Sticker mania is when people stick stickers all over the license plate. Typically it is when there are two stacks or more of stickers. Insert plates and sesquicentennial plates have a tendency to be sticker mania license plates, though I have spotted some other sticker mania plates.
These plates aren't in my collection but they are still cool.
Some plates also have stickers placed in the wrong place, either on the wrong plate or on the wrong place on the back plate.
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Sometimes, but very rarely, there is the wrong sticker on the license plate.
Plates not in my collection:
Other times, plates get registered after they were supposed to be replaced.
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Once in a blue moon, an undated plate will get a sticker. How does this even happen?
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Most reflective license plates have bare aluminum backs, however, some plates have painted backs. Plates with painted backs appeared to be issued in 5 runs: Late A, Late C, Early D, Mid-E , Mid-F, Late G, Early H, Mid M, and for black, no passenger plates have been found yet. Many flip sheeting plates were produced when there were old rolls of painted sheeting when a series discontinued.
It is important to note that the difference between gray and white license plate backs is very small in photos, and I'm still working on figuring out which is which.
| Color | Passenger | Truck | Motor Home | School Bus | Hobbyist | Motorcycle Dealer | Motorcycle Collector | Possible bases |
| Dark Blue | AYU-893 AZW-399 |
81 base AD42-659 BE81-594 88 base AA74-537 AA82-174 |
12367 | 2149 | 1987 Insert Truck | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | CZE-380 CZN-677 ELR-764 ELY-621 (EMA-101 claimed) |
AC23-318 AC30-692 BE00-000 CB39-161 CB40-307 |
Suffix plate, not issued in order |
C391 | 1987 Apportioned 1987-1988 Dealer |
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| Gray | ELB-508 | 1988 Insert Truck | ||||||
| Yellow | EMF-664 HAL-974 MHZ-318 MJW-627 |
1988 Apportioned 1991 Apportioned 1991-1995 Dealer |
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| Orange | FLF-613 FMK-821 |
1990-1991 Insert Truck | ||||||
| Robin Egg Blue | GYY-404 | 1989-1991 Dealer | ||||||
| Light Blue | GZD-840 | 1975-1990? Collector | ||||||
| Light Blue Front | MKG-365 | 1975-1990? Collector | ||||||
| Black | 1555 | 1998 apportioned or 1981 Dealer |
1991 Apportioned Base |
1991 dealer base |
This plate has a blue front.
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This is the front plate of the pair, which has a lot of torn sheeting. The blue color is more noticable on this plate:
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The backs of the plates look like aluminum that got a coating that was transparent yellow. 1989 dealer plates had backs that were a kind of matte aluminum. So... what WERE these license plate blanks used for?
I'm starting to suspect that, like flip sheeting plates, reflective insert truck and trailer plates are produced when light truck for hire bases are no longer used. I'm going to start tracking the numbers for them, though they could be error plates too.
| 94 Trailer |
Off Color | CT 2119 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avery Sheeting | XR14633 XR |
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| 94 Farm Trailer |
3M Sheeting | FF 5885 |
There are various error license plates. Some errors are as obvious as a major mistamp or missing paint, others are very subtle and hard to identify.
This graphic base plate has no foreground paint. I don't know why, and I don't know if it is intended or an error.
Other plates have areas that missed paint because of the way they were painted.
Very rarely a license plate will use the wrong paint.
Sometimes, when a roll of sheeting is depleted, a license plate will have overlapping sheets of reflective sheeting.
Some plates have the wrong dash.
Other plates have dashes where ther isn't supposed to be a dash.
Some plates are missing a dash. The most notable example of this is a few thousand truck plates in the BE series that were missing a dash.
Some plates that were stamped crookedly are very obvious and easy to spot.
Other plates are hard to see and you have to look very closely to see the misalignment.
Some plates have misaligned prefixes.
A very rare error. Invert error license plates are worth a lot of money.
Sometimes dies break, so there is a spot where the dies were missing.
Some plates have their numbers stamped too high.
Sometimes plates have two different stamps on top of each other.
Other times plates will have something between the die press and the plate, and it will get stamped into the plate.
There were multiple distinct die sets. I will list the differences between each die in each die set:
| Dies | Character | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wide 1 | 2 | Slightly smaller space |
| 5 | Shorter bottom curve | |
| 7 | Curved | |
| Wide 2 | 2 | Slightly larger space |
| 5 | Taller bottom curve | |
| 7 | Straight | |
| Tall Prefix 1 | A | Thick outline |
| G | Thick outline | |
| Tall Prefix 2 | A | Thin outline |
| G | Thin outline | |
| Narrow 1 | W | Short middle line |
| Narrow 2 | W | Long middle line |
