lot were too far gone to save, but luckily this one only has one small nail hole extra in it, and nothing but surface rust. I've de-rusted it, just got to do a little straightening and paint it. I have to take it to the tag office in the courthouse and they will run the number sequence, if it's not in use, I turn in my vintage vehicle tag and run the YOM. If by chance it is in use, I can still just run it on the front if I want as long as the vintage vehicle tag is on the back.

Good thing here is you only pay one time to register, then it stays with the car and never expires. Supposed to only be used for pleasure trips or shows, not as a daily driver, but 99% of the cops never look at them. But there's always the possibility of running into that Richard head......

 

I love the font on my 41 NC tag. I have them on all my cars but this is the best looking one, by far.

 

In Massachusetts you can use a plate within two years of the cars manufactured year

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Dan in Pasadena said: ↑
Thanks SO much for the answer.

I could have sworn that the plate color previous to the California 60’s black/yellow were yellow/black. Pretty sure they were on my Dad’s purchased-new 1955 Chevy Belair. Am I “mis-remembering”? Lol

No they were the reverse color, but in 1963 EVERYONE got new plates.

Sorry to be a dunce but what do the BE and PC initials mean? Why three different abbreviations for commercial plates, if you know?

"be" stands for Board of Equalization. All government plates can be used as commercial now under the yom program

If California reuses numbers what’s the chance my black/yellow plates will be useable after awhile? I guess I don’t get why I need an expired registrations card for them? I certainly won’t have an expired registration for the ‘51 Commerical plates if I find some

That's the gamble, if they're an odd combination of letters and numbers or 7 characters you might get lucky or the vehicle could they issued the plate numbers to could drop out of the system. IF you can prove by registration or old title that the '63 (black and yellow) plates were on the vehicle at one time then you can fight to get them re issued as regular registration instead of the yom program.

Weren’t there Commercial plates made in ‘52-‘55? Or were those the later style like my 60’s plates with the different number/letter sequence instead of the abbreviations? Maybe you focused on my preference for the bigger, rounded corner plates that ended (presumably) in ‘51?I

They used year blocks starting about WWII time (before that you were issued a new plate EVERY year), 1947 plates ran until 1950 with just the metal year tabs changing. Your truck would need a 1951 commercial plate with a '55 metal tab. The 1951 plate was the last of that size (longer and skinnier), they ran from 1951 to 1955. The regular size plate was after that in 1956 with gold/yellow background with black lettering.


To me it's nicer to have the black plates on a vehicle older then the plates because that means the vehicle and plates stayed together since 1963. Or really even the blue plates like mine, but it's your call. IF you do get the '51 plates and a '55 tab, make sure you get it from a dealer so you get a guaranty that it's clear to use.

Here's my old '54 panel truck:

 

I do like my '28 tudor yom plate as 1928 was the last year of the real small plate:


I only buy crappy cars (well except the last few). The yom cars are 1 from out of state, 2 cars from shipping yards that were lien sales, 1 was out of the system with lost plates and 2 were personalized plates that the owners kept.

 

here's mine-years ago I had a 62 Vette with current plates on it but the black and yellow were with it. I restored them and took them to DMV with a copy of an old registration showing those plate numbers--no problem.

 

Hey olscrounger….just wondering how you get away with no current stickers on your plates.
With mine they issued little mouse ear looking aluminum tags to attach to the plate but they look horrible, so I made a bottom bar out of SS and milled out a couple of spots to recess the sticker.

 

My stickers are on little spring loaded tabs that flip up mounted on back side--flip em up if I go out of town--never had an issue.

 

Mississippi has this rule, in fact when I went to register my 36 I could not find a MS 1936 plate so I settled for the lifetime, one time fee, "Antique" plate. YMMV

 

Virginia allows them - have them on my avatar, have a set for my soon to be finished 5-window 32, for my wife's 41 Ford pickup (when done), and I have a set for my 28 Ford pickup when it's completed .... ....

 

My '47 are in the glove box, still never had in issue.

 

It did drive the price of older plates up, quite a bit here in RollTide country

 

You can run them in Missouri.

 

Idaho Is Very Cooperative With YOM Plates And All 5 Of Us Enjoy Running Them...

 

You can use them in Kentucky but you have to have a current tag , and registration as well in the car.

 

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About 2 months ago I found some sequential plates for my 56 Pontiac and my dads 56 Chevy. Since I got my car 1st I took the lower number plate. He bought his 56 a few months after I got mine so we could have matching year model cars.

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Nebraska is great as you can have the same year plate as the car and there is only a one time fee of 80.00. It has to be the original color and inspected by the DMV before they will give you the paper work. Nice thing is we have 2 plates in Nebraska, but with the OYM plates you only have to run the back tag. The numbers on my yellow sedan is 1-932 NEB

 

Got this YOM tag on my 41 Ford PU. Georgia requires that I keep a current tag with the car which is cross referenced to this tag. I have no driving limitations. The tag is proper weight class for the pick up, too. That was a choice find. Georgia was also the first state to use reflectorized paint on their tag. Just the peach is reflective. The cost was high enough that Georgia went back to regular painted tags for several decades.

 

I run YOM Oregon plates on my coupe. Oregon runs a check to see if the number is available and the color correct. A one time fee. And no sales tax either. God I love this state!

 

Even if YOMs were legal in Wisconsin, I prefer to run hobbyist plates on mine. Only restrictions are, 25years old, must be modified, can't be driven in January, and if a truck, can't haul more that 500lbs. Cost is 1 1/2 times regular plate yearly fee plus $50 for your first plate. This is a one time fee. As you register subsequent vehicles the $50 fee is waived and your plate will have the same number plus a consecutive suffix letter.
A major benefit of having these plates is that it establishes that I have an automotive hobby, and therefore may have non op cars for my personal use. This little deal kicks ass when some zoning idiot tries to say you are running an illegal salvage yard.
Only downside is they are an ugly dark green with yellow lettering

 

Michigan has Historic and YOM plates. The usual "shows, exhibits,parades, etc." use restrictions on both. You cannot have a dealer or manufacturer plate as YOM, at one time it was possible but only if grandfathered in IIRC. Fees last time I looked was $35.00 for ten years on Historic, YOM's were $45.00 one time fee. Both my 55 and O/T are running YOM's since the mid 90's when the state started allowing that. Also, the month of August those restrictions are lifted because of the Woodward Dream Cruise.

From my thirty year experience in having Historic/YOM plates most LEO's will give you a pass unless they see you abusing it such as using it every day same time same place as normal use. The only exception is the city of Royal Oak, they strictly adhere to the rules there. Be forewarned. I have not gotten ticketed but have heard of others that have.

 

This alone is enough to keep me from running them and the ugly blue of the collector plates isn’t much better. That horrible green/yellow is enough to kill the look of most cars.




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I had this tag as wall art for a few years. Now I live in NC and I can run it.

 

I tried for years to get Nevada to allow yom plates. They did provide for a replica of pre-‘42 plates but they are flat printed - not embossed, and look lame to me, like fake patina.

 

The Old North State is good about letting us run any tag on old cars. I am still running the '97 California tag on the coupe that was on it when I bought it in '97. I carry the registered tag somewhere in the trunk...….