Hot Rods 1930 Pa plates different sizes

I got a couple of 1930 Pa plates from some friends but they are different sizes.
Anybody know why the plates would be different sizes?

 

There's more metal on the one? Actually I think 1930 is when the license bracket changed sizes. So maybe older cars got the big plates and new 1930 cars got smaller?

 

Back in those days, the plate size was not standardized. The plate was made whatever size needed to accommodate the letter/number sequence. (i.e. - The lower the number, the smaller the plate).

Also, this varied by State, but the use of letter/number combinations was common to denote counties, cities, etc.

 

maybe one was for a motorcycle or trailer ??

 

Makes sense to me. Thanks for the responses

 

I think that was the transition year...earlier plates were wider and the later plates narrower. Didn't know they had both sizes that year. Must have been a mid year change
Clark

 

As was stated before there was no standardized plate size or even shape for that matter.I recall seeing Tennessee plates that were actually shaped like the state(sort of a parallelogram).I have a set of 1949 Ohio plates that are made of a waffle pattern aluminum.They also offered steel plates that year as well.Back in the late 1930's Henry Ford was experimenting with soybean products and some states offered license plates made of soybean material that resembled plastic.From what I have read they didn't go over too well as certain farm animals thought they were edible and tried to eat them.
Standardization(6 inches by 12 inches)did not become a law until 1957.

 

I thought maybe the smaller plate was for a motorcycle and did a little google investigating. The m/c plates are 4 &1/2' tall. Penn varied the plate length with the number of numerals. I hadn't seen that before, I don't think anybody on the west coast did that.

 

All of my 32-34 plates are five digit like your big plate but are small...same size as a modern plate but wider hole location

I don't have any 31 plates for comparison...but if bet they are the smaller size...
Clark

 

This makes sense. I'm looking for a 5-digit 1930 Mass. plate for the same reason: The 6-digit plates are longer.

 

Ohio had 2 sizes up till 55, I think. 4 digits had the small, 5 digits the large.

 

A good reference for license plates:

http://www.plateshack.com

 

I did some searching and found some info....in 1930 pa went to a 5 digit tag so they didn't have to make the bigger tags.

I didn't notice the first time I looked but your big tag is actually a small tag....compared to the 29. The four digit tag is smaller.

I did have a what I think was a 32 boat tag for pa. It was the size of your smaller tag and looked like your tag but did have initials like mbl or something like that. A collector said they were rare.

 

PA's 4 digit plates were 2" shorter than the 5 digit plates for a number of years before PA came up with one size fits all. And those are both car plates you have there.